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Every week we break down the big headlines in global development and bring in top experts to help us do it. Hosted by Raj Kumar, President and Editor-in-Chief of Devex.
Episodes are streamed live on Twitter Spaces on Fridays and published here on Mondays.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters
- 66 - Melinda French Gates’ next chapter, and a new platform to increase aid transparencyThis week marked a significant development in the philanthropic world with Melinda French Gates resigning from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to focus on the "next chapter" of her philanthropy. As part of the separation agreement with her former husband Bill Gates, French Gates will receive an additional $12.5 billion for her work on behalf of women and families, an area which she has been pushing to get involved with.
On the topic of philanthropy, we also took a look at where MacKenzie Scott has been spending her money. Known for her unorthodox attitude to philanthropy, she has already given away $17.3 billion since 2020, mostly as unconditional grants. While many have praised her approach to philanthropic giving, it appears as though few have followed suit when it comes to allowing recipients to decide how they would like to spend the funds they receive.
We also reported on Unlock Aid’s plans to launch a platform dubbed the “Glassdoor for Primes''in the coming months. The tool would allow local organizations to publicly review major international NGOs, contractors, and agencies on their accountability and treatment of subgrantees.
In order to discuss these stories, and others, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Sasha Fisher from Spark Microgrants and Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 17 May 2024 - 65 - What we expect from the EU elections, and allegations against the Africa CDCThe European Parliamentary elections will take place next month, and with anti-aid and anti-migrant parties poised to make big gains, there are fears for the future of the world's second-largest development budget.
According to one senior Brussels politician, the controversial swiping of €2 billion from the development pot to fund a crackdown on illegal migration could just be the start of the European Union’s reduced focus on supporting global development initiatives. We explore how Europe’s political landscape is changing, as well as what it could mean to the EU’s approach to foreign assistance.
In South Africa, we found that the country’s politics is preventing NGOs from effectively delivering health services to refugees and migrants. Aid groups and civil society organizations are trying to untangle the snarled problem of how to guarantee access to health services for all people who are far from home — whether that home is in another country or somewhere else in South Africa — without creating disparities in health care services that enrage local communities.
On the topic of the continent, Devex obtained a copy of an African Union audit that examined accusations against Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's Director General Dr. Jean Kaseya. The audit, which was finalized in March, analyzed over a dozen allegations in a February whistleblower email. We dig into the claims, including allegations of misusing funds, flouting rules, and exhibiting favoritism, among others.
For the latest episode of our podcast series, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and Senior Reporter Sara Jerving to discuss these stories and others.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 10 May 2024 - 64 - A new Africa Club, Europe's development agenda, and USAID's strugglesThis week we discuss the establishment of the Africa Club by the African Union, an initiative that the continent’s leaders hope will drive reform of the global financial architecture. With African states currently spending more on debt repayments than they are on health care or climate action, the goal is for the alliance to leverage more funding for global development efforts.
On the topic of Africa, we also reported on a gathering of African leaders who outlined their funding priorities for the International Development Association, the World Bank's fund for the lowest-income countries. From building climate resilience to greater energy and digital access, we examine why IDA is such an important tool for countries in the global south.
We also break down leaked documents from the European Commission that outline its development vision for the next five years. To almost nobody’s surprise, it appears as though the EU is planning to pursue a foreign aid agenda based on its own economic interests rather than prioritizing issues linked to poverty and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. And like the U.S. Agency for International Development, which isstruggling to meet its localization objectives, the EU also faces issues around staffing that affect its ability to carry out effective aid delivery.
To analyze these stories, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Bidjan Nashat, managing director of Aequitas Human Capital, and Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger for this week’s edition of our podcast series.
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IDA, or International Development Association is the world bank’s fund for the poorest countries. IDA provides grants and low-cost loans that countries can use for a variety of needs from health to education to infrastructure. This year it's up for replenishment and so the bank is going to donors to ask for a new influx of capital.
In this episode, we speak to Dirk Reinnerman, the Director of the IDA Resource Mobilization and IBRD Corporate Finance at the World Bank, about his pitch to donors in the IDA replenishment, and how it ties to broader bank reforms.
We also hear from Garghee Ghosh, the president of global advocacy and policy at the Gates Foundation about what makes IDA unique, and Serah Makka, the Africa Executive director at the ONE Campaign.Mon, 29 Apr 2024 - 62 - The value of cash transfers, and USAID's budget boostLast week we were the media partner at the Global Inclusive Growth Summit hosted by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. The conference focused on how access to financial services are key to helping drive global development in low- and middle-income countries.
During one of the events, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley stressed the importance of debt restructuring in order to help low- and middle-income countries overcome health and climate change challenges. We discuss the value of cash transfers for building resilience to crises by providing money to those in need quickly and efficiently, as well as how they can help increase financial inclusion globally.
We also published a story on Grant Assistant, an AI tool supporting its users in the writing grant applications. From speeding up the process of navigating the paperwork to helping local and smaller organizations access USAID grants, we discuss the tool’s potential impact on the global development sector.
This week, the U.S. Congress passed a bill, which would unlock around $9.2 billion in humanitarian aid. We contemplate what this means for USAID and where the money could go.
To dig into these stories, Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel sits down with Yolande Wright, vice president of partnerships at GiveDirectly, and Devex Senior Reporter Michael Igoe for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 26 Apr 2024 - 61 - Devex @ World Bank-IMF: UNDP's Achim Steiner on outcomes from the G20 meetings
As finance ministers and central bank governors from the G20 nations concluded their recent meetings, concerns over the pace and stability of global economic recovery took center stage.
In an exclusive conversation with Achim Steiner, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), key insights emerged regarding the discussions surrounding coordination, the global financial architecture, and pressing challenges facing developing economies.Thu, 25 Apr 2024 - 60 - Devex @ World Bank-IMF: Spring meetings takeaways
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are trying to evolve and prove they are fit for purpose, but the jury is out on just how far that evolution process has gone.
While numerous announcements were made at the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings last week in Washington D.C., the pace of reform is too slow, according to several experts.
“The rhetoric in terms of the important pronouncements that have been made are saying the right things, but they're not giving you the next three things that could get done in the next month, in the next three months, in the next six months, in the next 12 months,” Afsaneh Beschloss, founder and CEO of investment firm RockCreek, told Devex.
“And so what I would urge the shareholders to do is really get serious, put pressure on the World Bank to start getting things done, not to look at the negativity, but look at the need,” she said, adding that “so much can get done today as we speak.”
This gap between rhetoric and reality, between policy making at 10,000 feet and the impact on the real ground-level economy, was evident in the meetings, experts tell Devex in this podcast episode.
"The world is in a very, very difficult place. There is progress, but not enough. Reforms need to broaden and deepen to address the grave situation," Rachel Kyte, professor of practice in climate policy at the University of Oxford, told Devex.
We also speak with John Denton, the secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce.Want to understand what played out at the meetings and what’s next? This podcast episode will give you the rundown.Tue, 23 Apr 2024 - 59 - Devex @ World Bank-IMF: The skinny on World Bank plans to harness private capitalHow can the World Bank play a role in attracting more private capital to address development and climate needs?
That is a challenge that World Bank President Ajay Banga has prioritized and was a key discussion in Washington, D.C., last week at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings.
From a Private Sector Investment Lab charged with helping the bank identify and scale what already works to a new loan guarantee platform and plans to bundle and sell someInternational Finance Corporation investments to private investors, changes are afoot.
But there are questions about how far existing proposals go, if they will succeed, and how exactly private sector mobilization will be measured.
In this podcast episode we hear from experts about how those efforts stack up and what more can be done to attract private money to these markets.
We dive into what the Private Sector Investment Lab has prioritized, why mobilization efforts have been stymied, and the importance of data transparency in these discussions.
Gavin Wilson, who leads DAI Capital; Nancy Lee, director for Sustainable Development Finance at the Center for Global Development; Ben Weisman, executive director of capital mobilization and public policy at the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero; and Gary Forster, CEO of Publish What You Fund share their insights.Mon, 22 Apr 2024 - 58 - How can the World Bank be a better partner in global development?This week we are closely following the World Bank and International Monetary FundSpring Meetings taking place in Washington, D.C. From having a capital increase to provide funding for the world's low-income countries to how the financial institution can support the fight against climate change, we dig into the key conversations we’re following at the conference.
In addition to increasing risk appetite to encourage private capital mobilization, we argue that multilateral development banks, as well as organizations under the World Bank Group umbrella should be collaborating better in order to maximize impact.
To discuss how the bank can be reformed for it to be a better partner in global development, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with World Resources Institute CEO Ani Dasgupta and Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger for the latest episode of the podcast series.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 19 Apr 2024 - 57 - Devex @ World Bank-IMF: Unpacking World Bank reforms: Progress and path forward
The World Bank is about 18 months into its efforts to reform the institution in response to shareholder demands and changing global needs. From stretching its existing funding to attracting more private capital, the bank has laid a laundry list of proposals on the table.
So what has been accomplished thus far and what more is needed? That’s what we tackle in the first episode of a special edition podcast during this year’s World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings, which take place in Washington D.C. this week. The bank has a new capital adequacy framework to get more out of its own money, a new mission statement making climate change part of its core ambition, and of course a new leader in Ajay Banga.
Listen in to hear Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger in conversation with Clemence Landers, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, Stephanie von Friedeburg, managing director of banking and capital markets advisory at Citi, and Rep. French Hill, a Republican from Arkansas, who is vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee.Mon, 15 Apr 2024 - 56 - Israel's attempt to dismantle UNRWA, and USAID's localization spendingAs the war in Gaza stretches past the six-month mark, this week we had an exclusive story on Israel’s efforts to disrupt and dismantle UNRWA, the United Nations agency leading the humanitarian response for Palestinians. The agency — caught in a political war — was forced to ground its fleet of trucks, cars, and security specialists used by other U.N. agencies delivering support to those affected by the conflict.
We have also been closely following the conversations around localization. A few months ago, a rural Sierra Leone-based nonprofit leader was unable to get a visa to a conference in Denmark — which led to an open letter demanding change in how convening spaces on locally led development should be organized. Four months later, it appears that some foundations, international organizations, and networks have committed to listening, including the U.S. Agency for International Development. We explore how localization can be more effectively carried out, including the need to move the headquarters of institutions closer to the communities they aim to serve, as well as having greater representation from the developing world in academia.
Also on the topic of localization, we dug into the analysis of how much of USAID’s money went to local grantees in 2023. We found that the agency allocated around $1.3 billion to local partners via grants and cooperative agreements in 2023, which is the same amount as the previous fiscal year.
To discuss these stories, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Aude Darnal of the Stimson Centerand Devex’s U.N. correspondent Colum Lynch for this week’s episode of the podcast series.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Thu, 11 Apr 2024 - 55 - USAID's spending plan and reforming the Inter-American Development BankLast week, we launched Roots of Change, a Devex series on locally led development, which explores how the localization agenda can be elevated from rhetoric to reality. We have been following the discussions around localization for the past couple of years and the progress made toward empowering local communities in shaping global development initiatives. As part of the series, we published an article that outlines five key takeaways we learned about the current state of the debate based on our coverage. We highlight that while progress is slow, change is inevitable.
At the Inter-American Development Bank, major developments are underway. From changing how they operate to identifying new metrics of success, we dig into how the financial institution plans to become a better partner in development as it urges other MDBs to undergo reform as well.
We also touch upon an interactive article we published on the U.S. Agency for International Development’sspending plan for the upcoming months. Find out how the agency is planning to distribute $25.6 billion, including the sectors and countries targeted.
In the latest episode of the This Week in Global Development podcast, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Nasra Ismail, U.S. enterprise executive director at Alight, and Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger to discuss the global development stories above.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Thu, 04 Apr 2024 - 54 - A new localization legislation, and the 'severe' risk to UK aidThis week, we reported that at the Employees at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems — a 37-year-old pro-democracy organization based outside Washington, D.C. — employees formed a new staff union to confront their organization’s president and CEO over labor rights. The issue is entangled within the wider debates of localization. While employees most certainly want to provide technical support to local partners, they do not believe that the process should undervalue the employees who provide it.
At the end of last week, The Locally Led Development and Humanitarian Response Act was passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, legislation that would ease complexities in USAID's grantmaking process. While the bill still needs to clear the U.S. Senate, most seem hopeful it will do so. It is believed that the legislation would help USAID reach its localization targets, especially if it is passed before the U.S. general election in November.
On the other side of the pond, a spending watchdog found that the creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has undermined the United Kingdom’s ability to carry out aid work. The report also raises the alarm that "staff have experienced change fatigue and are unhappy that key issues such as terms and conditions and career pathways have yet to be resolved.”
To dig into these stories, and others, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with George Ingram and Fiona Zublin for the latest episode of the podcast series.
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Last week, USAID unveiled its latest $5 billion global health supply contract, part of its NextGen suite of contracts. Worth $17 billion in total, it’s the largest suite of foreign aid contracts ever issued, to be delivered over the course of 10 years. But despite all the talk around localization, it’s highly likely the contracts will end up going to the usual industry players.
“Most of the low- or middle-income countries, they can do without those USAID-funded contractors coming to do things for them,” said Olusoji Adeyi, president of Resilient Health Systems and a staunch advocate for the decolonization of the sector.
The previous iteration of USAID’s global health supply contract, worth $9.5 billion and delivered solely through Chemonics, failed to live up to expectations after running into multiple delays and performance problems. “USAID has refused to learn, and they are throwing $17 billion of taxpayer money after a failed business model,” said Adeyi.
Listen to the latest episode of This Week in Global Development to hear Adeyi discuss this topic and the other big stories from the week with Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar and Managing Editor Anna Gawel.Fri, 22 Mar 2024 - 52 - Devex @ SXSW: These doctors turned entrepreneurs are using tech to transform health
Vitala Global Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works with girls and women to develop digital solutions for stigmatized sexual and reproductive health issues, including abortions.
Last week, Aya Contigo, its digital companion for abortion and contraception support that launched in Venezuela and has since expanded to the United States, was a winner of South by Southwest’s Innovation Showcase.
Dr. Roopan Gill, co-founder and CEO of Vitala Global Foundation, was in Austin, Texas, to talk about the role technology can play in providing more accessible reproductive health resources, especially amidst growing restrictions on reproductive rights.
“It's not just an app providing passive information,” she said. “We're really trying to see how it acts as a glue, as an ecosystem integrator, especially in this day and age where we have so much complexity around abortion access.”
Gill spoke with Devex for Devex @ SXSW, a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast.
The episode also featured Jarone Lee, co-founder of Health Tech Without Borders, a nonprofit organization working on digital health solutions, including telemedicine and chatbots, in the context of humanitarian disasters.
Listen to the podcast to hear how these two doctors turned social entrepreneurs are leveraging technology to improve health care access in some of the most challenging settings to deliver care.Thu, 21 Mar 2024 - 51 - Devex @ SXSW: Technology's role in the future of food systems
There’s no question that artificial intelligence will have a massive impact on the future of food systems, but it remains to be seen whether it will address or perpetuate inequities.
“I think the question is, how's it going to be used in our food system in a way that actually promotes all of the objectives that we want?” said Roy Steiner, senior vice president for the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. “Technology tends to be a fairly neutral tool. It multiplies whatever is underneath it. So if we have a completely inequitable system, it will multiply the inequity.”
Steiner spoke with Devex on the sidelines of South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, where conversations focused on the ways technology will transform every aspect of society, including the way the world grows, produces, distributes, supplies, and consumes food.
The current food system is detrimental environmentally, socially, and nutritionally, Steiner said, adding that he’s hopeful that technological advancements can help the world transition to a more regenerative and equitable system.
Listen to the episode to hear more about the future of food systems on Devex @ SXSW, a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast.
The podcast also features Paul Newnham, executive director of the SDG2 Advocacy Hub, which coordinates global advocacy in support of food system transformation, and Joke Aerts, open chain lead at Tony’s Chocolonely, a company on a mission to end modern slavery and illegal child labor in cocoa.Tue, 19 Mar 2024 - 50 - Devex @ SXSW: How 3 organizations are leveraging technology for a more equitable future
The world needs new approaches, not just more funding, as it faces a financing gap of an estimated $4 trillion annually to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.
“We’re either going to find this money somewhere under the cushions … or we’re going to make it cheaper,” said Hala Hanna, executive director of Solve, an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that launches open calls and backs innovators working to solve global problems. “So we really believe that innovation and finding new voices and new ideas is one key part of doing that.”
Devex spoke with Hanna at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. She drew on some of the same themes as Najada Kumbuli, head of investments at the Visa Foundation, and Nazanin Ash, CEO of Welcome.US.
Each of them discussed the ways their organizations leverage innovation, technology, and investment to support new solutions for the SDGs that won’t come from traditional models.
Listen to the episode to hear more on their strategies to build a more equitable future on Devex @SXSW, a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast.Tue, 19 Mar 2024 - 49 - Devex @ SXSW: How Emerson Collective prioritizes causes and partners
It’s no surprise that Anne Marie Burgoyne, managing director of Emerson Collective, had a long line of people forming to meet with her following her session at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas Wednesday. Burgoyne leads philanthropy for this social change organization started by Laurene Powell Jobs.
Devex's Kate Warren spoke with Burgoyne about Emerson Collective’s unique approach, its growing work on climate through the Waverley Street Foundation, and how Emerson Collective looks at the role of artificial intelligence in social change.
Listen to the episode to hear more from Burgoyne on Devex @ SXSW, a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast.Thu, 14 Mar 2024 - 48 - Innovation at SXSW and food as a weapon of war
On this week's episode, we go behind the scenes at SXSW with Devex Executive Editor Kate Warren, who brings us the latest on the innovations in food and agriculture being discussed at the wide-ranging conference and festival.
We've also got Food Systems for the Future's Ertharin Cousin, who weighed in on our recent piece on the weaponizaton of food, accusations that USAID meddled in Zimbabwe's democratic process, and the utlity of the Pandemic Fund.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Thu, 14 Mar 2024 - 47 - Devex @ SXSW: Comfort Ero on the world's conflicts, and the trends driving them
Next year marks 30 years since the start of the International Crisis Group, which conducts research and analysis to prevent and resolve global conflict.
Comfort Ero, president and CEO of Crisis Group, says the organization was “made for this moment,” as crises continue to unfold from Gaza to Haiti to Ukraine.
She spoke with Devex on the sidelines of South by Southwest, an annual conference in Austin, Texas, about America's role in the world, ahead of a high stakes U.S. presidential election, as well as the war in Gaza, and how the climate crisis and the rise of AI are shaping the future of conflict.
“Our job is to find the political will, and to create ideas beyond the headlines, to get away from the noise, and to quietly try to thread the needle in a very complex and very dangerous world,” Ero said.
Listen to the episode to hear more from Ero on Devex @ SXSW, a special edition of This Week in Global Development.Tue, 12 Mar 2024 - 46 - A look at USAID’s spending, and the Africa CDC’s wishlistThis week we published an article on how USAID spent its money last year. We noted that the agency spent $38.1 billion through its assistance and acquisition mechanism in the fiscal year that ended in September 2023. From the data it is evident that USAID has increased its spending for humanitarian crises, including the war in Ukraine.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention released theirwishlist for the pandemic treaty. However, with countries in the global north — including the United Kingdom, Germany, and France — slashing their aid budgets, questions are being raised about whether there is an appetite for another pandemic financing mechanism, which is among one of the agency’s asks.
On the topic of the Africa CDC, its acting deputy director-general, Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, is resigning from the organization this month as he wasn't allowed to apply for the deputy director-general position due to country quotas. Dr. Raji Tajudeen will become the acting deputy director-general until a formal appointment is made.
To dig into these stories and others, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Patrick Fine from Brookings and Devex Associate Editor Rumbi Chakamba for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 08 Mar 2024 - 45 - Leaked trade agreements, and the development organizations to watchThis week Devex published an exclusive story on how Ghana-based NGO Youth Opportunity & Transformation in Africa, or YOTA, is embroiled in a dispute with CARE Ghana over a decision to raise staff salaries during an economic crisis where inflation was spiraling and staffers found it difficult to make ends meet. YOTA, which is one of two implementing partners, is accusing grant holder CARE Ghana of “bullying.” The story highlights some of the challenges that global development organizations are facing as they continue to try to localize.
In Asia, a series of leaked trade agreement drafts highlight growing divisions within India’s flourishing pharmaceutical industry, with the leaked documents sparking concerns over access to generic medicines.
We also elaborate on the reasoning behind what made it onto our list of 24 global development organizations to watch in 2024, which we published this week.
What’s next for global pharmaceutical manufacturing? Which organizations are missing from our list?
For the latest episode of the podcast series, Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger sits down with Dr. Jen Kates — senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation devex — as well as Devex Senior Reporter Sara Jerving to discuss the stories above, and more.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 01 Mar 2024 - 44 - Recapping the Munich Security Conference, and US-UN clash over UNRWALast weekend we attended the Munich Security Conference, a summit which is not as solely centered around security as its name suggests. We look back at the highlights and lowlights of the conference, which touched upon many issues linked to global development, including food security and climate change.
We also have an update on the future of UNRWA, the United Nations Palestinian relief agency, which is facing calls to be disbanded. The United States is pushing other U.N. relief agencies to take over some of its functions. However, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has voiced concern that weakening UNRWA amid a massive humanitarian crisis would worsen the suffering of Palestinian civilians — as he believes it is the only organization with the capability to deliver assistance to the 2.2 million people with urgent needs.
On the topic of U.N. agencies, we also published an exclusive story revealing that the U.N. Population Fund is planning to move a quarter of its New York staff positions to Nairobi in 2025 to be closer to the people it serves. However, not everyone is convinced that the move is the right one, and some staff are stressed about the relocation.
In order to dig into these stories, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with U.K. Correspondent Rob Merrick and Managing Editor Anna Gawel for the latest episode of our This Week in Global Development podcast series.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Thu, 22 Feb 2024 - 43 - Special Episode: Ensuring a just energy transition in Africa
During the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai, more than 110 countries committed to triple renewable energy capacity worldwide by 2030. Africa, in particular, is a key source of critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, and cobalt, which are needed to power clean technologies ranging from electric vehicles to wind turbines. But without proper safeguards in place, there is a risk that the mining of minerals for the green energy transition could end up exacerbating existing inequalities.
“One key element is social equity; prioritizing vulnerable communities to ensure that they benefit from the transition, including job creation, access to affordable clean energy, and protection from adverse impacts,” said professor Youba Sokona, former vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Professor Sokona was joined by Yamide Dagnet, former director of climate justice at Open Society Foundations, and Devex’s Raj Kumar for a special episode of This Week in Global Development.Fri, 16 Feb 2024 - 42 - What community leaders think of USAID's localization plansRecently, the U.S. Agency for International Development published 14 "good practices" to define what a locally led program looks like as part of its push for half its projects to be locally led by 2030.
We spoke to local community leaders to find out what they think. While many are optimistic, some have argued that they haven’t seen much change just yet and expressed concern about whether these indicators will translate into action. For one thing, USAID’s localization guidelines do not specify whether local people can voice whether they believe a program is locally led or not.
On the topic of involving local communities in development initiatives, we also published an opinion piece outlining how decolonization must be applied to organizational design, the distribution of money, and how skill sets are valued.
Additionally, this week, theU.S. Senate passed a $95 billion emergency funding bill. While much of it is military spending, it includes about $10 billion in humanitarian aid. It now heads to the House of Representatives.
Advocates are pushing the House to approve it, though its future is uncertain as political tensions continue.
For this week’s episode of our This Week in Global Development podcast series, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Nicole Goldin, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center, as well as Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth to discuss these stories.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Thu, 15 Feb 2024 - 41 - The development finance issues to watch, and reforming the World BankThis week we published an article on the development finance issues to watch in 2024. From fresh climate finance targets to the role that private capital mobilization can play in overcoming global development challenges, we discuss what we expect from the upcoming year and whether the ideas proposed will lead to tangible change in low-income countries.
On the topic of capital increase, at an event on Monday, World Bank President Ajay Banga discussed his plans to reform the way the institution runs, including speeding up project approvals and streamlining the International Development Association ahead of its replenishment this year. It is hoped that the reforms will help increase the capital needed to overcome development challenges.
Are the proposed reforms to the development finance architecture achievable? What is missing from the agenda?
To answer these questions and dig into these stories, as well as others, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Global Nation co-founder Jonathan Glennie, as well as Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger, for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 09 Feb 2024 - 40 - UNRWA engulfed in controversy, and USAID’s localization effortsAs we approach the U.S. presidential election in November, we take a look at how the Biden administration set out to change the U.S. government’s foreign aid system. With less than a year left in his term, we consider whether the targets set can be realistically achieved this year.
As USAID continues its effort to localize — or shift power to local organizations — we also dig into a report on the topic based on the feedback of 300 local organizations, international agencies, and USAID staff. The report outlined what needs to change for the agency to reach its localization goals.
Meanwhile in the Middle East, U.N. relief workers are being accused of having participated in the Hamas massacre that took place on Oct 7. The U.S. and other major donors have said they’ll cut funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, stripping people affected by the conflict in Gaza from vital funding.
To dig into these stories and others, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with reporters Colum Lynch and Elissa Miolene for the latest edition of the podcast series.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 02 Feb 2024 - 39 - Davos Dispatch: Facing a climate breakdown, leaders 'act while we learn'
2023 was the hottest year on record. So it’s no surprise that the climate emergency was a big focus of last week’s World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Devex’s Raj Kumar sat down with several leaders to discuss how the climate crisis intersects with their work: Peter Sands, the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Sophie Atiende, CEO of the Global Fund to End Modern Slavery; and Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity.
Together, they explore the interconnections between climate change and the issues they are focused on, as well as the urgency for action.
Sands describes a visit to northern Nigeria with Muhammad Ali Pate, the country’s minister of health and social welfare, where they saw “a shocking number” of children who were malnourished and severely ill with malaria.
“It’s a good example of how the climate change interaction is sort of multifactorial,” he said, explaining how climate change is harming agricultural productivity, leading to malnutrition, and changing the epidemiology of malaria.
“The combined impact of that is more severely ill children and more deaths of small children,” Sands said. “That's the kind of thing we're still trying to understand. But my view is we need to act while we learn. We can't wait for a perfect answer; we need to be doing more in anticipation of how we see this unfolding.”
Listen to the episode to hear more from Sands, Atiende, and Reckord, who joined Kumar for the Davos Dispatch podcast, recorded from WEF in Davos, Switzerland.Fri, 26 Jan 2024 - 38 - Preparing for future pandemics, and a landmark moment in global healthA new report reveals serious gaps in the clinical pipeline for diseases with pandemic potential, and limited investments in their research and development over the years. While research and development funding for COVID-19 reached over $14 billion from 2020 to 2022, the combined research funding for the other nine priority pathogens with pandemic potential identified by the World Health Organization total just $1.7 billion. We dig into the report — which comes from the International Pandemic Preparedness Secretariat — as well as how we could improve our preparedness for the next pandemic.
Despite the concerns about global pandemic preparedness, we have seen a landmark moment in the fight against malaria, with Cameroon becoming the first African country to roll out WHO's first recommended malaria vaccine into its routine immunization program.
This week also marked the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Millenium Challenge Corporation, or MCC, a U.S. aid agency which set out to help the lowest-income countries clinch large grants if they could turn their economic and social policies around and demonstrate good governance. However, concerns remain over where they can operate in the future based on their unique model.
For the latest episode of our This Week in Global Development podcast series, Devex President & Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sat down with Ayoade Alakija from AVDA/ACT-Accelerator and Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger to dig into these key stories.
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There are a growing number of social entrepreneurs using technology to address a range of development challenges in Africa, from agriculture healthcare to education. But many of them say that financing is the greatest barrier to scale.
At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024, Devex’s Raj Kumar sat down with three social entrepreneurs: Temie Giwa-Tubosun, CEO of LifeBank, a healthcare technology and logistics company delivering critical medical supplies, Gerald Abila, founder of BarefootLaw, a non-profit in Uganda providing access to justice through technology, and Mayur Patel, chief commercial officer at M-Kopa, an asset financing platform in Africa.
Their conversations point to several ways social entrepreneurs are using technology to address social challenges, as well as the crucial role financing must play in scaling their impact.
"The big barriers for growth are not demand,” Patel said. “They're not the scalability of the platform, or the opportunity. The big barriers to growth are figuring out how you solve the working capital cycle.”
Listen to the episode to hear more from Giwa-Tubosun, Abila, and Patel, who joined Kumar for the Davos Dispatch podcast, recorded from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.Tue, 23 Jan 2024 - 36 - Davos Dispatch: What's next for the Green Climate Fund?
It’s a big moment for the United Nations Green Climate Fund. Its funding levels hit a record high following the climate conference COP 28, with several countries adding contributions to its second replenishment that sent the fund’s total soaring past its $10 billion goal to $12.8 billion.
GCF’s Executive Director Mafalda Duarte oversaw the replenishment after assuming the role only three months prior, having departed her previous job as the head of the Climate Investment Funds in June. Somewhere in there, she was also at the Africa Climate Summit, the U.N. General Assembly, and multiple other global engagements.
“Quite intense,” she acknowledged to Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar in Davos, Switzerland, the latest stop on her whirlwind travel agenda.But if Duarte has been busy, it’s because she’s making huge strides at an organization that was in a notably rocky place a few years ago. On this episode of Davos Dispatch, a series housed under our regular weekly podcast, This Week in Global Development, Duarte gives us the scoop on what’s next for GCF and its role in climate change mitigation and adaptation.Mon, 22 Jan 2024 - 35 - An update from the World Economic Forum annual meeting in DavosThis week we are in Davos closely following the conversations taking place at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. This year’s discussions have focused heavily on artificial intelligence and its potential impact on the humanitarian and development sectors. We also dig into our key takeaways from the conference, along with the question of whether we have reached a turning point when it comes to giving a voice to the global south.
In addition to AI, climate change also took center stage at the summit, and we contemplate whether this is an indication that leaders are recognizing the gravity of the situation and its link to issues around global health.
Will AI transform global development? And what impact will blockchain technology have on the sector?
For the latest edition of our podcast series, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sat down with Hedera Chief Policy Officer Nilmini Rubin and BRAC Executive Director Asif Saleh to discuss the top global development stories from the past week.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Thu, 18 Jan 2024 - 34 - Davos Dispatch: Making 'billions to trillions' a reality
The “billions to trillions” narrative — the idea that a relatively small amount of public financing can be used to crowd in trillions of dollars in private capital to solve climate and other development challenges — has been discussed in development finance circles for nearly a decade now. And yet there’s still an annual $4 trillion gap in financing for energy, water, and other critical development objectives.
Speaking to Devex’s Raj Kumar, Samaila Zubairu, CEO of the Africa Finance Corporation shared how his organization is leveraging public-private partnerships in “risky” countries such as Gabon and Djibouti, and what larger multilateral development banks should be doing to be more effective.
“What is most important is for us to introduce more urgency in our approach to work. We need to really start to focus on outcomes,” Zubairu said. “We should all be accountable. We should be looking at what's the baseline at a certain period of time, and what are we doing to cause improvements to happen.”
Zubairu joined Kumar for the Davos Dispatch podcast, recorded from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.Wed, 17 Jan 2024 - 33 - The insider perspective on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza
While a new year for many heralds a fresh start, the war that broke out in Gaza in October 2023 continues to rage, with the death toll numbering in the thousands. We take a look at the conflict from a global development and humanitarian lens by speaking with representatives from organizations doing aid work there to get an insider perspective on the crisis.
They reveal the obstacles they face — such as the lack of fuel and inability to keep in touch with staff — and how they try to meet the needs of those affected by the war.
What is the situation like on the ground? What are the misconceptions in the media?
To find out, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar and Managing Editor Anna Gawel sit down with Arnaud Quemin, Middle East-North Africa/Europe regional director for Mercy Corps, as well as Anera Regional Development Lead Saddam Sayyaleh for the latest episode of the This Week in Global Development podcast.
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It’s an election year in the U.S., and bipartisanship is in short supply. Many of the legislative challenges of 2023—including those around foreign aid— are carrying into the new year, adding more pressure to a dam that’s already quite full. Republican presidential hopefuls are even going so far as to call for the defunding of the United Nations.
Luckily, not everything comes down to funding—we also discussed the U.S. Agency for International Development’s new Locally Led Programs indicator, which sets a standard for determining whether a given program can be considered, well, locally led.
Joining Devex’s President and Editor-in-Chief to break down these topics is Stefan Dercon, the former chief economist at the U.K. Department of International Development and current Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, as well as Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel.
Welcome to 2024, and thanks for tuning in!
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Thu, 04 Jan 2024 - 31 - Key takeaways from COP 28, and USAID's localization announcementLast week we traveled to Dubai to attend the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 28, where apart from hosting our event on the sidelines of the main conference, we also reported on the negotiations taking place. We look back at the main takeaways from COP 28, including the pledges made by philanthropic organizations, and contemplate whether the commitments made by countries will be followed through.
While it is recognized that issues related to health, food, and energy are interconnected and linked to climate change, this understanding needs to be included within policies and future development strategies, experts tell us.
Following USAID’s announcement of the 14 measures it will use to track its target of having half of its projects be locally led by 2030, we debate whether it will successfully drive meaningful change, or just lead to tokenistic box-check efforts to localize. We also reported on the ongoing leadership crisis World Food Programme chief Cindy McCain is facing over the conflict in Gaza.
To dig into these stories and key takeaways from COP 28, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Larry Cooley, the president emeritus and senior adviser at Management Systems International, as well as GiveDirectly Vice President of Partnerships Yolande Wright, for the latest episode of our This Week in Global Development podcast.
This is the final episode of the year. We will resume the podcast series in January. Thanks for listening!
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 15 Dec 2023 - 30 - An update from COP 28 and renewable energy in the developing worldThis week we traveled to Dubai to follow the discussions at COP 28, the U.N. climate summit, and to find out what the outcomes of the negotiations could mean for the global development sector.
The first day saw the creation of a loss and damage fund designed to compensate the lowest-income nations most heavily affected by the negative impact of climate change. While the move is a step in the right direction, activists hope that the wealthiest and most-polluting nations will follow through on their pledges.
For countries such as Somalia — which is trying to bring in climate funding as it continues to battle drought and food insecurity — the fund could be a much-needed lifeline. With the country experiencing heavy rains and flooding that has affected some 1.7 million people and displaced nearly 700,000 from their homes, Somalia is relying more than ever on external support to face the crisis.
We also dug into the climate and health nexus. Recognizing the negative health impacts of climate change, this is the first year that a day has been dedicated to health on the COP agenda. Around $2.7 billionwas also pledged to health initiatives linked to climate change. However, questions remain on how much of this is actually new funding.
During the discussion, we also identified the summit as an opportunity to encourage renewable energy investment in low- and middle-income countries, leapfrogging fossil fuels when bringing power to communities in the global south for the first time.
What do we make of COP 28? For this week’s episode of the podcast, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Africa Climate Ventures Co-Founder and CEO James Mwangi, as well as Devex Senior Reporter Sara Jerving to discuss the conference and more.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Thu, 07 Dec 2023 - 29 - Looking ahead to COP 28The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 28, kicked off this Thursday. As with the summits in previous years, we arrive with the usual set of questions: Will pledges be met? Are the biggest polluters going to commit to support the most in need? Will the conference lead to meaningful change?
The first day saw an agreement reached over a loss and damage fund, with countries already making initial pledges, including the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and Germany. However, many say that the amount committed is not enough given the size of the economies of these nations.
According to theU.N. Environment Programme, it is estimated that 80% of people displaced by climate change will be women. With a heavy focus on financial pledges, we contemplate whether the summit will deliver to meet the needs of women affected by the climate crisis.
We also discuss an article published this week on MacKenzie Scott's unconventional style of giving large, unrestricted gifts to nonprofits, which was criticized due to concerns over the ability of smaller, newer, and grassroots nonprofits being able to absorb such large amounts of funds.
To dig into these topics, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Daughters for Earth and Women for Women co-founder Zainab Salbi, who tunes in live from Dubai, as well as Devex Senior Reporter Michael Igoe, to discuss the top global development stories from the past week.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Thu, 30 Nov 2023 - 27 - Views from the ground — from unpaid workers to YouTube influencers
The latest edition of This Week in Development takes both a ground-level and 30,000-foot view of localization and the latest issues in development, ranging from unpaid workers in Nigeria to a YouTube influencer-turned-do-gooder to a climate fund struggling to get up to speed.
Sara Jerving’s exclusive story offers an object lesson on the importance of coordination and collaboration in large, sprawling development endeavors with multiple stakeholders. She reports on the Saving Lives and Livelihoods initiative, which involved the Mastercard Foundation, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and several other players such as implementers, government agencies, and auditors.
The result? Confusion about how workers in Nigeria — who were not given formal contracts when they were recruited — should be paid, leading to months’ worth of unpaid labor for some.
“This highlights a bigger program in our development space and that is, it shows that process is more important than people,” said George Ingram, senior fellow at the Brookings Center for Global Development. “It’s the green-eyeshade people who are important to ensure there’s not a lot of corruption, but they too often rule and interfere with having effective development, and donors and everybody needs to be willing to take a little more risk in order to get the development impact we’re looking for.”
Ingram joined Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar and me for a discussion that touched on other stories of the week, including thesuccesses and challenges of cash transfers, the Green Climate Fund’s flagging efforts to simplify its application process, and the controversial efforts of YouTube sensation MrBeast to build water wells in Africa, which generated some blowback.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 17 Nov 2023 - 26 - The hiccups in USAID's largest-ever project, and the nuances of migrationTen years ago, the U.S. Agency for International Development unveiled the largest project in its history, hoping it would revolutionize health supply chains around the world to such an extent that it would be the last such contract of its kind. Devex Senior Reporter Michael Igoe details how these hopes were dashed in an investigative report that was the subject of the latest edition of the This Week in Global Development podcast.
Speaking to Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar and Fatema Sumar of Harvard’s Center for International Development, Igoe pulls back the curtain on the $9.5 billion contract, which was led by U.S.-based behemoth Chemonics International. His report — done in conjunction with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism — chronicles the early failings of the supply chain project, including a low point when a dismal 7% of shipments arrived at their destinations on time, forcing multiple countries to scramble as they ran short of lifesaving health products ranging from HIV/AIDS drugs to mosquito nets.
The three speakers also discussed the nuances of aid spending to curb migration and the progress — or lack thereof, depending on your perspective — of the hotly debated loss and damage fund to compensate vulnerable countries for the effects of climate change.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 10 Nov 2023 - 25 - Uncertainty over PEPFAR's future and controversy around UNRWAThe future of PEPFAR, the flagship United States global HIV/AIDS program credited with saving millions of lives over the past couple of decades, hangs in the balance due to an ongoing political stalemate and accusations that it funds abortion. This week we looked into what the uncertainty over its reauthorization means for organizations dependent on its funding.
The growing mistrust between the global north and global south is evident in a report on the world’s preparedness for the next pandemic from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. We also followed a panel discussion at the European Union’s Global Gateway Forum, which found that a patchwork of local regulations are the main obstacle to the EU's promises to shift health manufacturing to African countries.
Meanwhile, as the tragic conflict continues in Gaza, provide an update on the work and future of UNRWA, the agency which has emerged as the main source of aid to Palestinian civilians, sheltering more than 690,000 people who have been forced from their homes.
For the latest episode of the podcast, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at KFF, as well as Devex Senior Global Reporter Colum Lynch, to discuss the top stories from the past week.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Thu, 02 Nov 2023 - 24 - An update on the EU's Global Gateway project, and OSF's reorganizationThis week we attended SOCAP23 in San Francisco — a conference bringing together investors, entrepreneurs, and social impact leaders to discuss how progress can be accelerated against the world’s toughest challenges through market-based solutions — and have some key takeaways for the global development community.
In addition to taking a look at the International Finance Corporation’s push to invest in the creative industries and providing an update on OSF’s reorganization, we also released an exclusive story on the European Union’s “Global Gateway” project. Critics say the initiative is focused on Europe’s own interest in securing supplies of renewable energy and critical raw materials, as well as on preventing China from laying claim to the world’s digital infrastructure.
To dig into these stories and others, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger for the latest episode of the podcast series.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 27 Oct 2023 - 23 - Special episode: Debt crisis in the MENA region
Public debt across the Middle East and North Africa — or MENA — region is soaring. While debt vulnerability is a global phenomenon, recent data shows four MENA economies — Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Jordan — are among the emerging markets most vulnerable to a debt crisis.
In a special podcast episode, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar is joined by Niranjan Sarangi, a senior economic affairs officer in the shared economic prosperity cluster at the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, and Sarah Saadoun, a senior researcher working on poverty and inequality at Human Rights Watch, for an in-depth discussion on the politics of economic reform in the MENA region.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Marrakech, Morocco, they discuss what’s behind the current debt situation, how it’s affecting ordinary people’s lives, the impact of IFI programs on the expansion of social protection systems, and the region’s evolving climate finance needs.
This episode of This Week in Global Development is sponsored by Open Society Foundations.Mon, 23 Oct 2023 - 22 - What comes after the World Bank summit, and EU countries overreport aidIn the latest episode of Devex’s podcast, we reflect on the World Bank annual meetings that took place in Marrakech, Morocco last week, and what reforms need to be made if the institution is to drive meaningful transformation in global development.
We discuss our exclusive story on the United States’ decision to freeze the delivery of thousands of metric tons of wheat to hungry Yemenis in order to pressure Houthi rebels to ensure the neediest get fed. We also dig into a study by AidWatch, which found that more than 22% of official development assistance declared by European Union countries last year was not real aid spent abroad, with spending going to hosting foreign students and Ukrainian refugees.
We also reported that the pharmaceutical industry is unhappy with the latest pandemic treaty draft due to the inclusion of intellectual property waivers in the text. Meanwhile, access advocates say the language around equity and intellectual property remains vague and weak on enforcement.
For this week’s episode, Devex President & Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel and Global Nation co-founder Jonathan Glennie to discuss the top stories from the past week.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 20 Oct 2023 - 21 - Key takeaways from the World Bank Annual MeetingsThis week Devex reporters traveled to Marrakech, Morocco, to report on the highly anticipated World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings.
Ajay Banga, the World Bank’s new president, used the gathering as an opportunity to outline his priorities for the institution, which includes reforming the bank so that it can lend more efficiently and making it more impact-focused so that it will be in a better shape to request a capital increase.
While Banga called for increased collaboration between multilateral development banks and vowed to increase the financial institution’s lending capacity, civil society groups have been calling for it to release free money to countries already struggling with debt repayments.
For the latest episode of the podcast, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel, who’s in Marrakech, to discuss what we learned from the annual meetings and what it means for the global development sector.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 13 Oct 2023 - 20 - The US government avoids a shutdown, and the World Bank's big planEven though the U.S. government avoided a shutdownthis week, serious concerns remain over whether lawmakers will be able to hammer out a federal budget for fiscal 2024 within the next 45 days, leaving the future funding of several development programs up in the air.
This week we also had an exclusive storyon the $1.5 billion Saving Lives and Livelihoods Initiative, which was temporarily halted amid an audit due to several issues, including the failure to pay workers in Nigeria for months worth of work and missing contracts and receipts. The three-year program, launched by the Mastercard Foundation and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021, is the largest public health partnership between a global philanthropic organization and an African institution and has employed more than 22,000 people.
Ahead of the World Bank annual meetings in Marrakech, Morocco, next week, we reported that the institution’s president, Ajay Banga, hopes to make available up to $125 billion additional lending over the next 10 years through reforms.
To dig into these stories, as well as to gain an update onPEPFAR’s potential reauthorization, tune in to the latest episode of the podcast. Devex President & EiC Raj Kumar sits down with Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger, as well as Olusoji Adeyi, the president of Resilient Health Systems and senior associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, to discuss the most important news this week.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 06 Oct 2023 - 19 - How the white savior complex impacts global developmentFollowing the release of “White Savior,” a new HBO documentary series following Renee Bach, a white missionary who tasked herself with managing a clinic in Uganda with no medical training, we reflect on the idea of of white savior complex and its implications for the global development sector.
As well as discussing how to make localization initiatives more effective, we also delve into a Devex article that examines how the U.S. Agency for International Development can reach its localization goal of giving 25% of eligible funds to local partners by 2025.
For this episode of the podcast, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar is joined by global strategy and development leader Nasra Ismail to dig into these stories and how they are intertwined when we consider how global development professionals can make meaningful change in lower-income countries.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Thu, 28 Sep 2023 - 18 - What did we learn at the 78th UN General Assembly?Last week saw the annual gathering of heads of state, thought leaders, civil society members, development professionals, and other industry personalities in New York City for the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
In addition to our very own Devex @ UNGA 78 summit that happened on the sidelines of the main event, we reported on the most important news affecting the drive to reach the Sustainable Development Goals as well as the United States push to reduce the U.N.’s role in the reform of the international financial system.
For this special episode of the podcast, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with our resident U.N. expert Colum Lynch to discuss what we learned at UNGA 78, including the most surprising moments and the key outcomes from the summit.
You can also check out our special UNGA 78 roundup newsletter.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Tue, 26 Sep 2023 - 17 - Special episode: Rebuilding trust in the UN system
In this special sponsored episode of This Week in Global Development, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Natalie Samarasinghe, head of global advocacy at Open Society Foundations, and Richard Gowan, U.N. Director at Crisis Group, to discuss to what’s likely to come out of this year’s United Nations General Assembly, the trust deficit facing the multilateral system, and whether this global gathering is even fit for purpose anymore.
They also delve into the results of Open Society Foundations’ new poll on global public opinion towards human rights and democracy.
This episode of This Week in Global Development is sponsored by Open Society Foundations.Mon, 18 Sep 2023 - 16 - Key issues to watch at the 78th UN General AssemblyWith the high-level general debate of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly taking place next week, leaders from around the world will be gathering in New York City to talk through some of the biggest issues facing societies around the world, including how we can best meet the Sustainable Development Goals and tackle the climate crisis.
For this week we have a special episode of the podcast, in which Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel sits down with our Global Reporter Colum Lynch.
From whether Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit will overshadow other global issues to increasing poverty rates around the world, they discuss the key talking points ahead of the summit.
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You can also register to attend in person or online Devex @ UNGA 78, our very own summit taking place on the sidelines of the most important discussions.Fri, 15 Sep 2023 - 15 - The END Fund's new board chair, and the UK's potential ODA increaseThis week The END Fund announced Tsitsi Masiyiwa as the organization’s new board chair, with the aim of ushering in more African voices into discussions about increasing funding for neglected tropical diseases. During our conversation, we explored the role played by boards in influencing the work of philanthropic organizations.
In the United Kingdom, we reported that up to £2.68 billion ($3.37 billion)could be diverted back to aid programs overseas after the U.K. tightened its laws on refugees, which means it can no longer claim spending on asylum seekers as official development assistance.
To dig into these stories and others, I sat down with Anera President and CEO Sean Carroll, as well as Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel, for the latest episode of the This Week in Global Development podcast.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 08 Sep 2023 - 14 - USAID's staffing shortages, and country-owned strategies in developmentThis week Devex Climate Correspondent William Worley sat down with Meike van Ginneken, the Netherlands’ special envoy for water, who argued that we should be prioritizing investmentto help overcome issues related to water shortages in the face of climate change rather than subsidizing fossil fuels.
In addition to looking back at our Devex Pro event with former senior USAID official Chuck Pope and digging into the agency’s localization targets, we also discussed an opinion piece written by former deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Treasury Department Nancy Lee, who outlines why country-owned strategies will be key to achieving development goals.
To find out more about these stories, make sure to check out the latest episode of the podcast, where I sit down with Larry Cooley, president emeritus and senior adviser at Management Systems International, to discuss the past week's top stories from the global development sector.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 01 Sep 2023 - 13 - Open Society Foundations' reorganization, and World Water WeekFor the latest episode of the podcast, I am joined by global strategy and development leader Nasra Ismail and Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth to discuss the top stories in global development, including insights intoOpen Society Foundations’ reorganization.
This week we learned thatUSAID’s NextGen global health supply chain contracts, which collectively are worth $16.8 billion over 10 years, are being delayed. We discuss the possible reasoning behind this, as well as its potential impact.
We are also joined by Devex Climate Correspondent Will Worley live from Stockholm, who provided an update on the World Water Week conference happening in the Swedish capital.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 25 Aug 2023 - 12 - U.S. and allies block key UN agreement and Germany's aid cutsThis week we brokean exclusive story on the United States, the United Kingdom, and a handful of allied powers blocking an agreement on a draft declaration that advocates the need to accelerate progress on a set of critical development goals, throwing a spanner into high-level negotiations ahead of the United Nations General Assembly taking place next month.
In the United Kingdom, an inquiry has been told that development assistance rules are denying “vulnerable” small island developing states, or SIDS, the help they need to combat the climate emergency as they are classified as “too rich” to receive funding. The U.K. government also received strong criticism for its aid being used to fund thetraining of soccer referees and coaches across China, even as spending reductions are predicted to lead to thousands of deaths this year across Africa and Yemen.
However, the U.K. is not the only country planning aid cuts. Germany’s ruling coalition has proposed to reduce its aid budgetby proposing a 5% cut for 2024, setting off alarm bells in development circles.
For the latest episode of the podcast, I was joined by University of Oxford professor Stefan Dercon and Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel to discuss the past week’s important stories from global development.
Please note that we will not be recording an episode next week due to the Devex Summer Break. We will be back in two weeks’ time to continue bringing you the top stories from the sector.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 11 Aug 2023 - 11 - USAID’s record breaking localization push and the impact of UK aid cutsThis week Devex reported that the U.S. Agency for International Development saw a record-breaking obligation to local contractors in 2022, up 169.8% in real terms from the previous year. While this is promising, it will be vital to ensure that initiatives are not tokenistic and that localization efforts are indeed meeting the needs of the communities they are aiming to serve rather than ticking development boxes.
In the United Kingdom, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office admitted that thousands of people “in acute humanitarian need” will die unnecessarily from hunger, poor health care, and during pregnancy because of ongoing aid cuts.
At the World Bank, Ajay Banga received some backlash from employees as he announced that while he would like to maintain a flexible workplace, he wants staff in the office more than three days a week. The institution’s staff association argued that the announcement was rushed, with no guidance on how to apply this new “flexibility” and that managers were not consulted.
Are localization efforts heading in the right direction? Will having staff back at the office benefit the World Bank? To answer these questions and others from the past week, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar is joined by George Ingram, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, as well as Spark MicroGrants CEO and co-founder Sasha Fisher for the latest episode of the This Week in Global Development podcast.
Sign up to Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 04 Aug 2023 - 10 - The UK's refugee bill and a call to fight HIV and AIDSWhile we usually expect the summer months to be slower than usual, it has certainly not been the case over the past week. In an exclusive Devex story, we found out that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will most likely declare that the United Kingdom cannot legally spend its overseas development assistance on domestic refugee costs because of a new law cracking down on arrivals.
In 2022 the country spent £3.7 billion — 29% of its ODA budget — domestically, exploiting OECD rules that allow the allocation of refugees’ hotel and other bills as ODA for 12 months.
On the other side of the pond, the United States’ bipartisan foreign affairs budget is set to be tangled up in debates around the country’s domestic cultural wars and its competition abroad with China.
To make sense of these stories, as well as UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Angeli Achrekar’s call to keep the fight against HIV and AIDS on the political agenda, I sat down with Global Nation co-founder Jonathan Glennie and Harvard Center for International Development Executive Director Fatema Sumar for this week’s podcast episode.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 28 Jul 2023 - 9 - The latest from Women Deliver, WHO rotation, and BRAC localizationThis week we’re closely following the conversations that took place at the Women Deliver conference in Kigali, Rwanda, which brought together thousands of people from diverse fields to help elevate women’s voices and accelerate the drive toward achieving gender equality.
We also delve into whether hosting conferences and headquartering development organizations in the global south is an effective tool to drive the localization agenda, and we touch on the World Health Organization’s postponement of its plan to require staff to rotate to different duty stations every several years.
To dig into these topics and get the latest on our coverage of Women Deliver, for episode nine of the This Week in Global Development podcast series I talk to Devex Senior Reporter Sara Jerving and Larry Cooley, president emeritus and senior adviser at Management Systems International.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 21 Jul 2023 - 8 - AI adoption's risk and rewards, and a US aid agency returns to officeThis year is seeing the proliferation of AI technology in our lives, which is having a big effect on the way many of us carry out our daily tasks in the workplace. From improving disaster response to helping address environmental challenges, the new technology has a huge potential to have a positive impact on global development. During our conversation, we discuss the risks and opportunities that lie in adopting AI.
Following theMillennium Challenge Corporation’s decision to bring back staff to their offices, we also delve into the topic of remote work and the potential direction the sector may head in, especially when taking into account that humanitarian missions are often in distant places far away from an organization’s headquarters.
For episode eight of the This Week in Global Development podcast series, I sat down with Anera President and CEO Sean C. Carroll, as well as Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel to discuss the top stories from the sector from the past week.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 14 Jul 2023 - 7 - WHO's updated malnutrition guidance and China's plan to cut UN funding
Last week, the World Health Organization released its long-awaited updated guidance on the prevention and management of malnutrition in children, which aims to reduce child mortality through starvation by widening access to treatment worldwide.
For this episode, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar is joined by Matthias Berninger, the senior vice president for public affairs and sustainability at Bayer, as well as Devex Senior Reporter Teresa Welsh to discuss the recommendations.
They also dig into how Russia’s war in Ukraine is negatively affecting food supplies in low- and middle-income countries and discuss China’s decision to cut funding to the United Nations.
Don’t forget to follow Food Secured, our series that explores innovative ideas for a more sustainable and resilient food and agriculture sector.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 07 Jul 2023 - 6 - Financial inclusion takes a hit amid rising debt and high interest ratesHigh interest rates are threatening the gains made in financial inclusion over the past decade, with investors backing off riskier investments especially in inclusive fintech, as reported by Devex’s Shabtai Gold this week. While some regions have achieved robust progress — such as India, where nearly 80% of adults now have a bank account — others are lagging behind. Over half the population of sub-Saharan Africa, or about 530 million people, are still unbanked.
Meanwhile French President Emmanuel Macron’s global financing summit, which aimed to address rising debt burdens and high interest rates, wrapped up at the end of last week with mixed outcomes, as covered by Devex Brussels Correspondent Vince Chadwick. The summit ended with a number of strong interventions from leaders in Africa and Latin America who challenged Western governments on inequitable global governance structures and called for a transformation of the financial system.
This week, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar is joined by Reuben Abraham, the CEO at Artha Global, and Nasra Ismail, a policy adviser and ICAP Aspen fellow, to discuss these stories and more.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 30 Jun 2023 - 5 - An insider look at Macron's global financing summitFrench President Emmanuel Macron is hosting the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris this week, which aims to strike a new post-World War II pact between high-income nations and those most at risk from climate change and crippling debt.
However, with key players not attending, including U.K.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, U.S. President Joe Biden, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, serious doubts remain over whether the decisions made during the summit will translate into meaningful action. There are also major disagreements between French organizers and participants over reforming international institutions, including multilateral development banks.
For this special episode, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar talks to Brussels correspondent Vince Chadwick, connecting from the French capital, to get an insider perspective on the discussions happening at the summit.
The conversation also touches on Vince’sinterview with Peter Sands, the head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, who argues that innovative financial instruments and private sector mobilization should not be a “proxy” for giving money to help the world’s poorest.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newslettersFri, 23 Jun 2023 - 4 - USAID's localization update and controversy over UK aid
This week USAID released its long-awaited localization update. Despite the progress made, not least due to the success of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, the agency is yet to come close to reaching its target of spending 25% of funding on local organizations by 2025.
From the U.K. government reclaiming official development assistance via taxes to India’s renewable energy push threatening the country’s food security, the past week has been filled with controversies that have the potential to hinder the drive toward meaningful change.
Tune in to the latest episode of This Week in Development to hear our take on the issues.
For this episode, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar is joined by Dr. Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health & HIV policy at KFF, as well as Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel to discuss the most important news from the past week in the global development sector.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.Fri, 16 Jun 2023 - 3 - The unexpected struggle to reauthorize PEPFAR and a new World Bank era
While usually during the summer period news is expected to slow down, it was certainly not the case for the first couple of days of June. As the unexpected struggle to reauthorize PEPFARcontinues and we mark the beginning of a new era at the World Bank with Ajay Banga’s presidency, the start of the month has most definitely been eventful.
From discussing what to expect from Banga’s presidency to a deep dive into a two-month investigation concerning the Africa CDC president Dr Jean Kaseya, we review the week’s top stories in the latest episode of This Week in Global Development.
For this episode, Devex president and editor-in-chief, Raj Kumar, is joined by Devex managing editor Anna Gawel, as well as George Ingram, senior fellow at the The Brookings Institution.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters:
https://www.devex.com/account/newslettersFri, 09 Jun 2023 - 2 - The future of localization and the humanitarian-development nexus
Seven years ago, the United Nations' World Humanitarian Summit proposed the "humanitarian-development nexus" to improve collaboration between the two ends of the aid sector.
Although it was initially a good idea to enhance efficiency and reduce costs, this framework has struggled to deliver amidst the increasing number of humanitarian disasters and prolonged crises. Recently, Devex's Teresa Welsh discussed the cracks surfacing in the "humanitarian-development nexus."
This week, another global development topic made headlines when USAID Administrator Samantha Power informed the U.S. Congress that the agency would find it difficult to achieve its localization targets, as reported by Adva Saldinger on Devex.
To make sense of these and other significant news stories of the week, tune in to This Week in Global Development.
This weekly podcast analyzes the major headlines in global development and invites top experts to help us understand them. In this week's episode, Raj Kumar, devex president and editor-in-chief, is joined by Nasra Ismail, policy adviser and ICAP Aspen fellow, and Anna Gawel, Devex managing editor.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newslettersSun, 30 Apr 2023 - 1 - What to make of this year’s World Bank Spring Meetings
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meetings have come to an end this weekend. A great sense of change was anticipated for this year’s event, as Devex wrote last week.
But what do we make of the talks now that they are over? That’s the question we asked our guests in the first episode of “This Week in Global Development,” a weekly podcast where we break down the big headlines in global development and bring in top experts to help us do it.
For this episode, Devex president and editor-in-chief, Raj Kumar, is joined by Rachel Kyte, the dean at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and Jeremy Hillman, senior vice president of external engagement at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.
Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newslettersMon, 17 Apr 2023
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