Last 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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

Recently, 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, the U.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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

This 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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

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As 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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

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.

A 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. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

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.

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.

This 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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

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.

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. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

The middle class is the most successful group in world history, but today, it’s facing a bit of an identity crisis. The realities of automation, climate change and other factors are straining the once ubiquitous middle class dream, and younger generations are questioning whether it’s really all it’s cracked up to be. In his new book, "The Rise of the Global Middle Class: How the Search for the Good Life Can Change the World," economist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Sustainable Development Homi Kharas traces the evolution of the middle class all the way from its roots in Victorian England, and ultimately offers a new policy agenda that could pave a way forward. For more information on upcoming episodes and to sign up for our mailing list, visit the Devex Book Club here: https://pages.devex.com/devex-book-club.html

Like many of us, Rajiv Shah knew early on that he wanted to make an impact on the world, but he wasn’t quite sure how to do it. His book, "Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens," opens with some of that early uncertainty, like the summer he spent treating leprosy patients in India, and his time working on Al Gore’s ultimately doomed campaign. But as Raj writes in his book, that uncertainty was all part of an important realization he’d eventually come to: that large-scale change doesn’t come from caution, but from what he calls a “big bets philosophy,” which says that it’s only by trying to fundamentally solve, not just improve, pressing problems that the world can truly be transformed. For more information on upcoming episodes and to sign up for our mailing list, visit the Devex Book Club here: https://pages.devex.com/devex-book-club.html

The agreement to operationalize a new fund for loss and damage was a key achievement of this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 28. But key questions remain about how that fund will work to get financial resources to countries experiencing the impacts of climate change. It’s part of a broader conversation about climate vulnerability and resilience — how to measure it, how it relates to a country’s income status, and how to quantify the costs of climate change impacts. “These are things that will be with you forever — your entire trajectory, your entire life, your entire space has changed fundamentally and in a permanent way. So the solutions cannot be sliced and diced solutions,” argues Gene Leon, president of the Caribbean Development Bank, in this episode of the Climate + podcast. Leon outlined how support for countries experiencing loss and damage due to climate change can help them regain their footing — and rediscover an economic growth trajectory on a changing planet. The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank: https://www.devex.com/organizations/world-bank-group-38382

This Week in Global Development is back for its first episode of the New Year, and this week, we took a look ahead at what we can expect to come down the pike in 2024. 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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

The United Nations climate change conference in Dubai, or COP 28, was a big moment for food systems. For the first time, COP included a day dedicated to food and agriculture, which many see as an important signal that silos between climate and food policy are starting to break down. Still, less than 5% of climate finance is invested in food systems, despite the massive need for financial support for priorities such as regenerative agriculture, reducing food loss and waste, and sustainable livestock management, says Ertharin Cousin, former head of the World Food Programme, in this episode of Devex’s Climate + podcast. “Ensuring that we are part of the finance dialogue is as critical as ensuring that we are part of the substantive dialogue around the actions,” Cousin said. It’s an urgent challenge, considering existing — and increasing — levels of food insecurity, and what a changing climate likely means for those unserved by the existing food system, says Ismahane Elouafi, chief scientist at the Food and Agriculture Organization. “It’s broken because it’s not nourishing us. It’s broken because it’s part of the climate crisis … and it’s broken because we haven’t been able to use agriculture, really, to uplift people from poverty,” Elouafi said. The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank.

The annual United Nations climate conferences, or COPs, have become much more than just a forum for technical and political negotiations. They’re also a convening space for representatives from the likes of civil society, academia, and the private sector. Corporations now have an increasingly significant role to play in shaping the climate conversation and — crucially — in ensuring their own operations are environmentally sustainable. For a global technology company like Microsoft, being present at COP is important not just because of the potential tools and solutions the company can offer, but also due to the implications of climate change for its business and operations, said Melanie Nakagawa, Microsoft’s Chief Sustainability Officer. Joining the Climate + podcast from COP28 in Dubai, Nakagawa shared Microsoft's priorities around investing in carbon removal, using artificial intelligence to accelerate progress on sustainability, and improving sustainability reporting mechanisms and governance. “We want to make sure corporations are stepping up and doing what they can do to rapidly reduce emissions, and… to remove what they can't,” Nakagawa said. The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank. To learn more about efforts to end poverty on a livable planet, check out the link.

The Paris Climate Agreement, established at COP 21 in 2015, calls for leaders and institutions across society to work towards reducing their carbon emissions with the aim of reaching net zero by 2050. Multilateral development banks, or MDBs, which have a critical role to play in the climate finance landscape, are in the process of figuring out what it means to deliver on their commitment to “Paris alignment”. “Delivery means really, for us, implementing what we have committed to do and working with the countries in which we invest in order to accompany them in this green transition,” said Odile Renaud-Basso, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in the latest episode of the Climate + podcast. EBRD aims for 50% of its investments to be in support of the green transition by 2025, she added. Renaud-Basso joined Devex senior reporter Adva Saldinger to delve deeper into EBRD’s climate priorities, the bank’s approach and timeline for phasing out investments in fossil fuels, what MDBs can do to mobilize more private capital for climate investments, and how MDBs can work better together to support countries with their climate goals. This podcast episode was recorded with a live online audience as part of Devex’s wider Climate + event programming at COP 28. The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank. To learn more about efforts to end poverty on a livable planet, check out the link.

Last 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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

The United Nations climate conference, or COP 28, kicked off with a great deal of optimism as the loss and damage fund was established and countries made their first pledges to contribute. However, concerns remain on whether money channeled through the scheme will really reach its intended recipients. An alternative model to this is the one utilized by GiveDirectly, the U.K. charity that provides direct cash transfers to vulnerable households. To find out more about the organization — including how they might help people in areas prone to climate disasters — Devex Executive Vice President and Executive Editor Kate Warren sat down with GiveDirectly’s vice president for partnerships, Yolande Wright, for this episode of the Climate + podcast. During the conversation, Wright highlights the effectiveness of lump sum cash transfers in helping households build resilience to climate change by investing in livelihoods and improving homes, as well as their ability to address systemic issues — such as infrastructure and gender equality — to support long-term sustainable development. They also dug into the importance of having access to good data and how the rise of artificial intelligence will enable cash transfer targeting to become more efficient. “I think there’s been a tendency of development experts to spend a long time designing and consulting on programs and deciding how best donor money should be spent,” Wright points out during the conversation. She argues that people facing the challenges of climate change in the global south “are best placed to make their own decisions about how they invest their money.” The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank. To learn more about efforts to end poverty on a livable planet, check out the link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/the-world-bank-at-cop28

For too long, Indigenous peoples were sidelined from the climate negotiations process, despite being among the most directly affected by climate change. That changed at COP 26 in Glasgow, when for the first time in the history of the UN climate conferences, indigenous representatives were invited to engage directly and share experiences with governments. Indigenous leaders, however, argue that there is still a long way to go towards having their rights sufficiently recognized. “We see that at least we have some spaces that we occupy, and mechanisms which allow better participation, but we still have to do much more at the national levels,” said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, in the latest episode of Climate +. Tauli-Corpuz said she and other Indigenous representatives are calling for Indigenous peoples’ rights, territories, and knowledge to be recognized in countries’ national climate mitigation plans (known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs). Tauli-Corpuz, who is a member of the Kankanaey Igorot people of the Cordillera Region in the Philippines, also shared her own experiences of being targeted by the government as an environmental defender, why direct access to climate finance is still a pain point for Indigenous communities, and what needs to happen to safeguard Indigenous peoples’ rights in the face of the renewable energy transition. The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank. To learn more about efforts to end poverty on a livable planet, visit: https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/the-world-bank-at-cop28

This year’s U.N. Climate Conference has already been a historic one in the nearly 30-year timespan of the COP process because it’s the first time there’s been a day dedicated to the linkages between climate change and health. Health advocates are drawing attention to the growing public health emergency surrounding the burning of fossil fuels, especially in the wake of controversial comments made by COP 28 President Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber in which he said there is “no science” that says phasing out fossil fuels is necessary to keep global warming in check. “Fossil fuel phase-out is the most effective and the most important public health intervention of our times,” said Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown on climate change and health. Romanello joined Devex global health reporter Jenny Lei Ravelo on the ground at COP 28 for the latest episode of the Climate + podcast. “We heard from Dr. al-Jaber talking that there’s no scientific evidence — that's absolute nonsense,” Romanello said. “There’s more than enough scientific evidence showing us that we absolutely are in trouble, that we absolutely must phase out fossil fuels.” The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank. To learn more about efforts to end poverty on a livable planet, visit: https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/the-world-bank-at-cop28 Join Devex on Dec. 7 on the sidelines of COP 28 in Dubai or online from anywhere for the Climate + summit. Register here.

This 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 billion was 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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

This year’s U.N. Climate Conference has already been a historic one in the nearly 30-year timespan of the COP process because it’s the first time there’s been a day dedicated to the linkages between climate change and health. Health advocates are drawing attention to the growing public health emergency surrounding the burning of fossil fuels, especially in the wake of controversial comments made by COP 28 President Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber in which he said there is “no science” that says phasing out fossil fuels is necessary to keep global warming in check. “Fossil fuel phase-out is the most effective and the most important public health intervention of our times,” said Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown on climate change and health. Romanello joined Devex global health reporter Jenny Lei Ravelo on the ground at COP 28 for the latest episode of the Climate + podcast. “We heard from Dr. al-Jaber talking that there’s no scientific evidence — that's absolute nonsense,” Romanello said. “There’s more than enough scientific evidence showing us that we absolutely are in trouble, that we absolutely must phase out fossil fuels.” The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank. To learn more about efforts to end poverty on a livable planet, visit: https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/the-world-bank-at-cop28 Join Devex on Dec. 7 on the sidelines of COP 28 in Dubai or online from anywhere for the Climate + summit. Register here.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference known as COP is an imperfect forum for achieving progress on climate change. The discourse that unfolds there is dominated by the global north. Any action agreed upon is nonbinding. It’s heavily attended — and influenced — by lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry. It may not be the forum we need, but it’s the forum we have, Kumi Naidoo, a climate activist and the former executive director of Greenpeace International, told Devex on the most recent episode of our Climate+ podcast. “The way I see COP is it's about getting the best out of the really bad system,” he said. COP’s strength lies in its power to shape the narrative around climate change, which up until this point has failed to engage both citizens and governments on the scale that it needs to. According to Naidoo, the climate movement needs to go beyond data and facts in its messaging — it needs to appeal to emotions, too. Breaking climate out of its silo and recognizing its interconnectedness with human rights, development, and economic systems is the only way forward, and COP has the potential to get that message broadcast on a large scale. "The reality is that we are seeing, on a weekly basis now, around the world, extreme weather events which are clearly climate-induced events, which are taking lives, damaging infrastructure, destroying livelihoods, and so on,” he said. “Being able to draw attention to those things using the COP as a communicative opportunity is what activism needs to do." The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank. To learn more about efforts to end poverty on a livable planet, visit: https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/the-world-bank-at-cop28 Join Devex on Dec. 7 on the sidelines of COP 28 in Dubai or online from anywhere for the Climate + summit. Register here.

The 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 the U.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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

There was a time when world leaders and climate activists mostly spoke about climate change within the framework of mitigating its impacts by taking actions such as reducing fossil fuel consumption and the flow of heat-trapping greenhouse gasses. Little was said about how to help communities adapt to the impacts of climate change. Data is consistently showing us that climate change will most heavily affect the global south through extreme weather events, including heat waves, droughts, and flooding. Nevertheless, there is room for optimism. Devex Senior Reporter Stephanie Beasley sat down with Enock Chikava, who leads the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s agricultural development program, for the fifth episode of Devex’s Climate + podcast to find out about the initiatives the philanthropic organization is supporting to help the agricultural sector in the global south adapt to a changing climate. In addition to providing insights on the work being done already — such as the breeding of chickens that thrive in tropical conditions, as well as the development of an artificial intelligence-powered platform to match local crops with consumer needs — Chikava also stressed the importance of involving women in decision making and policymaking in agriculture and the need for climate finance to flow to those who need it most. Despite the positive stories, Chikava believes it is critical for the world “to realize and understand that there is a climate injustice” to help make decisions at COP 28, the U.N. climate summit, that support agricultural stakeholders in low- and middle-income countries in the face of the climate crisis. The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank. To learn more about efforts to end poverty on a livable planet, check out the following link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/the-world-bank-at-cop28 Join Devex on Dec. 7 on the sidelines of COP 28 in Dubai or online from anywhere for the Climate + summit. Register here: https://pages.devex.com/devex-at-cop-28.html

The Bridgetown Initiative, an ambitious set of proposals to overhaul how development finance works spearheaded by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, has been front and center of discussions about climate finance since its unveiling at last year’s United Nations Climate Conference, or COP 27. The initiative aims to address some of the inequalities that exist in the current financial architecture, such as the fact that high-income countries are able to borrow at much more favorable interest rates than lower-income countries, by calling for additional financial support to countries, help with debt restructurings, and more private capital for green projects in low- and middle-income countries. Pepukaye Bardouille, who herself comes from the climate-vulnerable Caribbean island nation of Dominica, is director of the Bridgetown Initiative unit of the Barbados government. She joined Raj Kumar on the Climate + podcast to discuss how to make development finance institutions fit for purpose and why the availability of cheaper, longer-term financing is critical for addressing climate change. “It's not just about reallocating the resources that are currently available. It's about growing the pie,” said Bardouille. “The reality is that the financing that has been committed to address the crises that we're facing globally is simply not enough.” The Climate + podcast is supported by the World Bank. To learn more about efforts to end poverty on a livable planet, visit: https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/the-world-bank-at-cop28 Join Devex on Dec. 7 on the sidelines of COP 28 in Dubai or online from anywhere for the Climate + summit. Register here.

The decision to establish a loss and damage fund to provide financial assistance to countries affected by climate disasters was hailed as one of the biggest achievements at last year’s climate conference, or COP. One year later, reaching an agreement on how that fund will be operationalized is widely seen as a benchmark for success at COP 28. While negotiators managed to agree on a draft framework for the fund earlier this month, multiple points of tension remain. Developing countries and civil society organizations were disappointed with the proposal to house the fund in the World Bank, at least for an interim period, rather than as an independent fund under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as well as the decision to limit eligibility for funding to small island states and least developed countries rather than all vulnerable countries. Harjeet Singh has been campaigning on this issue for years, and as the head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International, a global network of NGOs fighting climate change, he’s now calling for rich countries to stop dragging their feet while climate-vulnerable countries pay the price. “That message of hope coming out of COP 28 is extremely important. We cannot arrive at a conclusion saying it’s a work in progress,” Singh said in the second episode of Devex’s Climate + podcast. “Now it’s about really delivering it to the people and for the people.” Climate + is supported by the World Bank. To learn more about efforts to end poverty on a livable planet, visit: https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/the-world-bank-at-cop28

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 the successes 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.

Hakima El-Haite knows what it takes to host a U.N. climate conference. The former Moroccan environment minister served as vice president of COP21 — where the Paris Climate Agreement was signed — and then played a key role in bringing the next climate summit to her home country. Since then, a global pandemic, debt crisis, multiple wars and rising geopolitical tensions have narrowed the space for international cooperation. “We need to come back again and to build the trust, because today the trust is eroded. Many promises from the Paris Agreement were not kept,” El-Haite said in this first episode of Devex’s Climate + podcast. Climate + is supported by the World Bank. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

Climate + is our new twice-weekly podcast, publishing in the lead up to, during, and after this year's UN climate conference in Dubai. . Join Devex senior reporter Michael Igoe as we speak with COP insiders and experts, campaigners, and contrarians to ask — can COP28 deliver? . Subscribe now to Climate Plus, wherever you get your podcasts.

Ten 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.

The 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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

This 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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

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.

In 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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

This 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 https://www.devex.com/news/banga-vows-to-improve-world-bank-before-asking-for-a-capital-increase-106366 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 https://www.devex.com/news/banga-s-world-bank-reform-plan-to-raise-125b-in-new-lending-106322, civil society groups have been calling for it to release https://www.devex.com/news/civil-society-groups-want-free-money-not-more-world-bank-imf-lending-106360 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. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

Even though the U.S. government avoided a shutdown this 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 story on 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 on PEPFAR’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: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

In 2018, Sally Hayden received a Facebook message from an unknown sender, a man claiming to be writing from inside a Libyan detention camp. The conditions faced by him and his fellow detainees were horrendous, and his desperate message came from a phone shared in secret among hundreds being held. “If you have time, I will tell you all the story,” he wrote. The message kicked off a sprawling investigation that led Sally to interview hundreds of refugees and migrants who found themselves victims of the EU’s newly muscular efforts to patrol the Mediterranean Sea. The result of that investigation was "My Fourth Time We Drowned," named one of the New Yorker’s best books of 2022. For more information on upcoming episodes and to sign up for our mailing list, visit the Devex Book Club here: https://pages.devex.com/devex-book-club.html

Can you imagine a world where everyone belongs? For David Sengeh, Sierra Leone's Minister of Education and Chief Innovation Officer, the answer is "yes." And by the time you finish his book, "Radical Inclusion: Seven Steps to Help You Create a More Just Workplace, Home, and World,” you'll likely agree. For more information on upcoming episodes and to sign up for our mailing list, visit the Devex Book Club here: https://pages.devex.com/devex-book-club.html

The developing world has undergone tremendous change in the last 30 years, mostly for the better. But some countries have missed the boat. Why? In "Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Other Lose," economist Stefan Dercon explores the answer to that question. For more information on upcoming episodes and to sign up for our mailing list, visit the Devex Book Club here: https://pages.devex.com/devex-book-club.html

How can America regain its position as a global leader? According to Dan Runde, author of "The American Imperative" and a a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic International Studies, the answer lies in the strategic use of soft power. For more information on upcoming episodes and to sign up for our mailing list, visit the Devex Book Club here: https://pages.devex.com/devex-book-club.html

In this week's episode, Raj talks with Fatema Sumar, executive director at Harvard University's Center for International Development, to discuss her book, "The Development Diplomat: Working Across Borders, Boardrooms, and Bureaucracies to End Poverty." For more information on upcoming episodes and to sign up for our mailing list, visit the Devex Book Club here: https://pages.devex.com/devex-book-club.html

For our first episode, Raj sits down with Gaia Vince—award-winning science journalist, author, broadcaster, and speaker—to talk about her book, https://t.devex.com/Njg1LUtCTC03NjUAAAGKE-gucggHMVy6x5B5aSC_T2MnSWV7WF5teKt0qpNJVXCUeCjqaIZo4AQcOi8dFca-2tia6SM= For more information on upcoming episodes and to sign up for our mailing list, visit the Devex Book Club here: https://pages.devex.com/devex-book-club.html

It seems like every day there’s an exciting new book coming out on global challenges like poverty and climate change. Are you fascinated by books like these, especially the ones that challenge preconceived notions and present bold new ideas? Join Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar as he brings you conversations with authors on the most important issues facing our world. For more information on upcoming episodes and to sign up for our mailing list, visit the Devex Book Club here: https://pages.devex.com/devex-book-club.html

Following the release of “White Savior,” a new HBO documentary series following https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/sep/25/white-savior-complex-documentary-tv-show-hbo-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 https://www.devex.com/organizations/united-states-agency-for-international-development-usaid-45096 can reach its https://www.devex.com/news/how-should-usaid-fund-differently-to-hit-its-localization-targets-106261 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. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

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 https://pages.devex.com/devex-at-unga-78.html 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 https://www.devex.com/news/exclusive-us-balked-at-advancing-un-500b-development-stimulus-106238. 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 https://www.devex.com/news/unga-special-edition-gloom-shrouds-a-divided-world-106265 https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

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 https://www.devex.com/organizations/open-society-foundations-osf-45109, and Richard Gowan, U.N. Director at https://www.devex.com/organizations/international-crisis-group-45661, to discuss to what’s likely to come out of this year’s https://www.devex.com/organizations/united-nations-un-41567 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.

With the high-level general debate of the 78th session of the https://www.devex.com/organizations/united-nations-un-41567 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. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to Devex Newswire and our other newsletters. You can also register to attend in person or online https://pages.devex.com/devex-at-unga-78.html, our very own summit taking place on the sidelines of the most important discussions.

This week The END Fund announced https://www.devex.com/news/tsitsi-masiyiwa-brings-local-approach-to-end-fund-as-new-board-chair-106109, 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 https://www.devex.com/news/uk-s-crackdown-on-refugee-rights-could-release-over-2-6b-in-oda-106142could 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. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week Devex Climate Correspondent William Worley sat down with Meike van Ginneken, the Netherlands’ special envoy for water, who argued that we should be https://www.devex.com/news/dutch-water-envoy-eyes-fossil-fuel-subsidies-to-fund-climate-adaptation-106080to 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 https://www.devex.com/news/usaid-should-use-the-localization-tools-it-has-says-former-official-106101 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 https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-country-owned-strategies-are-essential-for-global-progress-105925 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 https://www.devex.com/organizations/management-systems-international-msi-18679, to discuss the past week's top stories from the global development sector. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

For 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 intohttps://www.devex.com/news/morale-has-hit-rock-bottom-at-osf-amid-reorganization-staff-say-106056. This week we learned thathttps://www.devex.com/news/why-have-usaid-s-nextgen-contracts-been-so-badly-delayed-105970, 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. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week we brokehttps://www.devex.com/news/exclusive-us-allies-block-major-un-development-declaration-106006 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” https://www.devex.com/news/exclusive-us-allies-block-major-un-development-declaration-106006, 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 thehttps://www.devex.com/news/uk-faces-criticism-for-funding-soccer-in-china-amid-aid-cuts-106031, 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 https://www.devex.com/news/development-groups-prepare-to-fight-german-budget-cuts-106033by 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. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week Devex reported that the https://www.devex.com/organizations/united-states-agency-for-international-development-usaid-45096 saw a record-breaking obligation to local contractors in 2022, https://www.devex.com/news/how-usaid-funding-for-local-contractors-increased-by-169-8-in-2022-105966. 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 https://www.devex.com/organizations/foreign-commonwealth-development-office-fcdo-158082 https://www.devex.com/news/thousands-will-die-from-ongoing-aid-cuts-uk-government-admits-106008 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 https://www.devex.com/news/scoop-world-bank-reveals-back-to-office-policy-some-staff-troubled-105992. 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 https://www.devex.com/organizations/brookings-institution-43177, as well as https://www.devex.com/organizations/spark-microgrants-103438 CEO and co-founder Sasha Fisher for the latest episode of the This Week in Global Development podcast. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

While we usually expect the summer months to be slower than usual, it has certainly not been the case over the past week. In https://www.devex.com/news/exclusive-uk-to-be-stopped-from-spending-aid-budget-on-arriving-refugees-105973, we found out that the https://www.devex.com/organizations/organisation-for-economic-co-operation-and-development-oecd-29872 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 — https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1149594/Statistics-on-International-Development-Provisional-UK-Aid-Spend-2022.pdf, 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’ https://www.devex.com/news/bipartisan-foreign-affairs-budget-bill-sails-through-us-senate-committee-105944 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 https://www.devex.com/news/hiv-aids-has-fallen-off-the-political-agenda-says-unaids-official-105896, 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. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This 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 https://www.devex.com/organizations/world-health-organization-who-30562’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. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This 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 https://www.devex.com/news/how-could-ai-be-used-to-improve-development-105843. During our conversation, we discuss the risks and opportunities that lie in adopting AI. Following thehttps://www.devex.com/news/exclusive-inside-millennium-challenge-corp-s-fight-to-unionize-105860 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. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

Last week, the https://www.devex.com/organizations/world-health-organization-who-30562 released its long-awaited updated guidance on the https://www.devex.com/news/who-releases-updated-malnutrition-treatment-guidelines-105817 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 https://www.devex.com/news/china-absolutely-obsessed-with-cutting-spending-at-un-105825 to the https://www.devex.com/organizations/united-nations-un-41567. Don’t forget to follow https://pages.devex.com/food-secured, our series that explores innovative ideas for a more sustainable and resilient food and agriculture sector. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

https://www.devex.com/news/how-high-interest-rates-threaten-reversal-on-financial-inclusion-gains-105784 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 https://www.devex.com/news/frustration-and-tentative-progress-at-macron-finance-summit-105789, 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. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

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 https://www.devex.com/news/abortion-politics-cast-shadow-over-pepfar-reauthorization-105627continues and we mark the beginning of a https://www.devex.com/news/ajay-banga-faces-great-expectations-as-he-takes-helm-of-world-bank-105621, 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 https://www.devex.com/news/exclusive-africa-cdc-head-s-bizarre-entanglement-with-clinton-initiative-105403, 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/newsletters

This week https://www.devex.com/organizations/united-states-agency-for-international-development-usaid-45096 released its https://www.devex.com/news/usaid-s-localization-push-has-a-long-way-to-go-agency-s-report-says-105716. Despite the progress made, not least due to the success of the https://www.devex.com/organizations/u-s-president-s-emergency-plan-for-aids-relief-pepfar-48995, 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 https://www.devex.com/news/how-the-uk-swipes-back-tens-of-millions-in-aid-cash-every-month-in-tax-105726 via taxes to India’s https://www.devex.com/news/is-india-s-renewable-energy-push-a-threat-to-food-security-105693 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. https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

French 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.https://www.devex.com/news/no-show-sunak-criticized-for-skipping-macron-s-financing-summit-105746, 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 https://www.devex.com/news/scoop-macron-summit-docs-show-limited-vision-for-development-banks-105715, 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’shttps://www.devex.com/news/global-fund-chief-warns-innovative-finance-a-proxy-for-actual-giving-105774, the head of the https://www.devex.com/organizations/the-global-fund-to-fight-aids-tuberculosis-and-malaria-gfatm-30677, 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/newsletters

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 https://www.devex.com/news/is-the-humanitarian-development-nexus-still-working-105179 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, https://www.devex.com/news/usaid-localization-goals-could-be-hard-to-reach-power-says-105426. 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/newsletters

The https://www.devex.com/organizations/world-bank-group-38382 and https://www.devex.com/organizations/international-monetary-fund-imf-44300’s Spring Meetings have come to an end this weekend. A great sense of change was anticipated for this year’s event, as Devex https://t.devex.com/dc/kyXVoDpAY__Vu56MNr4POj7pKAiMfBjV6XVtzLqvdFl7hDRkh_cIAJk751bHLEsdmSK84GPZKGp6DIUTHby_ktmPXCjXcDTzwM1S4pAekfZEqImHmz_-L7EvS_3vXYi_b4EMxeeSrzFjSgeK9yaKvucDEvsw8dyjV0kwEmKW49VnNyUC7HO_1GSPcE-NBpZ2lHTOWQCCXoTUxHkoLq-6VBiDr2m_jHJxjfUWUXskpxJbwVKn9P3BwLHHqASjVeWax5H6FXIcfktAzo5E-k55EXGdquJl7GlRvYMv3jof86NwZ9LN37bFetK6SuxfzUI2/Njg1LUtCTC03NjUAAAGLCc832WCFtokdstUmmKEfUXw4DJCO2m5TetDhEshAXRfM4aNr-g5FipjSebSCzzw2XWelC2Y=. 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 https://www.devex.com/organizations/tufts-university-18412, and Jeremy Hillman, senior vice president of external engagement at the https://www.devex.com/organizations/mastercard-center-for-inclusive-growth-123232. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters here: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

Davos 2023 has wrapped, and Devex was there to experience it all. In this installment of Davos Dispatch, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar compared notes with reporter Vince Chadwick on what the conference means for development, the private sector and how the two can, and must, work together. And despite their differing Davos experiences—Raj moderated a number of WEF panels while Vince joined a frozen press scrum waiting in vain for Greta Thunberg—they both agree that the conference is quite unlike anything else.

In the final episode of COPcast, chef, food advocate and filmmaker Oliver English sits down with Kate Warren to discuss how regenerative agriculture and support for small scale farmers can help transform the global food system.

Rémy Rioux is chief executive officer of the French Development Agency, or AFD. But before that, in 2015, he worked as chief negotiator on the finance track of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate. Since then the United Nations Conference of the Parties has grown into a behemoth, with COP 27 in Egypt attracting 40,000 people. Devex sat down with Rioux on the sidelines of COP 27 to hear his thoughts on how the summit has changed since 2015 — and if it’s become an opportunity for greenwashing. In this wide-ranging interview, Rioux also discussed the prospects of the AFD providing loss and damage financing and supporting nuclear energy programs through its aid program, and whether human rights in Egypt were helped or hindered by the summit.

At the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the calls for the restructuring of multilateral development banks are echoing through the halls, with the hopes that with reforms, finance will flow more readily to lower-income countries to allow them to green their economies and help their populations adapt to the changing world. In the 12th episode of the COPcast, Devex sat down with Phyllis Cuttino, the new president and CEO of the Climate Reality Project, who emphasized one reform in particular: A switch up in leadership at the World Bank. "Davis Malpass ... has a past where he has denied climate science and I think that makes him unsuitable to lead the World Bank at this time," she said, adding that the bank also needs to commit to only financing fossil fuel projects in the "most extraordinary of circumstances."

The private sector has a key role to play in investing in climate change adaptation – and yet, currently, only 1.6% of all adaptation funding comes from private investment. Matthias Berninger is the Head of Sustainability and Public Affairs at Bayer, but he’s seen many sides of the food and agriculture space over the course of his career: in the public sector, he was a vice minister in Germany’s Green Party; and in the private sector, he previously worked on health and nutrition strategy at Mars. In this episode of COPcast, Berninger tells Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar what three critical words the 5,000-word Glasgow Declaration left out, plus three things every company should be doing in order to achieve net zero by 2050.

In the twelfth episode of COPcast, Devex sat down with Solomon Quaynor, vice-president for private sector, infrastructure and industrialization at the African Development Bank to discuss the continent’s climate financing needs.

Extreme weather devastated Sierra Leone’s capital city of Freetown in 2017 when torrential rains led to landslides that killed over 1,000 people. Now the city’s population is grappling with temperature increases and population swells due to people migrating from rural areas as erratic rainfall makes subsistence farming less sustainable. Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr is working to help her city adapt in areas such as building heat-resistant market shelters and building a cable car to cut down on emissions and pollution. She sat down with Devex on the sidelines of the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm-el- Sheikh, Egypt, to talk about the need for cities to have greater ownership on climate action. Aki-Sawyerr is ​​vice chair of C40 Cities, an organization of 96 cities focused on reducing emissions and helping their populations adapt to climate change.

This year world leaders have gathered at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Summit, or COP 27, as people around the world grapple with a food security crisis. An estimated 828 million people are chronically food insecure, and 345 million people are at crisis levels or worse. They are in need of food assistance as conflict, climate shocks, and the threat of global recession drive hunger levels even higher. At COP 27, CGIAR co-hosted the first Food and Agriculture Pavilion aimed at putting the transformation of agrifood systems at the heart of the COP agenda. In this episode of COPcast, Devex’s Associate Editor Rumbi Chakamba sat down with Claudia Sadoff, executive director of the coalition, to discuss climate-smart solutions to the food crisis.

Pakistan's devastating flooding helped push loss and damage up the climate agenda. Devex sat down with Aisha Khan, head of the country's Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change to discuss why the disaster was so bad, the challenges it caused, and how future tragedies can be prevented.

The Bezos Earth Fund is Jeff Bezos's $10 billion commitment to fund scientists, activists, NGOs, and other actors that will drive climate and nature solutions. In this episode of COPcast, Devex’s President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sat down with Andrew Steer, the fund’s CEO, to talk about the kind of projects he’s interested in and some misconceptions about the fund. This conversation was recorded as part of our Devex @ COP 27 event.

In the eighth episode of the COPcast, Devex Senior Reporter Sara Jerving sits down with Seed Global Health CEO Vanessa Kerry to discuss the health impacts of a changing climate, the need for a stronger health workforce, and the role health should play in the official agenda at these United Nations conferences.

In 2009 then President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, made headlines when he held a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the risk of global warming for small island states like the Maldives. Projections show that by 2100 the island could be submerged by rising sea levels. Since then Nasheed has been working to ensure that the demands of the most vulnerable countries are not ignored, as the ambassador for ambition at the Climate Vulnerable Forum. Last week CVF launched a Climate Prosperity Plan for Sri Lanka which aims to increase the country’s renewable energy production to 75% as well as modernize its electricity infrastructure. Nasheed said Climate Prosperity Plans are low carbon development strategies “with less extraction and more recycling but with the same economic outcomes of high GDP growth, high employment, low inflation and so on.”

The climate justice movement aims to put people at the center of climate change. And in the last few years, young people have mobilized around the issue, often led by young climate activists. At the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 27, youth climate activists came together to launch the first children and youth pavilion, which aims to provide a place for young people to engage, debate, and collaborate to make their voices heard. In the fifth episode of the COPcast, Devex sat down with Xiye Bastida, a Mexican and Indigenous activist, to talk about the new pavilion, climate justice, and including youth and Indigenous voices in the climate discourse.

Climate change affects everyone, but for many young people, it represents the risk of a stolen future. According to the World Bank, by the time many of the teenage climate activists of today are in their late 20s, climate change could force an additional 100 million people into extreme poverty. In the fourth episode of COPcast, Devex sat down with Jessica Bwali — a young climate activist from Zambia — to talk about her personal experiences with climate change and how she uses her platform to advocate for youth inclusion.

Around 80% of the farmland in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is managed by smallholder farmers who provide up to 80% of the food supply in these regions. Extreme weather events fueled by climate change, such as droughts and flooding, are making their livelihoods unsustainable in some parts of the world, driving mass migration and fueling poverty and malnutrition. In the third episode of the COPcast, Devex sat down with Mark Suzman, chief executive officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to discuss the foundation's recently announced $1.4 billion investment in helping smallholder farmers adapt to climate change announced this week at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP27, in Sharm-el- Sheikh, Egypt. Suzman said the investment “marks a significant shift” for the foundation.

Extreme weather is ravaging countries across the African continent, with historic droughts, floods, and cyclones creating endless loops of humanitarian disasters. The Horn of Africa is on the brink of famine, and Nigeria was hit with the worst floods in over a decade. In the lead-up to the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 27, in Sharm-el- Sheikh, Egypt, African nations came together to craft a unified position on what they want out of these discussions. This includes an increase in adaptation finance, funding for “loss and damage,” as well as support for “just transitions” to clean energy. In the second episode of the COPcast, Devex sat down with Faten Aggad, senior advisor on climate diplomacy and geopolitics at the African Climate Foundation to break down the continent’s demands, the nuances around getting loss and damage on the COP 27 agenda, the risks countries face if they lean on gas as a bridge fuel, the problems with insurance, and the need to move away from official development assistance and instead build resilience in economies.

As world leaders gather in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt for the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, Devex Associate editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with senior reporters Sara Jerving and William Worley to look back at the climate commitments made last year, take stock of where we currently stand, and highlight key expectations for Africa’s first COP.

In the final episode of UNGA Decoded, Michael Igoe sits down with Colum Lynch – who recently joined Devex as senior global correspondent, focusing on the UN’s health, humanitarian, and development work – to find out what he made of this year’s UNGA, how the global gathering has changed since he first started reporting on the UN, and about how his own views about the UN’s role in the world inform the way he does his reporting.

The world is in the midst of a learning crisis. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than half of kids in low- and middle-income countries were living in what the World Bank calls “learning poverty.” Now, in the wake of school closures and remote learning, that number could spike to 70% — with huge implications for the opportunities available to kids for the rest of their lives and for the global economy. Leaders and educators are still looking for a way out of this problem. The Transforming Education Summit during UNGA was supposed to be part of the solution, but reviews have been mixed. For years one organization that’s been stirring up a bit of controversy on the education front is New Globe — previously better known as Bridge International Academies. The company is known for offering for-profit education in a handful of countries, and is now shifting to work more directly with governments. Devex editor in chief Raj Kumar sat down with Shannon May, one of New Globe’s co-founders, who said their critics have sometimes failed to appreciate what the organization brings to the table.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed stark inequalities in the global health architecture. As the virus spread, a handful of mostly wealthy countries proved to have the money, the private sector relationships, and the power to be first in line for vaccines, treatments and supplies — and global health institutions struggled to even the playing field. Health leaders on the African continent have taken that lesson to heart, and one institution at the forefront of a new vision for African health security is the Africa Centers for Disease Control. Raj Kumar, editor in chief of Devex, spoke to Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, second in command at Africa CDC, about how the continent’s quest for greater self-reliance is unfolding — and what a more regional approach to preparing for pandemics might look like.

Gerda Verburg on building a nutrition movement by Devex

America's refugee resettlement system has been battered by politics and bureaucracy. Nazanin Ash leads a new coalition of grassroots resettlement networks called Welcome.US, which is built on a simpler premise: that when asked to help those in need, most people will say "yes." Before joining Welcome.US, Ash served as Vice President of Global Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee, and held senior positions in the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development.

Marinel Sumook Ubaldo has channeled the firsthand experience of climate-related disaster into a voice of youth advocacy. Working with the nonprofit Living Laudato Si' Philippines, Ubaldo is fighting for the rights of those with the most to lose from a warming planet. A Filipino climate activist, Ubaldo helped organize the first youth climate strike in her country in 2019 and continues to lobby governments worldwide on environmental issues.

The president of the Rockefeller Foundation says the World Bank and other financial institutions must do more to rise to the challenges of economic and climate crises that threaten to unwind global development gains. Michael Igoe sits down with Rajiv Shah to talk about this, and how the foundation’s historical ties to oil money have affected its present-day focus on climate transitions. Before becoming president of The Rockefeller Foundation, Raj Shah served as USAID administrator under President Obama, as Chief Scientist at USDA, and in a range of leadership roles at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

UNGA is back and so is the Clinton Global Initiative. Devex Editor in chief Raj Kumar talks with Chelsea Clinton about what the future holds for her family's signature convening — and what she wants to see happen in global health. Chelsea Clinton is vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, where she focuses on the Foundation’s global health programs. She is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Subscribe to our free, weekly newsletter, Devex CheckUp: devex.com/newsletters

Since José Andrés founded World Central Kitchen in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the Michelin-starred and James Beard Award-winning chef has been challenging the traditional model of shipping in food aid from overseas in emergency situations. World Central Kitchen focuses on mobilizing grassroots networks of cooks and food producers, with the aim of creating a more sustainable local food system after and beyond a disaster. Reporter Teresa Welsh sits down with Andrés, who also runs restaurants in Washington, D.C. and around the country, to discuss World Central Kitchen’s model, how it challenges traditional humanitarian food aid, and what food means to people in their moments of greatest need.

As the global development community descends on New York City for the 77th United Nations General Assembly, Devex Senior Reporter Michael Igoe sits down with our very own Editor-in-Chief, Raj Kumar, to discuss: what is UNGA, exactly? Raj Kumar is a Washington, D.C.-based social impact leader, journalist, and author specialized in global development. He is the President & Editor-in-Chief of Devex, and the author of The Business of Changing the World, an influential book about the future of global aid and philanthropy. For the latest development news, subscribe to the Devex newswire at devex.com/newsletters

Not only does 2022 mark the third year of a global pandemic, it also marks seven and a half years into the SDGs — the halfway point. This year, the World Economic Forum Annual meeting will convene in person for the first time in 2 years. This week-long event is an opportunity to reflect on crucial SDG goals and targets and to develop solutions to spring forward and achieve them in a post-pandemic era. Devex will be on the ground in Davos covering the conversations and getting the insider scoop directly from global leaders. Episode 1: An interview with Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar and Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger

Alexandra Hernández Muro on her journey into LGBTQ activism by Devex

Victoria Zwein on the challenges facing women in politics in Lebanon by Devex

Before the pandemic, 37% of schools didn’t have a decent toilet. What impact does that have on education? In this final episode of the series, Amruta and Rebecca speak to Ada Oko-Williams, senior WASH manager of sanitation at WaterAid and co-founder of the African Women Sanitation Professionals Network and Mohammad Zobair Hasan, chief of research, evaluation, and monitoring at the Development Organisation of the Rural Poor, about the intersection of WASH and education and what actions can be taken to push forward progress on both SDG 4 and 6.

WASH at the heart of peace and war by Devex

With COP 26 in full swing, Rebecca and Amruta explore how water, sanitation and hygiene are affected by climate change – and could also help provide a solution. Sanitation and Water for All's Catarina de Albuquerque, Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, and Aishwarya Pramod, accelerator and investment manager at the Toilet Board Coalition share their views about the intersection of WASH and climate and what actions can be taken to push forward progress in both Sustainable Development Goal 13 on climate action and SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation.

“Can you imagine labor and delivery without water?” That’s the reality for many women in rural Ethiopia, according to Migs Muldrow, founder and board chair of Village Health Partnerships. Without it, patients can’t use the toilet and health care workers can’t wash their hands after procedures, Nkwan Jacob Gobte, a WASH infection prevention and control nurse working with the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services, said. In episode 2 of WASH Works, Rebecca and Amruta look at the intersection of WASH and health, and what actions can be taken to push forward progress on both SDG 3 on good health and well-being and SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation.

When it comes to poor access to water and decent sanitation, the repercussions are often disproportionately felt by women. For example, a lack of adequate facilities in schools might mean girls having to stay at home during their menstruation, impacting their ability to learn; collecting water instead of working can limit their opportunities to earn a living, and using a toilet without a lock can leave them open to gender-based violence. To kick off the WASH Works series, Rebecca speaks to Barbara Schreiner, executive director of the Water Integrity Network, and Jamila Mayanja, the CEO of Smart Girls Foundation Uganda, about the intersection of water, sanitation, and hygiene, or WASH, and gender equality and what actions can be taken to push forward progress on both Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 6.

Around the world, millions of people lack access to clean and safe drinking water, toilets, and handwashing facilities. In a new podcast from Devex, reporters Rebecca Root and Amruta Byatnal take a look at how a lack of water, sanitation and hygiene, or WASH, services is impacting communities, and the small scale solutions that can help us better understand how to make progress on a larger scale.

Charles Muthoga, Health Economist, Botswana Harvard Aids Partnership by Devex

This year’s UN climate talks in Katowice have raised major questions about the influence of fossil fuel companies on global climate policy, the ability of negotiators to push forward an ambitious climate agenda and the fortitude of the Paris Agreement. Against a conflicting backdrop of alarming new climate science and pro-coal superpowers working against the tide of progress, the fate of the Paris Rulebook — the guiding document for implementing the Paris Agreement — hangs in the balance. From the heart of Polish coal country, Devex’s Michael Igoe, Andrew Green and Kate Midden explore major stories from the COP so far — and what this year’s negotiations mean for global development.

In this episode, editors Jessica Abrahams and Kate Midden explore the unique issues our sector faces — power imbalances between national and international staff, challenges with international background checks, barriers to effective safeguarding policies — and the biggest moments in #AidToo this year.

The Trump administration's foreign aid review could have significant implications for the next round of foreign aid budget planning. In this episode, senior reporter Michael Igoe and Kate Midden discuss what we know, what we don't — and what the process means for U.S. aid.

Live from the International Conference on Family Planning in Kigali, reporter Sophie Edwards speaks to PSI's Karl Hofmann and IDEO.org's Jessa Blades about adolescents, human-centered design, and family planning.

What's in store for the future of global development education? Sponsored by Arizona State University. For more coverage on professional development, visit the Skills for Tomorrow site: dvx.cm/skills4tomorrow

#34: What the migrant caravan means for US aid. by Devex

The European Commission and the European Investment Bank are both vying for control over the bloc's development financing. What's at the center of the debate — and what does it mean for European aid?

Asia correspondent Kelli Rogers and news editor Deborah Charles discuss the challenges for responding to Indonesia's recent earthquake and tsunami — and what it revealed about the country's disaster preparedness.

Human Capital Index. "Greening" investments. Civil society's role. Live from Indonesia, reporters Michael Igoe and Sophie Edwards delve into the biggest stories from the World Bank - IMF Annual Meetings.

The United States is getting a new development finance institution. In this episode, associate editor Adva Saldinger delves into what it took to get to this point, how the bank will function — and what it means for the future of U.S. foreign aid.

A focus on TB and NCDs. Trump’s foreign assistance review. Funding commitments. UN correspondent Amy Lieberman and engagement editor Kate Midden unpack the biggest stories from an eventful UN General Assembly.

Following a month of high-level meetings, commitments, and announcements about climate, West Coast correspondent Catherine Cheney debriefs what happened — and what it means for the future of climate action.

Some who have reported sexual abuse at the UN have described challenging bureaucratic hurdles, inconsistent processes, and deep emotional and professional stress resulting from their complaints. What are the proposed changes at the UN — and will they have an impact? UN Correspondent Amy Lieberman weighs in.

How can NGOs engage influencers? What's the key to a timeless slogan? In this episode, Devex engagement editor Kate Midden and communications guru Carine Umuhumuza discuss key lessons from Nike's #JustDoIt campaign.

#25: Can development assistance combat violent extremism? by Devex

Experts say breast is best, even in emergency situations. Here's how humanitarian organizations are working to ensure mothers continue breastfeeding — even amidst crisis.

Youth. Integration. Prevention. Live from AIDS 2018, reporter Sophie Edwards and youth advocate Mercy Ngulube discuss the future of the HIV/AIDS response.

#22: Can foreign aid curb the Central American migrant crisis? by Devex

Associate Editor Adva Saldinger shares the biggest trends in impact investing on the heels of the Vatican Impact Investing Conference.

In this #GlobalDevWomen edition of Long Story Short, Angela Bruce-Raeburn and Kate Warren share how organizations can work towards creating a more diverse workforce — and what happens when this isn’t a priority.

On May 8, 2018, the World Health Assembly confirmed the Democratic Republic of Congo's ninth Ebola outbreak. How are organizations responding — and what's ahead?

#18: What the European Development Days mean for development — and women by Devex

It was the world's largest investment in a single disease. 15 years later, we discuss what PEPFAR has accomplished — and what's ahead in the battle against HIV/AIDS.

Ahead of the Venezuelan elections, we go inside the global response to the country's humanitarian crisis.

As the space for civil discourse closes around the world, what's in store for the Open Society Foundation — one of the world's largest philanthropies?

#13: What's in store for Asia's development? by Devex

From capital increase negotiations to the focus on women — reporters Michael Igoe and Sophie Edwards discuss the top stories coming out of the World Bank Spring Meetings. Interested in getting news + analysis from the meetings delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for the Devex Insider newsletter: bit.ly/DevexInsider

Live from Oxford, Camfed Africa Executive Director Angeline Murimirwa and Devex Senior Correspondent share their top takeaways from the Skoll World Forum — and tips for turning talk into action.

In this bonus edition of Long Story Short, Devex West Coast correspondent Catherine Cheney digs into what the Facebook data hijacking scandal may mean for organizations that have partnered with the social media giant on data for good initiatives. Read Catherine's full story here: https://bit.ly/2qatKhs

People donate everything after a disaster: Old clothes, medicine, teddy bears. How should NGOs manage donations when they're not what survivors need? More information on this episode here: http://bit.ly/DevexLSS-10

Foreign aid has long been a punching bag for U.K. tabloids. Now, U.K. development agencies are reticent to speak to reporters. Devex Correspondent Molly Anders explores what that means for democracy, culture, attitudes, and journalism. More information on this episode here: http://bit.ly/DevexLSS-9 Molly's full series on the UK Media and Aid here: http://bit.ly/UKMediaSeries

Do: Know your audience, let individuals tell their stories, tap into the universality of the human experience. Don't: Reinforce the white savior narrative, romanticize poverty, oversimplify. Devex Associate Director of Communications Carine Umuhumuza shares her top tips for creating engagement-worthy content in the era of social media. More information on this episode here: http://bit.ly/DevexLSS-8

Devex Correspondent Amy Lieberman talks to Women Deliver CEO Katja Iverson about the U.N.'s Commission on the Status of Women. Here's what it means for key issues such as family planning and the future of the #AidToo movement. More information on this episode here: http://bit.ly/DevexLSS-7

A year into the Trump administration, we've seen budget cuts, job cancellations, and rumblings of a new U.S. International Development Finance Institution. What does the second year of the Trump administration have in store? More information on this episode here: http://bit.ly/DevexLSS-6

When the public becomes desensitized to humanitarian crises, it sends a ripple effect across the development industry — impacting funding, access, and aid worker security. More information on this episode here: http://bit.ly/DevexLSS-5

Global development careers expert Kate Warren talks wage gaps, unconscious bias, and momming-while-dev'ing. More information on this episode here: http://bit.ly/DevexLSS-4

Does the Oxfam scandal represent a moment of reckoning for the aid industry — and what change could come as a result? Devex Associate Editor Jessica Abrahams and U.K. Correspondent Molly Anders explore how the Oxfam sex abuse scandal could impact the aid industry. More information on this episode here: http://bit.ly/DevexLSS-3

Can World Bank President Jim Yong Kim achieve his vision for private sector financing? What will it take — and what stands in his way? More information on this episode here: http://bit.ly/DevexLSS-2

Financing. Securitization. Humanitarian crises. Innovation. #AidToo. In the first episode of Long Story Short, Managing Editor Paul Harris and Engagement Editor Kate Wathen discuss the top development stories to watch in 2018. More information on this episode here: http://bit.ly/DevexLSS-1