French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris this week, which aims to strike a new post-World War II pact between high-income nations and those most at risk from climate change and crippling debt. However, with key players not attending, including U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, U.S. President Joe Biden, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, serious doubts remain over whether the decisions made during the summit will translate into meaningfu...
Jun 23, 2023•24 min
Seven years ago, the United Nations' World Humanitarian Summit proposed the "humanitarian-development nexus" to improve collaboration between the two ends of the aid sector. Although it was initially a good idea to enhance efficiency and reduce costs, this framework has struggled to deliver amidst the increasing number of humanitarian disasters and prolonged crises. Recently, Devex's Teresa Welsh discussed the cracks surfacing in the "humanitarian-development nexus." This week, another global de...
May 04, 2023•31 min
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meetings have come to an end this weekend. A great sense of change was anticipated for this year’s event, as Devex wrote last week. But what do we make of the talks now that they are over? That’s the question we asked our guests in the first episode of “This Week in Global Development,” a weekly podcast where we break down the big headlines in global development and bring in top experts to help us do it. For this episode, I was joined by Ra...
Apr 17, 2023•31 min
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 joined a frozen press scrum waiting in vain for Greta Thunberg—they both agree that the conference ...
Feb 09, 2023•36 min
In the final episode of COPcast, chef, food advocate and filmmaker Oliver English sits down with Kate Warren to discuss how regenerative agriculture and support for small scale farmers can help transform the global food system.
Dec 02, 2022•21 min
Rémy Rioux is chief executive officer of the French Development Agency, or AFD. But before that, in 2015, he worked as chief negotiator on the finance track of the landmark Paris Agreement on climate. Since then the United Nations Conference of the Parties has grown into a behemoth, with COP 27 in Egypt attracting 40,000 people. Devex sat down with Rioux on the sidelines of COP 27 to hear his thoughts on how the summit has changed since 2015 — and if it’s become an opportunity for greenwashing. ...
Nov 29, 2022•19 min
At the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the calls for the restructuring of multilateral development banks are echoing through the halls, with the hopes that with reforms, finance will flow more readily to lower-income countries to allow them to green their economies and help their populations adapt to the changing world. In the 12th episode of the COPcast, Devex sat down with Phyllis Cuttino, the new president and CEO of the Climate Reality Project, who em...
Nov 24, 2022•15 min
The private sector has a key role to play in investing in climate change adaptation – and yet, currently, only 1.6% of all adaptation funding comes from private investment. Matthias Berninger is the Head of Sustainability and Public Affairs at Bayer, but he’s seen many sides of the food and agriculture space over the course of his career: in the public sector, he was a vice minister in Germany’s Green Party; and in the private sector, he previously worked on health and nutrition strategy at Mars...
Nov 23, 2022•27 min
In the twelfth episode of COPcast, Devex sat down with Solomon Quaynor, vice-president for private sector, infrastructure and industrialization at the African Development Bank to discuss the continent’s climate financing needs.
Nov 18, 2022•17 min
Extreme weather devastated Sierra Leone’s capital city of Freetown in 2017 when torrential rains led to landslides that killed over 1,000 people. Now the city’s population is grappling with temperature increases and population swells due to people migrating from rural areas as erratic rainfall makes subsistence farming less sustainable. Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr is working to help her city adapt in areas such as building heat-resistant market shelters and building a cable car to cut down...
Nov 18, 2022•26 min
This year world leaders have gathered at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Summit, or COP 27, as people around the world grapple with a food security crisis. An estimated 828 million people are chronically food insecure, and 345 million people are at crisis levels or worse. They are in need of food assistance as conflict, climate shocks, and the threat of global recession drive hunger levels even higher. At COP 27, CGIAR co-hosted the first Food and Agriculture Pavilion aimed at putting the...
Nov 17, 2022•13 min
Pakistan's devastating flooding helped push loss and damage up the climate agenda. Devex sat down with Aisha Khan, head of the country's Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change to discuss why the disaster was so bad, the challenges it caused, and how future tragedies can be prevented.
Nov 16, 2022•21 min
The Bezos Earth Fund is Jeff Bezos's $10 billion commitment to fund scientists, activists, NGOs, and other actors that will drive climate and nature solutions. In this episode of COPcast, Devex’s President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sat down with Andrew Steer, the fund’s CEO, to talk about the kind of projects he’s interested in and some misconceptions about the fund. This conversation was recorded as part of our Devex @ COP 27 event.
Nov 15, 2022•30 min
In the eighth episode of the COPcast, Devex Senior Reporter Sara Jerving sits down with Seed Global Health CEO Vanessa Kerry to discuss the health impacts of a changing climate, the need for a stronger health workforce, and the role health should play in the official agenda at these United Nations conferences.
Nov 15, 2022•22 min
In 2009 then President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, made headlines when he held a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the risk of global warming for small island states like the Maldives. Projections show that by 2100 the island could be submerged by rising sea levels. Since then Nasheed has been working to ensure that the demands of the most vulnerable countries are not ignored, as the ambassador for ambition at the Climate Vulnerable Forum. Last week CVF launched a Climate Prosperity ...
Nov 14, 2022•15 min
The climate justice movement aims to put people at the center of climate change. And in the last few years, young people have mobilized around the issue, often led by young climate activists. At the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 27, youth climate activists came together to launch the first children and youth pavilion, which aims to provide a place for young people to engage, debate, and collaborate to make their voices heard. In the fifth episode of the COPcast, Devex sat...
Nov 13, 2022•21 min
Climate change affects everyone, but for many young people, it represents the risk of a stolen future. According to the World Bank, by the time many of the teenage climate activists of today are in their late 20s, climate change could force an additional 100 million people into extreme poverty. In the fourth episode of COPcast, Devex sat down with Jessica Bwali — a young climate activist from Zambia — to talk about her personal experiences with climate change and how she uses her platform to adv...
Nov 11, 2022•18 min
Around 80% of the farmland in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia is managed by smallholder farmers who provide up to 80% of the food supply in these regions. Extreme weather events fueled by climate change, such as droughts and flooding, are making their livelihoods unsustainable in some parts of the world, driving mass migration and fueling poverty and malnutrition. In the third episode of the COPcast, Devex sat down with Mark Suzman, chief executive officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ...
Nov 10, 2022•28 min
Extreme weather is ravaging countries across the African continent, with historic droughts, floods, and cyclones creating endless loops of humanitarian disasters. The Horn of Africa is on the brink of famine, and Nigeria was hit with the worst floods in over a decade. In the lead-up to the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 27, in Sharm-el- Sheikh, Egypt, African nations came together to craft a unified position on what they want out of these discussions. This includes an incr...
Nov 10, 2022•27 min
As world leaders gather in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt for the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, Devex Associate editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with senior reporters Sara Jerving and William Worley to look back at the climate commitments made last year, take stock of where we currently stand, and highlight key expectations for Africa’s first COP.
Nov 09, 2022•19 min
In the final episode of UNGA Decoded, Michael Igoe sits down with Colum Lynch – who recently joined Devex as senior global correspondent, focusing on the UN’s health, humanitarian, and development work – to find out what he made of this year’s UNGA, how the global gathering has changed since he first started reporting on the UN, and about how his own views about the UN’s role in the world inform the way he does his reporting.
Oct 07, 2022•27 min
The world is in the midst of a learning crisis. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, more than half of kids in low- and middle-income countries were living in what the World Bank calls “learning poverty.” Now, in the wake of school closures and remote learning, that number could spike to 70% — with huge implications for the opportunities available to kids for the rest of their lives and for the global economy. Leaders and educators are still looking for a way out of this problem. The Transforming ...
Oct 04, 2022•29 min
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed stark inequalities in the global health architecture. As the virus spread, a handful of mostly wealthy countries proved to have the money, the private sector relationships, and the power to be first in line for vaccines, treatments and supplies — and global health institutions struggled to even the playing field. Health leaders on the African continent have taken that lesson to heart, and one institution at the forefront of a new vision for African health security ...
Sep 30, 2022•25 min
Gerda Verburg on building a nutrition movement by Devex
Sep 28, 2022•21 min
America's refugee resettlement system has been battered by politics and bureaucracy. Nazanin Ash leads a new coalition of grassroots resettlement networks called Welcome.US, which is built on a simpler premise: that when asked to help those in need, most people will say "yes." Before joining Welcome.US, Ash served as Vice President of Global Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee, and held senior positions in the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Devel...
Sep 26, 2022•29 min
Marinel Sumook Ubaldo has channeled the firsthand experience of climate-related disaster into a voice of youth advocacy. Working with the nonprofit Living Laudato Si' Philippines, Ubaldo is fighting for the rights of those with the most to lose from a warming planet. A Filipino climate activist, Ubaldo helped organize the first youth climate strike in her country in 2019 and continues to lobby governments worldwide on environmental issues.
Sep 23, 2022•15 min
The president of the Rockefeller Foundation says the World Bank and other financial institutions must do more to rise to the challenges of economic and climate crises that threaten to unwind global development gains. Michael Igoe sits down with Rajiv Shah to talk about this, and how the foundation’s historical ties to oil money have affected its present-day focus on climate transitions. Before becoming president of The Rockefeller Foundation, Raj Shah served as USAID administrator under Presiden...
Sep 22, 2022•18 min
UNGA is back and so is the Clinton Global Initiative. Devex Editor in chief Raj Kumar talks with Chelsea Clinton about what the future holds for her family's signature convening — and what she wants to see happen in global health. Chelsea Clinton is vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, where she focuses on the Foundation’s global health programs. She is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Subscribe to our free, weekly newsletter, Devex CheckUp: de...
Sep 21, 2022•16 min
Since José Andrés founded World Central Kitchen in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the Michelin-starred and James Beard Award-winning chef has been challenging the traditional model of shipping in food aid from overseas in emergency situations. World Central Kitchen focuses on mobilizing grassroots networks of cooks and food producers, with the aim of creating a more sustainable local food system after and beyond a disaster. Reporter Teresa Welsh sits down with Andrés, who also runs re...
Sep 20, 2022•21 min
As the global development community descends on New York City for the 77th United Nations General Assembly, Devex Senior Reporter Michael Igoe sits down with our very own Editor-in-Chief, Raj Kumar, to discuss: what is UNGA, exactly? Raj Kumar is a Washington, D.C.-based social impact leader, journalist, and author specialized in global development. He is the President & Editor-in-Chief of Devex, and the author of The Business of Changing the World, an influential book about the future of gl...
Sep 19, 2022•33 min
