Devex

We have made a list of some of our top stories published over the past few days for your weekend reading: #1 🧑‍⚕️As aid contracts and a major U.S. health deal collapse, Zimbabwe’s frontline care shifts onto unpaid workers. #2 🇧🇷With Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro possibly neck-and-neck in the upcoming election, could Brazil’s flagship rainforest finance be at risk? #3 🚢Many countries face a potential global food and agriculture crisis as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz drags on, but the situation is not completely dire — yet. In a Devex Pro briefing, Maximo Torero of FAO, Charlotte Hebebrand of IFPRI, and Caitlin Welsh of CSIS break down the complexities. Watch the discussion. #4 💸DIV Fund's request for proposals revives a venture-style model for funding development innovation at a time of tighter budgets and higher expectations. In a Devex Pro Funding Briefing, its leaders outlined what it takes to compete. Watch the discussion.

Here are some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 🚨Scoop: The USAID Office of Inspector General is launching a new partnership to detect diversion across the global health commodities that the U.S. ships abroad, creating a system that will flag medications if they show up in a place they aren’t supposed to be. #2 🧮The latest numbers for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief are in — and depending on who you talk to, it’s either a landmark success or a devastating failure. #3 ⚡️At the first stop on the road to COP31, climate talks are overtaken by energy security amid the Iran war. #4 💰At Devex’s Capital Summit, Leslie Maasdorp and Daouda Sembene unpacked the push to mobilize domestic capital — and why small businesses remain the missing link in Africa’s evolving capital playbook.

Start your week with a recap of some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 🚨Scoop: $19.2 billion — that’s the amount USAID has to close out terminated foreign assistance awards. Those costs would cover settlements tied to canceled awards, including pending invoices, termination expenses, indirect cost adjustments, asset disposition, and other claims from implementing partners. #2 🥣Just 10 countries account for two-thirds of all people facing high levels of acute hunger, according to a major new U.N. report — a sign of how concentrated global hunger has become. #3 📜The U.K.'s development finance institution, British International Investment, just launched a new five-year strategy that aims to mobilize more private capital and build up markets, while increasing investments in climate, gender, and least developed countries. #4 🏨The development sector is skeptical about the new five-year strategy put forth by the British International Investment. Bond, the U.K. network for development NGOs, criticized BII for its investments in billionaire-owned companies, including luxury hotels and noted that, despite BII’s goal to reduce poverty and promote development to benefit the world’s poorest, only 14% of BII’s investments were in fragile and conflict-affected states.

We have made a list of some of our top stories published over the past few days for your weekend reading: #1 💭Trump and his pro-life backers are trying to undercut a liberal social consensus constructed over decades at the U.N. How is that going? #2 😷Despite the influx of equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 90% of patients in sub-Saharan Africa who need oxygen still do not receive it. #3 🇺🇳The ink was barely dry on the U.N. Charter when the five permanent members of the Security Council — the P5 — chose to ignore the document by selecting the secretary-general’s top team themselves. Now, the race for the next U.N. secretary-general must tackle the practice of national monopolies for top U.N. roles for certain member states. Read this opinion piece by Fred Carver, Nycolas Candido, and Ben Donaldson. #4 🇺🇸A look at the development job market in Washington, D.C.

Here are some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 🏦 After two years, the World Bank finally unveiled last week its jobs indicator — the metric it plans to use to track what’s become its central mission. The bank revealed a “more and better paid” jobs indicator, essentially an estimate of the labor income generated by the World Bank Group operations. #2 🌱The defunct Development Innovation Ventures initiative at USAID has found new life in a spinoff called the DIV Fund, led by the woman behind the original effort, Sasha Gallant. Its survival is especially crucial in a world where foreign assistance is a precious commodity and scaling cost-effective, evidence-driven models is a necessary new norm. #3 ❎Senior State Department official insists that one of the few programs to survive the USAID’s closure — the Global Health Supply Chain – Procurement Supply Management project — isn’t on the line for termination. At least not yet. #4 💼Portfolio careers — once a deliberate choice for some globaldev professionals — have become a structural default in a sector increasingly defined by funding volatility, projectization, and shrinking numbers of permanent roles.

Start your week with a recap of some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 📉 Countries eligible for support from The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria are facing reductions in their allocations for 2026-2028. #2 📢A new U.N.-backed Borrowers’ Platform, launched by finance ministers from low- and middle-income countries, aims to give debt-stretched nations a collective voice as they grapple with a $11.7 trillion crisis. #3 🏦The World Bank is bracing for prolonged global shocks — but its response is being tested as the institution is overhauling itself, and as countries wary of debt hold back on borrowing and the bank pivots toward private capital. #4 💉The U.S. plans to accelerate access to the breakthrough HIV prevention drug, lenacapavir. The aim now is to reach 3 million people with the injectable over the next two years — a 50% increase from the previous 2 million target.

Curious what made the headlines? Dive into our top stories for a captivating weekend read: #1 🚨Exclusive: The U.S. Mission to the United Nations has circulated its so-called Trade Over Aid initiative to U.N. member states, inviting them to sign a declaration of principles and to join a Trade Over Aid Caucus. It presents a sharp-tongue attack against the value of global charity, alongside a frothy paean to the virtues of the free market. #2 💥Scoop: Germany’s development ministry, known as the BMZ, is planning a major internal reorganization, according to a leaked chart of the new structure seen by Devex. The ministry will slim down its departments from 84 to 77 divisions, combining redundancies in some places and eliminating topics in others. #3 🌍Africa CDC has brought in a heavy hitter to build up its pooled procurement mechanism for health products: Dr. Mariatou Tala Jallow. Jallow led the efforts to build the Global Fund’s pooled procurement mechanism from the ground up — scaling it to about $1.2 billion in annual spend across 60 countries before she left in 2019. #4 💸Achieving the end of extreme poverty might be easier than commonly believed. The question now is whether this newfound clarity will be enough to spur philanthropic funding that has so far been sitting on the sidelines.

Here are some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days 👇 #1 📉Global aid is collapsing at a historic pace — with the U.S. driving the steepest cut ever — leaving millions without services and exposing a system on the brink. #2 💼In an opinion piece for Devex, World Bank President Ajay Banga and Swedish Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson detail the rules that need to be in place to usher in jobs amid an upcoming demographic crunch. #3 🇾🇪In Yemen, to increase aid eligibility, some households are marrying off their young daughters while they are still girls. #4 🌾“They are scared that if they invest money, they will not get it back.” Farmers navigate growing uncertainty as U.S. aid cuts unsettle through food systems.

Start your week with a recap of some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 🇺🇸The United States has nominated Luke Lindberg, the current head of foreign agricultural affairs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to take over the World Food Programme — the largest humanitarian organization in the world. #2 👁The World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings kick off today. Here’s a breakdown of the key issues to watch out for at this year’s meetings. #3 🇬🇧The United Kingdom spent just over £13 billion on aid last year, according to official statistics released Thursday. That’s a fall of just over £1 billion in cash terms, or 7.4%, compared to the previous year. #4 🏦The World Bank has downgraded sub-Saharan Africa’s growth outlook, citing rising fuel, food, and fertilizer prices linked to the Iran war.

Curious what made the headlines? Dive into our top stories for a captivating weekend read: #1 ✨Sonia Vora, the former chief human resources officer at the Gates Foundation, reflects on her career pivot and the challenges of launching a business. #2 🤖Can aid organizations use AI-generated imagery ethically? #3 💼Staff working for the British consulting firm Mott MacDonald in South Sudan report receiving insufficient notice and limited support as the company shutters its international development division. They emphasize that this process has been particularly difficult for them compared to colleagues in the U.K., U.S., and the Netherlands, who are entitled to redundancy or severance pay. #4 🚰Water scarcity is mounting globally, and so is attention to the role of private capital in funding solutions. But investors are slow to get on board.

Here are some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 🇫🇷France’s Parliament holds hearings today to approve the new leader of its development agency. #2 💸A World Bank-backed insurance and savings program is scaling in Somalia, offering pastoralists a financial buffer as aid declines. #3 🌍How the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is having tangible health consequences on Africa. #4 🎯On April 1, the Pandemic Fund launched its fourth call for proposals — worth $244 million — under different terms than usual. It targets 15 countries with the highest pandemic risks, and those that haven’t received a single-country grant from the fund to date.

Start your week with a recap of some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 ✂️U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking a 30% cut to the foreign affairs budget, as he looks to dramatically increase defense spending, according to a preliminary fiscal year 2027 budget request that he sent to Congress on Friday. #2 💭Who are the INGOs that has been allocated the most funding from the U.S.-UNOCHA deal? #3 🥣In Sudan’s camps, the only guaranteed meal often arrives in a pot carried by volunteers. As international aid recedes, local networks are stepping in — but their reach cannot match the scale of need. #4 💡A long-awaited assessment on the benefits of merging UN Women and the United Nations Population Fund suggested that a merger “is technically feasible” if done with “clearly defined safeguards” in place. But many advocates argued it says nothing new and lacks the evidence needed to support the U.N.’s proposal.

Curious what made the headlines? Dive into our top stories for a captivating weekend read: #1 Fixing water systems isn’t just a funding problem — it’s a political one. #2 ❌Trump’s upgraded global gag rule is a sweeping policy that bars U.S. foreign aid from organizations that touch abortion, diversity, or "gender ideology" — and compliance won’t come cheap. #3 🪑 Some health experts hope The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will use its seat at the table to advocate for the inclusion of civil society, who were largely shunned out of the MOU negotiations. They also hope the multilateral funder will ensure health services provided by communities, including for key populations, don’t fall through the cracks. #4 ☀️ India’s clean energy push is outpacing its infrastructure, exposing a growing gap between generation and delivery.

Here are some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 💸Domestic philanthropy in middle-income countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America represents a significant and often-overshadowed source of development funding, according to a new study by the OECD. #2 ✈️The Green Climate Fund is moving closer to the countries it funds. New offices are planned for Panama City; Amman, Jordan; Suva, Fiji; Nairobi, Kenya; and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. #3 💰The African Development Bank’s Sylvie Mahieu-Sorensen spoke about their planned partnership with the Gates Foundation to increase liquidity for debt-stricken countries to buy essential health commodities in a timely way. They’re planning to pilot the Africa Medicines and Equipment Facility, or AMEF, this year in two countries. #4 🌱A judge’s ruling declared unconstitutional parts of a law that prohibited farmers from sharing and selling indigenous seeds. Advocates say it's a sign of hope for smallholders worldwide.

Start your week with a recap of some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 🌍 Former Senegalese President Macky Sall’s campaign to become the next U.N. secretary-general did not receive backing from the African Union. #2 🇬🇧The U.K.’s international development minister pushed back against criticism that the country’s aid cuts will hit Africa hardest, telling lawmakers that NGOs are “wrong” to focus on shrinking bilateral funding and ignore multilateral investments. #3 💰The World Bank’s Global Financing Facility previewed a new financing program for family planning and maternal and child health commodities that they’re planning to formally launch at the bank’s Spring Meetings next month. It’s a matching program for commodities, but also includes financing for addressing bottlenecks that impact last-mile access, affordability, and quality. #4 📜The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee took up a bill that would abolish the U.S. African Development Foundation entirely.

Curious what made the headlines? Dive into our top stories for a captivating weekend read: #1 💥 Scoop: The U.N. has a new idea to ease tensions in the Persian Gulf — start with fertilizer. As the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran drags on and the world feels the pain of the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is backing a plan to restart fertilizer trade as a way to avert a looming food crisis — and maybe open the door to broader cooperation in the region. #2 🚨Exclusive: The Trump administration has nominated Heritage Foundation analyst Simon Hankinson to be deputy U.N. high commissioner for refugees — a role traditionally held by an American — putting a sharp critic of asylum policy in contention for one of the system’s most influential posts, according to three sources that spoke to Devex. #3 💼One year on from the USAID shutdown, the majority of professionals who took part in the survey — 68% — are still unemployed, underemployed, involuntarily freelancing, or forced into early retirement. While 38% have been searching for a job for over 12 months. #4 💸Mobile money adoption has surged across Africa, yet usage remains uneven, experts warned at the 2026 Inclusive FinTech Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.

Here are some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 🇺🇳The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations laid out his ambitions for the future of the U.N. on Friday, telling lawmakers that he was pushing for job cuts and mergers at the global body, while expressing support for a plan to tie U.S. aid to countries that back America’s interests at the U.N. #2 📜With a few days of scheduled negotiations remaining for countries to agree on a system that will ensure rapid sharing of pandemic vaccines and therapeutics under the WHO Pandemic Treaty, civil society organizations called on African leaders and negotiators to continue “pressing for a robust PABS framework grounded in equity and legal certainty.” #3 💰Though U.S. officials are extending HIV programs funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for three more months, they have not obligated new funding to cover the services. #4 🏦Tsutomu Yamamoto has stepped into the top job at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, MIGA, at a time of pressure — with the agency expected to expand rapidly as the World Bank consolidates its guarantee instruments.

Start your week with a recap of some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 🇺🇸The U.S. State Department formally announced the creation of a new Bureau of Disaster and Humanitarian Response on Friday. #2 🇬🇧Partnership, not paternalism — that’s how the U.K. government framed the recent release of a plan detailing its “innovative development reforms,” which outlines the priority areas of a diminished foreign aid budget that last year was cut from 0.5% of gross national income to 0.3%. #3 🪓The United Kingdom plans to end funding for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the Pandemic Fund. #4 💼Maria Antonieta Alcalde Castro is the newly appointed director-general of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. She is taking over the organization during a period of distress for sexual and reproductive rights advocates.

Here are some of our top stories for your weekend reading: #1 ✂️ The United Nations has spent the past year tightening its belt. But experts in a recent Devex Pro Briefing warn the cuts may shrink the U.N. without fixing what’s broken. #2 👎The U.S.’ second attempt at bringing the culture wars on gender at the United Nations fails again. #3 🛣The Inter-American Development Bank is backing a 3,400-km trade corridor across South America that could reshape regional commerce — but critics warn of environmental and social costs along the way. #4 ✨Mercy Corps rebrands. Its new name, Prosper Global, is meant to reflect a clearer vision for the nonprofit.

Here are some of the top stories published on Devex over the past few days: #1 📉Countries in the global south are feeling the economic and humanitarian ripple effects of the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran. Those effects range from displacement and food shocks to long-term investments at risk and short-term humanitarian funding drying up. The threat of mass displacement and the eruption of other hostilities elsewhere are also rising. #2 🪨The Inter-American Development Bank launched its new LAC Minerals initiative during its annual meetings in Asunción, Paraguay, to align the region, the world, and IDB on critical minerals supply and demand. The initiative will help Latin American and Caribbean countries move beyond mineral extraction to refining, processing, and retaining downstream value. #3 💭Plan International is rethinking how it delivers support for girls and women — accelerating a shift toward local partners, private funding, and shared operations with other nonprofit groups. #4 💉 In the five years since the Access to Medicines Foundation released its last antimicrobial resistance benchmark, large, research-based companies have reduced their pipeline for new antimicrobial resistance projects in development by 35%.