Every week we break down the big headlines in global development and bring in top experts to help us do it. Hosted by Raj Kumar, President and Editor-in-Chief of Devex.

This Week in Global Development

International Development

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 Rachel Kyte, the dean at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and Jeremy Hillman, senior vice president of external engagement at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

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This Week in Global Dev: #1: What to make of this year’s World Bank Spring Meetings?

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 development topic made headlines when USAID Administrator Samantha Power informed the U.S. Congress that the agency would find it difficult to achieve its localization targets, as reported by Adva Saldinger on Devex.

To make sense of these and other significant news stories of the week, tune in to This Week in Global Development.

This weekly podcast analyzes the major headlines in global development and invites top experts to help us understand them. In this week's episode, I was joined by Nasra Ismail, policy adviser and ICAP Aspen fellow, and Anna Gawel, Devex managing editor.

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This Week in Global Dev: #2: The future of localization and the humanitarian-development nexus

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 meaningful action. There are also major disagreements between French organizers and participants over reforming international institutions, including multilateral development banks.

For this special episode, I talk to Devex Brussels Correspondent Vince Chadwick, who is connecting from the French capital, to get an insider perspective on the discussions happening at the summit.

The conversation also touches on Vince’s interview with Peter Sands, the head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, who argues that innovative financial instruments and private sector mobilization should not be a “proxy” for giving money to help the world’s poorest.

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This Week in Global Dev: #3: An insider look at Macron's global financing summit

This week USAID released its long-awaited localization update. Despite the progress made, not least due to the success of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, the agency is yet to come close to reaching its target of spending 25% of funding on local organizations by 2025.

From the U.K. government reclaiming official development assistance via taxes to India’s renewable energy push threatening the country’s food security, the past week has been filled with controversies that have the potential to hinder the drive toward meaningful change.

Tune in to the latest episode of This Week in Development to hear our take on the issues.

For this episode, I was joined by Dr. Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health & HIV policy at KFF, as well as Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel to discuss the most important news from the past week in the global development sector.

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This Week in Global Dev: #4: USAID's localization update and controversy over UK aid

While usually during the summer, news is expected to slow down, that was certainly not the case for the first weeks in June. As the unexpected struggle to reauthorize PEPFAR, the U.S. global AIDS initiative, continues, and we mark the beginning of a new era at the World Bank with Ajay Banga’s presidency, the start of the month has most definitely been eventful.

From discussing what to expect out of Banga’s presidency to a deep dive into a two-month investigation concerning the new director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Jean Kaseya, we review the week’s top stories in the latest episode of This Week in Global Development.

For this episode,I was joined by Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel, as well as George Ingram, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

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This Week in Global Dev: #5: The unexpected struggle to reauthorize PEPFAR and a new World Bank era

Following the release of “White Savior,” a new HBO documentary series following https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/sep/25/white-savior-complex-documentary-tv-show-hbo-renee-bach, a white missionary who tasked herself with managing a clinic in Uganda with no medical training, we reflect on the idea of of white savior complex and its implications for the global development sector. 

As well as discussing how to make localization initiatives more effective, we also delve into a Devex article that examines how the https://www.devex.com/organizations/united-states-agency-for-international-development-usaid-45096 can reach its https://www.devex.com/news/how-should-usaid-fund-differently-to-hit-its-localization-targets-106261 of giving 25% of eligible funds to local partners by 2025.

For this episode of the podcast, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar is joined by global strategy and development leader Nasra Ismail to dig into these stories and how they are intertwined when we consider how global development professionals can make meaningful change in lower-income countries. 

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This Week in Global Dev: #18: How white savior complex impacts global development

The World Bank is about 18 months into its efforts to reform the institution in response to shareholder demands and changing global needs. From stretching its existing funding to attracting more private capital, the bank has laid a laundry list of proposals on the table.

So what has been accomplished thus far and what more is needed? That’s what we tackle in the first episode of a special edition podcast during this year’s World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings, which take place in Washington D.C. this week. The bank has a new capital adequacy framework to get more out of its own money, a new mission statement making climate change part of its core ambition, and of course a new leader in Ajay Banga.

Listen in to hear Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger in conversation with Clemence Landers, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, Stephanie von Friedeburg, managing director of banking and capital markets advisory at Citi, and Rep. French Hill, a Republican from Arkansas, who is vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

Devex @ World Bank-IMF: Unpacking World Bank reforms: Progress and path forward

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.

Devex @ World Bank-IMF: Reforming the international financial system and the IDA replenishment

Special Olympics' Chief of Global Youth & Education, Jackie Jodl, joins Raj Kumar for a podcast episode looking at how sports and education can drive societal change, the state of social inclusion for people with intellectual and learning disabilities, and the opportunities and risks presented by AI.

This episode is sponsored by Special Olympics.

Special episode: Creating a more inclusive world for people with intellectual disabilities

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Devex @ World Bank-IMF: Unpacking World Bank reforms: Progress and path forward

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