Devex Davos Dispatch

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...

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 techn...

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...

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...

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...

There wasn’t any snow but there was plenty of schmoozing at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos this past week. But in between the “pre-breakfasts” and the late-night parties were substantial discussions and hopeful ideas. Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar and Senior Reporter and author of Devex Invested Adva Saldinger look back on the biggest issues people were talking about — from cli...

Digital currency. Blockchain. Brainwallet. Web 3.0. What do they all actually mean — and what do they mean for the development community? Adva Saldinger, senior reporter at Devex and author of the Invested newsletter, delves into tech’s next revolution with Dante Disparte, chief strategy officer and head of global policy for Circle, which produces the closest thing we have to a digital dollar back...

Jeremy Farrar, one of the first people to sound the alarm about the pandemic, warns the global community: Do not let your guard down — for this pandemic, or the next one. The director of Wellcome Trust talks to Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar about the uncertainties of long Covid, the successes and failures of the global coronavirus response, the geopolitics of global health, and our collective “b...

Alongside population growth and the expansion of cities, the world has seen a rise in slums and shanty towns, where hundreds of millions people live. Sheela Patel, founder and director of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) India, offers Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar her thoughts on whether development leaders are really paying attention to informal settlements. She al...

Global crises are nothing new. They’re par for the course at Davos. What is new this year is how today’s litany of crises took the world by complete surprise, says Patricia Danzi, director-general of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. She talks to Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar about the unprecedented reach of crises that have upended the lives of everyone from farmers to president...

No government can finance the kinds of transformations needed for the world to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. That’s the word from Achim Steiner, administrator of the U.N. Development Programme, who argues the private sector is integral to the SDGs, particularly on climate change. He talks to Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger, who authors the Devex Invested newsletter, about t...

A mystery guest, a big announcement and a large pot of money. Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar talks to Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund, which is approaching its three-year replenishment. It’s a critical time under normal circumstances, but it takes on added urgency amid a pandemic that has challenged the Global Fund’s mission, drained public resources and made collaboration with...

How has the UN tackled racism internally? What’s being done and where do we still need to go? In this episode, leader Winnie Byanyima discusses the anniversary of the George Floyd murder and racism and sexism in global development and the UN. She outlines what has been done, what needs to be done next, and her message to leaders here at Davos. Winnie Byanyima is the Executive Director of UNAIDS an...

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 convened in person for the first time in two years. The week-long event drew hundreds of leaders from a multitude of fields and countries to reflect on SDG targets and develop solutions to achieve them in a post-pand...