When we launched Vox’s Future Perfect section in 2018, it began with a simple question: “What topics would we write about if our only instruction was to write about the most important stuff in the world, particularly the most important stuff that isn’t already widely covered?”
In the years since, the “most important stuff” has grown to encompass everything from the existential risks (and benefits) of AI to the challenges of living a truly ethical life. But as we began thinking of how to organize the 2025 list, we realized it was time to go back to our fundamentals, because the most urgent story in our wheelhouse is the squeeze on foreign aid and on global health and development, which threatens to reverse some of the most important progress humanity has ever made.
Global aid is trending down just as needs rise. In the US, the evisceration of USAID has only added more strain. These shortfalls translate into rationed food aid, skeletal clinic hours, and broken supply chains.
In the face of all this, it might be tempting to give up. But while we can’t roll back the clock to the pre-Donald Trump days of more generous foreign aid, we can seize this moment as an opportunity to lean into what works best.
So for the 2025 Future Perfect 25, we’ve selected 25 changemakers who are innovating and implementing ways to keep progress on global health and development along four essential categories, which we’ve used to organize our list. To read the entire Future Perfect 25 list, here.
The Future Perfect 25 is not a lament for a more generous era. It’s our 2025 answer to the question we started with: What’s the most important work in the world that isn’t getting enough attention? These 25 men and women are the embodiment of Future Perfect’s original mandate, and the most urgent version of it right now.
This kind of work is made possible by our Vox Members. If you would like to support Vox’s independent journalism, please consider becoming a Vox Member today.
—Bryan Walsh, senior editorial editor
