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On Day 2 of UNGA80, as U.S. President Donald Trump railed against everything from climate to the United Nations itself, former USAID chief Mark Green offered a steadier message — urging the aid community to rebuild and ensure “trade, not aid” isn’t an excuse for retreat.
Also in today’s edition: A potentially transformative deal on HIV treatments, and David Beasley praises straight talk and simple explanations.
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Former USAID Administrator Mark Green urged a shaken community to refocus and rebuild. At a Devex event held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, he opened a panel session with my colleague Michael Igoe by honoring the people who helped shape the U.S. Agency for International Development: “Among the most talented, dedicated professionals that I’ve ever worked with … we owe them all a great, great debt.”
He acknowledged the uncertainty many veterans feel, but his message was to bring that expertise back to the table: “somehow, someway, we have to tap into that talent, tap into that sense of purpose, and find new ways to shape what lies ahead.”
Policy-wise, he pressed the core question hanging over Washington: “Is trade, not aid, an excuse for doing less with less, or is it instead truly pursuing a new way, a new path?” The test is tangible outcomes — “How do we turn, for example, contracts to purchase critical minerals into something which has real, sustainable development outcomes from the countries that have reserves of those minerals …” — with a clear guardrail: “We have to make sure that redesign, reshaping, reform, doesn’t become an excuse for retreat.”
With foreign assistance leadership tilting toward the U.S. State Department, Green was pragmatic: “Well, first off, the obvious, we have to make it work, right? I mean, that really is what lies before us.”
And it only works if experienced practitioners lead the design and delivery: “in order for those to succeed, and in order for those to have any kind of sustainable path. It requires the expertise that the development community represented by so many of you needs to be brought to bear. That is what has to happen.”
He was candid about past advocacy. “We screwed up,” he said, before outlining the fix: “We were wrong. We were badly wrong, and we failed to engage and make the case over and over again, and now we have to make a new case and make it over and over again.”
Read: Mark Green urges aid community to reengage as US resets assistance
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Members of The Elders — an independent group of respected global leaders — warned at an UNGA side event that the world isn’t short of tools to tackle today’s big crises — from pandemics to climate change — but it is short of leaders.
“In the past, the world has risen to work its way out of challenges, and we could do it again, but leadership is a missing component,” said Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand. “Think back to perhaps the World War II era — where are today’s Churchills, Roosevelts?” she asked. “I think we just got that gap in, frankly, the leadership of today.”
The call for vision came just hours before Trump took the UNGA stage to rail against climate supporters and the U.N. itself, even asking, “What is the purpose of the United Nations?”
Still, Clark noted glimmers of promise, pointing to leaders such as South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Canada’s Mark Carney, who she said “are capable of maybe taking the world with them,” though domestic battles keep them “bogged down.”
Read: UNGA80 reporters’ notebook — Day 2
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And, so, to probably the most anticipated UNGA address of the week, Trump turned the spotlight away from diplomacy and squarely onto climate change — not to sound the alarm, but to tear it down.
He blasted renewable energy as a “joke,” insisting it’s too costly, prone to “rust and rot,” and incapable of powering “the plants that you need to make your country great.” In his words: “If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail.”
Trump also took aim at Germany, which he said was “going green and going bankrupt” under its old leadership, praising its shift away from climate policies. And he dismissed decades of U.N. climate warnings, calling officials “stupid people” and describing climate change as the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”
His remarks clash with the latest data: 91% of utility-scale renewable projects launched in 2024 were more cost-effective than new fossil fuel alternatives, with solar now 41% and offshore wind 53% less expensive. But Trump doubled down, insisting he’s “really good at predicting things” and has been “right about everything.”
David Beasley isn’t one to mince words either. The former South Carolina governor and ex-World Food Programme chief said the U.N. is drowning in jargon, red tape, and too many agencies. “No one cares or understands what IPC level 3, 4, or 5 means. Explain what it means — are people starving?” he told Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar during our event on the sidelines of UNGA.
From 2017 to 2023, Beasley raised a record $55 billion for WFP, steering it through the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine. But he said the U.N. missed a “lost opportunity” for reform under Biden and warns that without stronger leadership, its survival is at risk.
He recalled how plain talk worked even with Trump: “The taxpayer in Texas is like, ‘Why should I send my money down to Guatemala or Chad when we got health care, education, infrastructure funding needs?’ A very valid question. And so lay it out practically.”
Beasley also stressed that aid isn’t just moral — it’s strategic. “If you’re not gonna love your neighbor out of the goodness of your heart, you better do it out of your national security interest and your financial interest.”
Read: David Beasley on straight talk, UN reform, and making America good again
Related: Why don’t Americans understand aid, and what do we do about it? (Pro)
A breakthrough HIV prevention shot is edging closer to wide rollout — and donors are racing to make sure it’s affordable. Lenacapavir, a pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, injection that protects for six months at a time, has shown near-perfect efficacy and generated huge excitement about its potential to help end the epidemic.
At UNGA, two new partnerships were announced to bring generics to 120 low- and middle-income countries by 2027 at $40 per person per year — the same as a year of daily oral PrEP. One partnership involves Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Unitaid, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and Wits RHI; the other pairs the Gates Foundation with Hetero. “This is a massive step forward to jumpstart the market,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC.
Oral PrEP has been available since 2012, but uptake is slow, with just 3.5 million people using it last year. Trevor Mundel, president of global health at the Gates Foundation, said the aim is to reach 10 million people with lenacapavir, enough to “turn off the tap of new infections.” Former U.S. President Bill Clinton called it “truly transformational” to offer six months of protection at the same cost as daily pills.
The price tag is what makes this moment so critical, Devex Senior Reporter Sara Jerving writes. In high-income countries, lenacapavir costs $28,000 a year. But Gilead has already licensed six generic makers, and Janet Ginnard, director of strategy at Unitaid, said the new deals are about securing a “launch price that can help unlock and remove one of the hurdles to early adoption.” Experts say competition could even push costs down to $30 in the coming years.
The challenge now is ensuring widespread use. “Nobody has ever delivered an injectable to 10 million people in this way, as we certainly hope to do,” Mundel said. Governments will need to prepare, and ultimately buy in, and donors are working to drive demand. Carolyn Amole, vice president of HIV, hepatitis, and TB at CHAI, called it a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.”
Read: New partnerships bring price parity between Lenacapavir and oral PrEP
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The Gaza-bound aid flotilla has been attacked by multiple drones and its radio communications disrupted. [France 24]
Military-led countries Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have announced their decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. [BBC]
Charities and NGOs in Indonesia have called for a suspension of the nationwide free school meals program after reports that over 6,000 children fell ill from contaminated meals. [Reuters]