Long Story Short

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 thriv

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

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

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,

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 +, 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 n

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

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

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

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 epis

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 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 lending capacity, civil society groups have been calling for it to release free money 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. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our ot

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

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