Internal documents from the United Nations show a reluctance to fundraise on Oct. 7 — a departure from the way it’s approached raising money for the victims of other conflicts.
Also in today’s edition: Nicholas Kristof laments the lack of attention paid to Sudan, the world’s blind spot.
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There’s no shortage of commentary about the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that was orchestrated by Hamas, and the subsequent Israeli military offensive against Hamas that flattened the Gaza Strip.
But apparently, not everyone wants to talk about it — at least not the latter part.
“No mention of a ‘One-Year Mark’” — those are the words UNICEF sent out in an internal directive shared with my colleague Colum Lynch.
“In all fundraising materials, please refrain from framing appeals around a ‘one-year mark’ of the conflict,” the directive said. “We should not be pro-active on media engagement related to the anniversary itself, cognizant that this will be a day of mourning in Israel, and we should respect that.”
In other words, don’t use Oct. 7 to raise funds for Gaza.
The memo is one of several internal missives circulating around U.N. agencies that instructed communications and fundraising staff on how to navigate the politically sensitive anniversary, Colum writes. They recommended letting U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres deliver an Oct. 7 message on behalf of the entire organization, while the U.N. agencies either followed his lead or kept quiet.
For some, the directive makes sense. After all, it was the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war. For others though, keeping quiet doesn’t sit right.
Some U.N. personnel say it contrasts sharply with how these same agencies have addressed key markers of the Ukrainian war, which have been used to highlight the plight of children for fundraising purposes.
“It’s easy to replace Ukraine with Palestine and one begins to wonder why the stark contrast with UNICEF’s response,” one U.N. aid official says.
Exclusive: UN tones down Gaza advocacy on terror anniversary
Sudan truths
Focus is on the Middle East as a wider war threatens the region. But atrocities are also taking place in Sudan, although the war-ravaged nation would be lucky to get even a fraction of the attention that the Middle East commands.
The neglect is pervasive, despite how harrowing the atrocities are: rapes, mass executions, 10 million people forced from their homes, and half a country teetering on the brink of starvation.
“And they may well get quite a bit worse,” said Nicholas Kristof, the award-winning journalist who has seen many of those atrocities first-hand during his trips to the region.
“The world, as a whole, has dropped the ball on this,” he said. “I think that’s true of just about everybody. It’s true of journalism. It’s true of celebrities. It’s true of G7 leaders. It’s true of the [United Nations] secretary-general. I think it’s been true of African leaders. And it’s certainly true of Sudanese government and … the two main factions.”
Kristof spoke to my colleague Elissa Miolene at the U.N. General Assembly, where diplomats pleaded for more humanitarian assistance to Sudan and peace talks between the Sudanese army and its archrival, the Rapid Support Forces.
But while the United States committed $424 million in new humanitarian support, the meeting didn’t result in what Kristof has been calling for: Real, sustained pressure from the countries that can actually make a difference.
“This is not inevitable,” the celebrated columnist and author said. “If there were political will, I think there could be better outcomes.”
Read: ‘The world, as a whole, has dropped the ball’ on Sudan (Pro)
Watch: New Sudan coalition aims to channel help to local responders
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Bridgetown over troubled water
“We’re at a point, to be very frank, where people are tired.”
— Pepukaye Bardouille, director, Bridgetown InitiativeHopefully that fatigue spurs countries to not just rhetorically embrace the Bridgetown Initiative — which aims to rejigger the global financial system to better prioritize climate-vulnerable nations — but to implement its recommendations as well.
The initiative — the brainchild of Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley — recently released a third iteration that outlines those recommendations. Notably, it calls for taxes on the superrich and the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies. The report also suggests an emissions levy on carbon-heavy industries such as aviation and shipping or repurposing subsidies, my colleague Jesse Chase-Lubitz writes.
Bardouille says that several countries, including Denmark and the United Kingdom, have already expressed an interest in some of Bridgetown’s recommendations: “They’re really tired of having conversations that aren’t going anywhere.”
Read: Barbados' Bridgetown 3.0 recommends taxing emitters and the superrich
The other COP
As in past years, Bridgetown is sure to be a centerpiece of the discussions at the 29th U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP 29, in Azerbaijan this November. But that’s not the only COP in town.
COP 16, known as the U.N. Biodiversity Conference, is coming up in Colombia later this month — and it’s already off to a rocky start.
Jesse writes that the world is going backward on its 2023 pledge to halt deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, according to the 2024 Forest Declaration Assessment, published today.
“Unfortunately, deforestation has increased globally, not decreased, since that pledge was made in 2023,” Erin Matson of Climate Focus says. “And almost every region around the world was also off track.”
Countries are also not on track for financing. Only one-third of the annual $30 billion that was pledged has been disbursed, according to KM Reyes of One Tree Planted.
“Negotiators at COP 16 will have their work cut out for them,” Reyes says.
Read: Report paints grim picture of global deforestation, with eyes on COP 16
Highly charged
It’s bad enough to be drowning in debt. It’s worse to be charged large sums just to take out a loan to get your head above water. Now, the International Monetary Fund may be in hot water for the practice.
A group of U.S. lawmakers is pushing the IMF to change its “harmful policy” of charging heavily indebted countries surcharges on their loans, urging action on a long-debated issue, my colleague Adva Saldinger writes.
The IMF has for years levied an extra surcharge or fee on countries that need to borrow large sums of money. But it recently started to review such policies, with discussions expected at the annual World Bank-IMF meetings later this month.
How much money are we talking about? The surcharges will total about $13 billion between 2024 and 2033. That’s on top of the fact that nearly three times as many countries pay surcharges today compared to 2019.
Read: US lawmakers renew push for IMF surcharge changes
Banking on collaboration
$400 billion
—That’s how much multilateral development banks have increased their lending by over 10 years, mostly through reforms but partly due to working together more closely, according to Ilan Goldfajn, president of the Inter-American Development Bank.
Goldfajn sat down with Adva to talk about an agreement that a group of MDBs signed to collaborate more on a set of goals, which include scaling up their financing capacity and delivering more on climate.
Listen: MDBs want to cooperate more closely. What progress have they made?
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In other news
The United Arab Emirates has ordered six additional flights carrying humanitarian aid to Lebanon on top of a $100 million aid package, while the World Bank is considering releasing up to $100 million in emergency funds. [ZAWYA and Reuters]
Nations remain at an impasse ahead of COP 29 with divisions over funding responsibilities, as climate-vulnerable countries are pushing for upwards of $1 trillion annually in climate finance. [France 24]
According to a WHO report, hearing loss could affect 54 million people in Africa by 2030, costing the continent $27 million annually. [UN News]
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About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
