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News, analysis and business insights from Devex, the media platform for the global development community.

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News, analysis and business insights from Devex, the media platform for the global development community.

    This Week in Global Dev: #41: A New Localization Legislation And The Severe Risk To UK Aid

    This Week in Global Dev: #41: A New Localization Legislation And The Severe Risk To UK Aid

    This week, we reported that at the Employees at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems — a 37-year-old pro-democracy organization based outside Washington, D.C. — employees formed a new staff union to confront their organization’s president and CEO over labor rights. The issue is entangled within the wider debates of localization. While employees most certainly want to provide technical support to local partners, they do not believe that the process should undervalue the employees who provide it.

    At the end of last week, The Locally Led Development and Humanitarian Response Act was passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, legislation that would ease complexities in USAID's grantmaking process. While the bill still needs to clear the U.S. Senate, most seem hopeful it will do so. It is believed that the legislation would help USAID reach its localization targets, especially if it is passed before the U.S. general election in November.

    On the other side of the pond, a spending watchdog found that the creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has undermined the United Kingdom’s ability to carry out aid work. The report also raises the alarm that "staff have experienced change fatigue and are unhappy that key issues such as terms and conditions and career pathways have yet to be resolved.”

    To dig into these stories, and others, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with George Ingram and Fiona Zublin for the latest episode of the podcast series.

    Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters:
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    • 34 min
    Book Club: #9: Howard French on "Born in Blackness"

    Book Club: #9: Howard French on "Born in Blackness"

    Reframing six centuries of world history in a single book is no easy feat. Doing it in lively, engaging prose that keeps you hooked the whole way through is even harder. But such is the talent of Howard French, longtime foreign correspondent and author of Born in Blackness, our Devex Book Club selection for this month.

    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

    • 53 min
    This Week in Global Dev: #39: Innovation at SXSW, and food as a weapon of war

    This Week in Global Dev: #39: Innovation at SXSW, and food as a weapon of war

    This week, Devex is at the South by Southwest, or SXSW, conference and festival exploring innovations in food systems and agriculture, but we’ve also got stories on food as a weapon of war, the accusation that USAID meddled with Zimbabwe’s democratic process, and the utility of the Pandemic Fund.

    Hunger and starvation have become a standard weapon in combatants’ war arsenal everywhere from Afghanistan to Gaza to Syria, Sudan, and Ukraine, writes Senior Global Reporter Colum Lynch. But recently, some observers have seen a broader erosion of international laws and norms that promote the prohibition of food as a weapon of war or as a lever in diplomatic or humanitarian negotiations.

    We’ve also got an exclusive from Global Development Reporter Elissa Miolene on the accusation by the Zimbabwean ambassador to the United States that the U.S. Agency for International Development is interfering in the country’s democratic processes — calling USAID’s human rights and governance work a “gross violation” of Zimbabwe’s sovereignty.

    Finally, the Pandemic Fund wants to be the “main fund” for strengthening pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, and has called against duplicated efforts as countries push for creating yet another fund in pandemic treaty negotiations, writes Senior Reporter Jenny Lei Ravelo.

    Joining President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar to break down these stories — and more — are Ertharin Cousin, founder and CEO of Food Systems for the Future, and Devex Executive Editor Kate Warren.

    • 36 min
    This Week in Global Dev: #40: Business as usual as USAID issues its latest $5 billion contract?

    This Week in Global Dev: #40: Business as usual as USAID issues its latest $5 billion contract?

    Last week, USAID unveiled its latest $5 billion global health supply contract, part of its NextGen suite of contracts. Worth $17 billion in total, it’s the largest suite of foreign aid contracts ever issued, to be delivered over the course of 10 years. But despite all the talk around localization, it’s highly likely the contracts will end up going to the usual industry players.

    “Most of the low- or middle-income countries, they can do without those USAID-funded contractors coming to do things for them,” said Olusoji Adeyi, president of Resilient Health Systems and a staunch advocate for the decolonization of the sector. 

    The previous iteration of USAID’s global health supply contract, worth $9.5 billion and delivered solely through Chemonics, failed to live up to expectations after running into multiple delays and performance problems. “USAID has refused to learn, and they are throwing $17 billion of taxpayer money after a failed business model,” said Adeyi.

    Listen to the latest episode of This Week in Global Development to hear Adeyi discuss this topic and the other big stories from the week with Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar and Managing Editor Anna Gawel.

    • 39 min
    Devex @ SXSW: These doctors turned entrepreneurs are using tech to transform health

    Devex @ SXSW: These doctors turned entrepreneurs are using tech to transform health

    Vitala Global Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works with girls and women to develop digital solutions for stigmatized sexual and reproductive health issues, including abortions.
    Last week, Aya Contigo, its digital companion for abortion and contraception support that launched in Venezuela and has since expanded to the United States, was a winner of South by Southwest’s Innovation Showcase.

    Dr. Roopan Gill, co-founder and CEO of Vitala Global Foundation, was in Austin, Texas, to talk about the role technology can play in providing more accessible reproductive health resources, especially amidst growing restrictions on reproductive rights.

    “It's not just an app providing passive information,” she said. “We're really trying to see how it acts as a glue, as an ecosystem integrator, especially in this day and age where we have so much complexity around abortion access.”

    Gill spoke with Devex for Devex @ SXSW, a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast.

    The episode also featured Jarone Lee, co-founder of Health Tech Without Borders, a nonprofit organization working on digital health solutions, including telemedicine and chatbots, in the context of humanitarian disasters.

    Listen to the podcast to hear how these two doctors turned social entrepreneurs are leveraging technology to improve health care access in some of the most challenging settings to deliver care.

    • 25 min
    Devex @ SXSW: Technology's role in the future of food systems

    Devex @ SXSW: Technology's role in the future of food systems

    There’s no question that artificial intelligence will have a massive impact on the future of food systems, but it remains to be seen whether it will address or perpetuate inequities.

    “I think the question is, how's it going to be used in our food system in a way that actually promotes all of the objectives that we want?” said Roy Steiner, senior vice president for the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. “Technology tends to be a fairly neutral tool. It multiplies whatever is underneath it. So if we have a completely inequitable system, it will multiply the inequity.”
     
    Steiner spoke with Devex on the sidelines of South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, where conversations focused on the ways technology will transform every aspect of society, including the way the world grows, produces, distributes, supplies, and consumes food.
    The current food system is detrimental environmentally, socially, and nutritionally, Steiner said, adding that he’s hopeful that technological advancements can help the world transition to a more regenerative and equitable system.

    Listen to the episode to hear more about the future of food systems on Devex @ SXSW, a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast.

    The podcast also features Paul Newnham, executive director of the SDG2 Advocacy Hub, which coordinates global advocacy in support of food system transformation, and Joke Aerts, open chain lead at Tony’s Chocolonely, a company on a mission to end modern slavery and illegal child labor in cocoa.

    • 40 min

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