This Week in Global Development

This week we are on the ground in New York to cover the 80th United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week. Our discussion breaks down President Donald Trump’s address at the summit, where he called climate change a hoax, denounced Europe’s energy policies, and focused on the urgent need to address uncontrolled migration.The global drive for emissions reduction is moving forward despite the Trump administration's stance on climate action, with high emitters, including China, submitting their Nationally Determined Contributions, or their climate action plans to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.To dig into these stories and catch up on what’s happening at UNGA80, senior editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with senior global reporter Colum Lynch and global development reporter Jesse Chase-Lubitz for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series. Note on episode: David Lammy’s current title is deputy prime minister, not prime minister as mentioned in the episode.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week, the Devex team is on the ground at the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York. On the sidelines of the high-level talks, we are hosting a series of events with some of the most influential voices in global development at our dedicated venue, Devex Impact House. From the future of foreign assistance to the latest plan to reform the U.N., we discuss the forces shaping the sector and defining a new era of global development. This comes amid President Donald Trump's plans to reshape the international system, with a clear focus on reducing foreign aid and challenging long-standing international norms.With the U.S. appearing to retreat from the U.N., we explore who the contenders are to fill the gap left by the world’s largest economy. To explore the key conversations we are following at UNGA, Senior Editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with Senior Global Reporter Colum Lynch, as well as Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar, for this special episode of our weekly podcast series.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week, we take a look at the key talking points ahead of the high-level meetings of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly. From the Trump administration’s cutting of funding to international organizations to China’s desire to increase its influence at the U.N., we discuss the conversations that we will be following that are most relevant to the global development community.During the discussion, we also explored some of the conversations that may not get the attention they deserve, including reforming the global debt architecture and securing the future of humanitarian funding. To look ahead to UNGA 80, Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with Senior Global Reporter Colum Lynch and Allison Lombardo, former deputy assistant secretary at the State Department, for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series. Together, they break down the diplomatic challenges and highlight negotiations that will shape this year’s discussions.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week, we were at the Africa Climate Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, closely following the stories that matter most to the global development community. From forging a unified voice ahead of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference to how carbon markets could transform climate action on the continent, we discuss the key takeaways from the conference.In the United States, we continue to follow a key lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's foreign aid spending — or lack thereof. The case, which is a test of the executive branch's power over government spending, is now headed to the Supreme Court. The administration asked the highest court to intervene after a lower court compelled it to spend foreign assistance funds that Congress had already appropriated. We take a look at where the case stands and what might happen next. To dig into these stories and others, Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and Global Development Reporter Ayenat Mersie for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series. Sign up for Devex Newswire and our other newsletters. 

The negotiation and approval of the U.S. budget is a complex process, filled with political bargaining and high-stakes showdowns that can have a profound impact far beyond Washington. This process directly shapes funding for foreign aid, global health, and humanitarian crises around the world.With the Trump administration proposing a “pocket rescission” package that would cut an additional $5 billion from foreign assistance, its approval would have a significant impact on the global development sector.To gain insight into the complexities of the U.S. budget and its implications for the development sector, Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with Senior Reporters Adva Saldinger and Michael Igoe for this special episode of our weekly podcast series. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

For decades, Africa's malaria strategy has focused almost exclusively on disease control through indoor mosquito management and personal protection — bed nets, indoor spraying, and individual-level interventions. But this approach alone isn’t working. Progress against malaria in the African region has slowed significantly, with cases declining by just 5% since 2015 and mortality by 16%, according to the World Health Organization.Experts now argue it’s time to shift from disease-centric, indoor mosquito management to more robust integrated mosquito management strategies. That means taking a tiered approach, starting with reducing mosquito breeding sites, treating water sources with larvicides, and then targeting adult mosquitoes. “The tendency will probably be to think about controlling mosquitoes when they are flying only. But they are actually more vulnerable when they are not flying, usually when they are in the water,” explained Silas Majambere, EMEA Health Business Manager at Valent BioSciences.This approach, known as larval source management, has proven both cost-effective and sustainable. "The conversation is shifting away from just talking about a disease and saying, how do we take those limited public health dollars and manage the mosquito so that we can manage multiple diseases for those dollars?" said Jason Clark, Managing Director for global public health and forest health at Valent BioSciences.Some countries are already moving in this direction.In Benin, the government is framing mosquito control not just as a health issue but as an economic one. The government is focusing on tourism as one of the key pillars of growth for the country, and the presence of mosquito-borne diseases is a direct threat to that, explained Sinde Chekete, advisor to the President of Benin. “We believe that investing in mosquito control will ultimately bring resources, will bring revenue, because we'll be able to welcome more tourists… and reduce the overall cost of malaria,” he said.Chekete, Majambere, and Clark joined Devex executive editor Kate Warren to discuss the shift toward integrated mosquito management in a special Devex podcast episode sponsored by Valent BioSciences.

This week, Akinwumi Adesina stepped down as the chief of the African Development Bank after a 10-year tenure. He was replaced by Sidi Ould Tah at the helm of the institution, who is promising reform, new partnerships, and a focus on jobs — even as the bank confronts tight budgets and a looming African Development Fund replenishment.In the United States, the Trump administration proposed another $5 billion cut to foreign aid spending through a move known as a “pocket rescission.” This proposal builds on the cancellation of roughly $8 billion in foreign aid funding in July. We take a look at the controversial maneuver, which has not been used since 1977.To dig into these stories, and others, David Ainsworth sits down with Michael Igoe and Ayenat Mersie for the latest episode of our podcast series.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week, we take a look at the details of the latest United Nations reform, the UN80 Initiative, which is designed to make the organization more efficient. Unofficially, it’s also a move to convince the Trump administration not to cut U.N. funding even further. However, the initiative is unlikely to satisfy anyone. Meanwhile, China, the U.N.’s largest financial contributor, is pushing for a greater role at the organization, painting the U.S. as a threat to multilateralism. The country has been stepping up demands for more jobs at the institution for Chinese nationals.We also discuss how emerging donors are reshaping the aid landscape, blending commercial aims with development goals in ways that look different from traditional partners. As Western aid recedes, their rise brings new resources, priorities, and trade-offs.To analyze these stories, and others, Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger sits down with Business Editor David Ainsworth and Senior Global Reporter Colum Lynch for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week takes a look at an internal email seen by Devex, which outlines the U.S. Department of State’s priorities for the United Nations General Assembly. In addition to not mentioning the world “development,” the Trump administration is calling for a “fundamental rethink” of the international humanitarian system, and a decreased reliance on the country that was once the world’s largest donor.We also discuss the dire humanitarian situation of refugees in Malawi, who are facing slashed food rations and shrinking health and protection services due to U.S. aid cuts. This crisis, particularly severe in the overcrowded Dzaleka refugee camp, is pushing a vulnerable population to the brink. With food assistance drastically reduced, many are resorting to desperate survival tactics, including sex work and child labor, to feed their families.To dig into these stories and others, Senior Editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and Global Development Reporter Ayenat Mersie for the latest episode of our podcast series. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

With the U.S. Agency for International Development officially ceasing operations as the main U.S. foreign aid agency on July 1, the State Department now faces the daunting task of spending an estimated $20 billion before the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30 — without the 10,000 staff members who previously managed such distributions. The administration is legally required to spend money appropriated by Congress, or find legal justification for not spending it, as seen in earlier rescission efforts that returned $9 billion to the U.S. Treasury.Meanwhile, USAID Deputy Administrator for Management and Resources Ken Jackson's recent tour of nine countries — including Belgium, Kenya, and the Philippines — to oversee mission closures, has drawn criticism from displaced staff who view the visits as poorly timed during their difficult transitions.With many NGOs forced to restructure or face closure, some organizations are exploring mergers and partnerships to survive, with a new initiative led by Accountability Lab helping them pivot.Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth discusses the latest developments in these stories with reporters Michael Igoe and Elissa Miolene.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week, we're taking a deep dive into the Trump administration's vision for the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. The White House’s proposal seeks to expand the number of countries DFC can work in, paving the way for it to invest in high-income countries — a shift from its initial remit to invest in lower-income countries. However, the U.S. Congress still needs to reauthorize the organization before the Oct. 6 deadline if any of these plans are to come to fruition.On the other hand, the Millennium Challenge Corporation is set to face a different future. While the organization survived the Trump administration’s foreign assistance review, more than half of its programs are slated for cancellation.To discuss these stories, and others, Senior Editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week, our conversation features Shari Spiegel, chief of the Financing for Sustainable Development Office at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. She joins host Adva Saldinger and Senior Global Reporter Colum Lynch to reflect on the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, as well as dig into the legacy she hopes the summit will have. With the changing geopolitical landscape, we also discuss the role played by multilateral development banks and the private sector in achieving global development goals. This week we reported that the U.S. is clawing back more than $1 billion in funding to the United Nations. We take a look at how it will affect the organization’s initiatives, including peacekeeping operations and human rights promotion.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

After an all-night marathon of amendments, the U.S. Senate voted to advance President Donald Trump’s $9 billion rescissions package this week. While the country’s flagship HIV/AIDS initiative PEPFAR was saved during the process, the package will still claw back nearly $8 billion in previously approved funding for foreign aid. To dig into this story, and others, Senior Editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with reporters Michael Igoe and Elissa Miolene for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

While the abrupt cuts to official development assistance and closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development have upended the existing global development landscape and multilateral framework, they also represent an opportunity to reimagine a more just and equitable international system, said Open Society Foundations President Binaifer Nowrojee.In a podcast recording with Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar at Casa Devex during the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla, Spain, Nowrojee emphasized the shifting power dynamics that are emerging and the need to focus on building strong domestic institutions and national capacity. “What we have is national architecture that’s completely underused. National development banks could play a role and build a different set of economic opportunities inside countries,” Nowrojee said.The conversation also emphasized the urgent need to mobilize domestic resources to close the development finance gap — including through better international tax cooperation to help counter the $200 billion lost annually through corporate tax avoidance — and a fairer approach to debt. Today, 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt repayments than on health or education. “The global north actually gives pennies in aid compared to the dollars flowing out of the global south,” Nowrojee said.This special episode of This week in global development podcast was sponsored by the Open Society Foundations.

With the U.S. Agency for International Development officially dismantled and its remnants folded into the State Department, the landscape of global aid is at a turning point. We delve into expert perspectives on what the future of foreign assistance might entail, exploring proposed transformations from widening the donor base beyond traditional Western nations to building new institutions and streamlining existing ones, such as the United Nations. This reimagining of aid aims to create a more effective and equitable system for a world grappling with evolving challenges and shifting geopolitical dynamics.With France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States all cutting their aid budgets at the same time for the first time in decades, many low- and middle-income countries are facing steep declines in support. While African leaders have called the cuts “brutal,” they have also maintained that the slashing of foreign aid may act as the wake-up call needed to break their dependency on traditional donors. We also analyze President Trump's "big, beautiful bill" and its potential implications for the global development sector.To dig into these stories and others, Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and global development expert Nasra Ismail for the latest episode of This Week in Global Development. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

As development budgets tighten, donors, NGOs, and implementing partners alike are all grappling with an increasingly urgent question: How do you move money efficiently and securely to people who need it most — especially in complex or hard-to-reach environments, where traditional banking fails?One technology that’s gaining traction in this space is blockchain. “The speed, the efficiency, the transparency, and the ability to pay people very directly … [blockchain] is this very powerful technology in a crisis area,” said Candace Kelly, chief legal and policy officer at Stellar Development Foundation, whose mission is to create equitable access to the global financial system. Kelly joined Devex Executive Editor Kate Warren for a podcast recording at Casa Devex, Devex’s events hub during the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla, Spain.This podcast episode is sponsored by Stellar Development Foundation.

As the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development wraps up, Devex reporters Jesse Chase-Lubitz and Elissa Miolene join Associate Editor Thomas Cserép for a podcast episode reflecting on what transpired this week in Sevilla — beyond the sweltering 115 degrees Celsius heat.The big takeaway from FfD4 is the Compromiso de Sevilla, a document that participants view as both a commitment and a compromise. "Multilateralism lives" became the conference's unofficial motto as countries adapted to the United States’ absence. “It's more of a pickup moment after six months of global upheaval, and now moving forward and seeing what's next, and perhaps there'll be other actors that fill that gap, and maybe that might come from the global south itself,” Miolene said.Key outcomes include establishing a borrowers' group to amplify the voices of low- and middle-income countries, and creating a global debt registry aimed at promoting transparency. While climate language was significantly watered down due to the United States’ proposed amendments prior to their withdrawal, tax reform gained momentum, with renewed calls for a U.N. convention on international tax cooperation.However, civil society groups expressed frustration over access restrictions at the conference, while journalists faced rigorous checkpoints entering areas where negotiations were actually taking place. At the conference’s side events, private sector engagement was notably high, suggesting that despite falling aid budgets, there's a genuine appetite for partnerships — with the overall mood remaining cautiously optimistic about what comes next.

With aid budgets under pressure globally, delegates at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development in Sevilla, Spain, are urgently exploring innovative ways to fund global development. But as the spotlight shifts toward private capital, there’s a growing concern that essential interventions without immediate financial returns — such as health investments — could be overlooked.“We’re very clear that the cheapest money — concessional money, grant financing, and very concessional loans — should be allocated to those investments that give you this massive societal return, but not necessarily a financial return,” said Kalpana Kochhar, director of development policy and finance at the Gates Foundation, in an onstage conversation with Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar.Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, demonstrates how strategic health investments can pay off over time. “Gavi has graduated a number of countries who originally needed that subsidy to bring in vaccines and help purchase them at a lower price, but now [those countries] are doing it on their own,” Kumar said. However at the recent Gavi replenishment round, pledges fell short by about $2.9 billion of its total budget request.The discussion also highlighted new opportunities to attract private investment in health manufacturing — from vaccine production to locally made bed nets — and reflected on the progress made since the last Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, about a decade ago.This special episode of This week in global development was sponsored by the Gates Foundation.

Development leaders have converged on Sevilla, Spain, for the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, or FfD4 — the first such gathering in a decade — as shrinking aid budgets and a U.S. retreat from multilateral commitments reshape the sector.At the 2015 conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, official development assistance was at record levels amid ambitious “billions to trillions” rhetoric — the idea that limited public funds could catalyze massive private investment to tackle global challenges such as climate change.Today’s backdrop includes the pandemic fallout, inflation, the war in Ukraine, and sweeping aid cuts. The U.S. participated in outcome document negotiations until the final stages, reportedly proposing 400 amendments to soften the language on climate and gender before withdrawing entirely, citing too many “red lines.”In this special live podcast episode recorded at Casa Devex, Devex’s events hub for the next few days, reporters Elissa Miolene and Jesse Chase-Lubitz sit down with Executive Editor Kate Warren to discuss what’s at stake and why this “once-in-a-decade” forum has taken on heightened significance.

This week, we have been closely following the Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance’s high-level replenishment event in Brussels. Gavi, the leading international organization that provides vaccines to lower-income countries, finalized its five-year investment round event with more than $9 billion in pledges — falling short of its total budget request of $11.9 billion. The United States decided to cut its support for the organization, with U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stating that the country will not fund Gavi until it works to “re-earn the public trust.”On the topic of the U.S., our discussion also covers the Trump administration's decision to withdraw support for various U.N. Sustainable Development Goal commitments, alongside its absence from the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development.To discuss these stories and others, Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with Sara Jerving and Colum Lynch for the latest episode of our podcast series.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.