This Week in Global Development

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 developmen...

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 — su...

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 q...

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 wi...

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...

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...

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, sprawl...

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 We...

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...

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 inves...

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 affa...

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...

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 outline his priorities for the institution, which includes reforming the bank so that it can lend more efficiently and making it more impact-focused so that it will b...

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 a...

Following the release of “White Savior,” a new HBO documentary series following Renee Bach , a white missionary who tasked herself with managing a clinic in Uganda with no medical training, we reflect on the idea of of white savior complex and its implications for the global development sector. As well as discussing how to make localization initiatives more effective, we also delve into a Devex ar...

Last week saw the annual gathering of heads of state, thought leaders, civil society members, development professionals, and other industry personalities in New York City for the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. In addition to our very own Devex @ UNGA 78 summit that happened on the sidelines of the main event, we reported on the most important news affecting the drive to reach...

In this special sponsored episode of This Week in Global Development, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Natalie Samarasinghe, head of global advocacy at Open Society Foundations , and Richard Gowan, U.N. Director at Crisis Group , to discuss to what’s likely to come out of this year’s United Nations General Assembly, the trust deficit facing the multilateral system, and...

With the high-level general debate of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly taking place next week, leaders from around the world will be gathering in New York City to talk through some of the biggest issues facing societies around the world, including how we can best meet the Sustainable Development Goals and tackle the climate crisis. For this week we have a special episode of...

This week The END Fund announced Tsitsi Masiyiwa as the organization’s new board chair , with the aim of ushering in more African voices into discussions about increasing funding for neglected tropical diseases. During our conversation, we explored the role played by boards in influencing the work of philanthropic organizations. In the United Kingdom, we reported that up to £2.68 billion ($3.37 bi...

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 prioritizing investment to help overcome issues related to water shortages in the face of climate change rather than subsidizing fossil fuels. In addition to looking back at our Devex Pro event with former senior USAID official Chuck Pope and...

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 into Open Society Foundations’ reorganization . This week we learned that USAID’s NextGen global health supply chain contracts , which collectively are worth $16.8 billion over 10 yea...

This week we broke an exclusive story on the United States, the United Kingdom, and a handful of allied powers blocking an agreement on a draft declaration that advocates the need to accelerate progress on a set of critical development goals, throwing a spanner into high-level negotiations ahead of the United Nations General Assembly taking place next month. In the United Kingdom, an inquiry has b...

This week Devex reported that the U.S. Agency for International Development saw a record-breaking obligation to local contractors in 2022, up 169.8% in real terms from the previous year . While this is promising, it will be vital to ensure that initiatives are not tokenistic and that localization efforts are indeed meeting the needs of the communities they are aiming to serve rather than ticking d...

While we usually expect the summer months to be slower than usual, it has certainly not been the case over the past week. In an exclusive Devex story , we found out that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will most likely declare that the United Kingdom cannot legally spend its overseas development assistance on domestic refugee costs because of a new law cracking down on a...

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...