Devex Podcasts

As the COP 29 U.N. climate conference kicks off in Baku, Azerbaijan, we look ahead to the potential implications of the discussions on the global development sector. Labeled as the “finance COP,” one of the expected outcomes of the summit is a new financial goal for high-income countries to deliver to lower-income countries to address the challenges induced by climate change. With Trump’s recent reelection and implications for development, as well as Europe’s ongoing cuts to development funding, serious questions remain over whether ambitious financial and political commitments will be made, and if the discussions will translate into meaningful action. What are we expecting from COP29? Which are the conversations that we will be following?Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Devex reporters Jesse Chase-Lubitz and Ayenat Mersie for this special episode of our weekly podcast series ahead of COP 29. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

This week, former President Donald Trump was elected for a second term at the White House. His reelection marks a radical shift in U.S. foreign policy priorities for a sweeping range of issues, not least abortion, climate, global health, and LGBTQI rights. The global development community is closely watching how things are unfolding in Washington, D.C. Major reforms to the international financial system are expected, as well as cuts in funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development and the United Nations. How will Trump approach foreign policy? Will China capitalize on the U.S.’s withdrawal from the international scene? What does the result mean for international climate finance? To dig into these questions and discuss what the outcome of the U.S. elections means for global development, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with reporters Colum Lynch and 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

This week we discuss the key takeaways from Devex World 2024, our flagship event that took place in Washington, D.C., alongside the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings. From discussions with philanthropist Howard Buffett, who called for increased aid to Ukraine, to a conversation with former executive director of the World Food Programme David Beasley, who believes the U.S. can once again lead on foreign aid, the event brought together key figures in global development. We also sat down with Republicans and Democrats to dig into what the U.S. election means for global development and discuss the direction that a Kamala Harris presidency or a Donald Trump presidency would take U.S. foreign policy. For the latest edition of our weekly podcast series, Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel sits down with Business Editor David Ainsworth and Global Development Reporter Elissa Miolene to look back at the highlights from Devex World 2024. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

With the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings wrapped up, all eyes are now turning to the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, to be held next month in Baku, Azerbaijan. So how do multilateral development banks stack up? Are their policies and programs enough to address climate shocks? Can and should they take on more risk? And is the money that MDBs have promised actually getting to where it needs to go? To explore these questions and more, Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger speaks to Pepukaye Bardouille, director of the Bridgetown Initiative and special adviser on climate change to Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley; and Warren Evans, who has a long history of working on climate issues at multilateral development banks.

On Thursday, Devex hosted its biannual Devex World summit in Washington, D.C. Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar was on hand to interview global development heavy hitters on stage — and also sat down with Climate Investment Funds CEO Tariye Gbadegesin. CIF, founded in 2008, is a $12 billion multilateral climate finance fund. While all brains were focused on the World Bank annual meetings, they looked ahead to the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan. “One of the key objectives of the Baku COP is to deliver a [new collective quantified goal, or NCQG], which are basically national quantified goals for how we're going to deliver on climate finance,” Gbadegesin said. “The reality is that there are going to be challenges with raising these large sums of money because budgets are stretched for multiple reasons. Some of it is political, some of it is economic, some of it is security challenges.” The implications for climate funding, she said, are that every dollar has to go further — which is already the mission of CIF’s concessional finance model. Another key factor, she said, will be bringing in the private sector. “What we need to do is figure out how to create that capital stack of funding where we are able to get 10-15% from the private sector to come alongside [multilateral development bank] funding, underpinned by concessional finance,” she said. “It's not hard to do on paper or in a financial model, but it's really hard.” Still, it’s possible, she explained — in past years, CIF was brought in to help finance solar and wind projects, she said, but now that’s no longer necessary for those technologies, and she believes that can happen for other new technologies. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

The World Bank Group released its new Gender Strategy earlier this year with three key aims: ending gender-based violence, expanding economic opportunities, and engaging more women as leaders. But how will the bank achieve these lofty aims? Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger sits down with the bank’s Global Director for Gender Hana Brixi for our latest podcast to learn about how this new plan will be implemented and what exactly is changing. “The World Bank Group is at a very historic moment at the time. It is the first time ever to have a strategy for the World Bank Group to engage with such a strong ambition, and also a commitment to engage differently for better gender equality and really to accelerate progress,” Brixi tells Adva. The “full engagement of women” is key to ending poverty, and without ending gender-based violence that will be impossible, she adds. It’s less about new programs or specific new funding but integrating stronger emphasis on gender throughout everything the World Bank does. It will also mean making the case to countries about why they should address gender issues as a matter of economic policy. Not everyone is convinced about all aspects of the strategy. Mary Borrowman, a policy fellow in the Gender Equality and Inclusion program at the Center for Global Development, shares her concerns about data, accountability, funding and a lack of country-level targets. “I think that there are some really positive things. I think there are some kind of missed opportunities, and I think there are some areas where I'm not sure if the bank's playing, perhaps, to its comparative advantage in areas of the most impact,” she says. Another missed opportunity in her eyes? The lack of specific gender-based targets in the policy package for the upcoming International Development Association replenishment, IDA21. “I think they’re really rolling the dice and it’s a big risk, in terms of not having financing for gender, not having accountability” she says.

This is the first of a series of three special episodes of This Week in Global Development tied to the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Washington, D.C. Devex senior reporter Adva Saldinger speaks to Lord Mark Malloch Brown, who's co-leading an initiative aimed at assessing and providing recommendations for these Bretton Woods institutions, and Gates Foundation's president of global advocacy, Gargee Ghosh, about the challenges facing the IDA replenishment in December.

As we look ahead to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund annual meetings, we discuss what to expect from the summit, including whether the decisions made will have a meaningful impact and help overcome some of the biggest challenges in global development. With the looming U.S. elections just around the corner, we consider the potential implications for the World Bank's strategy and the influence the vote may exert on this year’s annual meetings. While the rhetoric around this summit is based on the idea of “getting things done,” we contemplate how the global political landscape will influence outcomes. What next for the International Development Association replenishment? What will be the big announcements? To discuss these questions and look ahead to the event, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Senior Reporters Adva Saldinger and Michael Igoe 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

This week we published an exclusive interview with Nicholas Kristof, an award-winning New York Times columnist. He spoke about what he saw in Sudan and the global community’s failure to respond to one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises — as the conflict in Gaza overshadows other crises around the world. As public attention wanes in the face of new crises, we question whether crisis fatigue is hindering humanitarian aid from reaching those in dire need. We also discussed a study that revealed European companies — including Siemens, BioNTech SE, Möller Group, and SUEZ — are benefiting from investments in over 60% of the EU Global Gateway projects examined. We dig into the study’s details and whether Europe is doing enough to channel funds to the Global South and meet the needs of local communities. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, it appears as though the Department for International Development — which was merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2020 — will not be restored anytime soon. We learned that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer rejected top-level advice that he could restore a separate U.K. aid department with “negligible” cost and disruption, according to a new book by former senior development officials. For the latest edition of our podcast series, Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel sits down with reporters Elissa Miolene and Rob Merrick to discuss our top stories from the past week. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

Last week, we published an exclusive article on the European Union’s plan to cut its development spending by €2 billion (around $2.2 billion) over the next three years. This will account for a 35% reduction in the amount of money it gives to the world’s lowest-income countries as the bloc aims to focus on other priorities, including supporting Ukraine and stopping migration to Europe. The European Union is not the only entity in Europe reducing its aid budget. The French government also announced a €1 billion reduction in foreign aid — the third cut in the last two years — while the new U.K. development minister Anneliese Dodds suggested that the government will continue to direct the country’s aid spending on hosting refugees. Why are European countries slashing their aid budgets? What are the implications of these cuts? To answer these questions and dig into the issue, Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with Deputy Managing Editor Fiona Zublin and Senior Reporter Vince Chadwick for the latest episode of our podcast series. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

In April, a group of multilateral development banks signed an agreement to work more closely together, known as a viewpoint note, which set a series of goals, including scaling up their financing capacity, and delivering more on climate. Earlier this week, at the U.N. General Assembly, the heads of MDBs sat down with U.N. leaders to identify how they could make more progress to deliver those goals. Devex heard from Ilan Goldfajn, president of the Inter-American Development Bank, about the steps taken so far. Goldfajn said there had been considerable progress in unifying the goals of the MDBs with the Group of 20 major economies and with U.N. agencies. MDBs have increased lending capacity by $400 billion over the next 10 years, mostly through reforms but partly due to closer working, Goldfajn explained. He added that last year, the banks had lent a quarter more on climate and doubled the amount of finance mobilized, compared to 2022. He also highlighted several projects where IDB had worked together with the World Bank and the EIB. Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger sat down with Goldfajn for a special 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

In a special edition of the This Week in Global Development podcast recorded on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly, chef and entrepreneur José Andrés spoke with Devex’s Kate Warren to discuss his humanitarian work with World Central Kitchen and the challenges of addressing global hunger. For Andrés, having a set system for food aid doesn’t work. This explains WCK's unique approach. Rather than shipping in prepackaged food aid to various humanitarian situations, WCK partners with local communities and restaurants to provide culturally relevant, cost-effective meals. This model, while seemingly obvious, is not the norm in the humanitarian sector. Andrés believes that the tendency to overcomplicate solutions often prevents effective action. "Sometimes big problems, they have very simple solutions, but [it] seems humans, we’re very good at overcomplicating the problems," he said. "We don't respond [in] every place in the same way," he explained, citing examples of serving fresh fish in Gaza to avoid it going to waste, and bringing in food from European countries to support Ukraine's collapsed distribution systems despite the quantity of grain available. Andrés emphasized the importance of adapting to local conditions and empowering communities to be part of the solution. “The most important, is having boots on the ground,” he said. For Andrés, there is “nobody better than the local community to help you respond.” The risks faced by humanitarian workers are a sobering reality for Andrés, who has lost employees in Gaza and Ukraine. He expressed a deep sense of responsibility, noting that “if we were not there, this wouldn't be happening.” However, he believes that the potential to save lives outweighs the dangers, stating, “If not, those people on their own will be alone, forgotten and anyway, dying.” Andrés sees both the promise and peril of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. While AI has the potential to revolutionize food production, distribution, and waste reduction, he also cautions against its misuse, calling for robust regulations and safeguards to prevent AI from being weaponized against civilians or humanitarian workers. Looking ahead, Andrés shares his skepticism about the world's ability to achieve the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals within the limited time frame to 2030, citing a lack of accountability and the disillusionment of young people with leadership. He emphasized the need for more support for youth to become agents of change and for real, tangible progress to be made, not just empty promises. “Doing good and promising good is not good enough. We must do a smart good,” he said.

This week Devex is in New York covering the 79th United Nations General Assembly as well as the Summit of the Future. In addition to hosting our very own summit on the sidelines of these events, we are also closely following the conversations happening at the U.N. and around the rest of Manhattan that are most important to the global development community. From reforming the international financial architecture to addressing geopolitical issues — we explore whether the discussions taking place will lead to meaningful change and help achieve the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. What does the Pact for the Future mean for the world? And is the legitimacy of the U.N. on the line? For the latest episode of our weekly podcast series, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar discusses with Senior Global Reporter Colum Lynch the most important updates from the 79th United Nations General Assembly. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

It’s no secret that promises to deliver more humanitarian and development funding to local and national organizations have not been fulfilled. During the high-level week of the 79th U.N. General Assembly, Devex caught up with Degan Ali, who heads the Kenya-based NGO Adeso. Ali is a leading voice in the aid decolonization movement, which seeks to decenter the voices of Western decision-makers and shift more power to local leaders in the global south. Ali discussed the lack of trust and credibility given to local NGOs compared to international organizations, challenges in meeting the 2016 “Grand Bargain” target of 25% funding to local organizations, and how bureaucracy and risk aversion in organizations like the U.S. Agency for International Development is hindering localization efforts. And while she gave USAID Administrator Samantha Power credit for elevating the localization agenda, Ali called the effort to get bilateral organizations to shift to locally led development an “impossible, impossible uphill battle.” “But where I do feel like there's hope and there's opportunity, is for the [international] NGOs to change and philanthropy to change, and those are the spaces where we need to put a lot of pressure,” she said. “And that's what we're trying to do at Adeso with the Pledge for Change with the INGOs, and the decolonizing philanthropy work that we're doing.” Devex Global Development Reporter Elissa Miolene sat down with Ali for a special episode of our This Week in Global Development podcast series.

Among the major development initiatives under discussion at the United Nations this week in New York is an ambitious goal set out by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, which aims to get electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030. During the high-level week of the U.N. General Assembly, Devex caught up with Andrew Herscowitz, CEO of the M300 Accelerator, which aims to make these ambitions into reality. M300 is based at the Rockefeller Foundation and supported by the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, or GEAPP, and Sustainable Energy for All, two international organizations focused on bringing clean energy to everyone. Herscowitz is the former head of Power Africa, a previous energy initiative that, in its first decade, helped deliver new or improved electricity to nearly 200 million people in Africa. But he said the latest project was even more ambitious. In fact, he said, it was “probably the biggest thing that's happening in international development right now.” It needs “quantum leaps in a couple of different areas” for the accelerator to succeed in its goals, he said. But he told Devex that he was confident that he and his allies had the resources to make those leaps happen. Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger sits down with Herscowitz to discuss more about M330 for a special episode of our weekly podcast series. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters: https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters