Thursday night brought a big change to Davos — and not just because it snowed for the first time all week. At just past 5 p.m., U.S. President Donald Trump presented his “America First” priorities virtually, telling the crowd: “Three days ago I took the oath of office, and we began the Golden Age of America.”
Mostly, he spent his time slamming former President Joe Biden, pushing for a drop in oil prices, and making the business case for governments, companies, and individuals to invest in the United States. Trump didn’t talk much about development, but he did say his administration will “unlock the liquid gold under our feet,” and touted his recent moves on blocking immigration, freezing foreign assistance, and withdrawing from the “one-sided Paris climate accord.”
“I think you could hear the applause all the way from Davos to the White House,” said Børge Brende, the president and CEO of the World Economic Forum, after Trump finished his speech.
Those we spoke to weren’t so sure. But love him or hate him, one thing is clear: Trump is bringing change to not just the U.S., but across the world — and the development community will not be spared.
There were more flowery words for Trump on Wednesday, with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres crediting him for getting the Israel-Hamas ceasefire to the finish line.
“The negotiations were dragging, dragging, dragging,” said Guterres, speaking from the Davos main stage. “And then, all of a sudden, it happened. I think there was a large contribution of the robust diplomacy of the, at the time, president-elect of the United States.”
But Varsen Aghabekian, the Palestinian Authority’s minister of state for foreign affairs, spoke at Davos with a markedly different tone. He described how less than a week into the ceasefire in Gaza, Israel’s prime minister announced the start of a large-scale military operation in the West Bank. And how earlier this week, Israeli forces killed at least 10 people — including a child — in the occupied territory.
“If President Trump wants to leave a legacy of sustainable peace, then peace can only be sustained if the rights of Palestinians can be expected,” Aghabekian said on Wednesday. “You can dictate a peace, call it a peace. But if it’s not a true peace, it won’t work.”
Elsewhere in the Congress Center, Syria’s minister of foreign affairs, Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, was feeling optimistic.
“Syria now is free, and the Syrian people are free,” al-Shaibani told Tony Blair, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, on Wednesday. “We will not look at the past. We will look at the future.”
Asked about the plight of women, al-Shaibani replied that Syrian women are empowered. On minority divides, he said “Syria will be for all the Syrian people.” On the economy, he said Syria held big investment opportunities. He did recognize the challenges — first and foremost, continued economic sanctions — but throughout the half-hour conversation, al-Shaibani’s glass was nearly always full.
The reality is far more complex. Today, more than 7 million people remain internally displaced across Syria, while over 16 million are in need of humanitarian aid, according to the International Rescue Committee. In fact, more than 90% of the country is living in poverty, while hyperinflation has made food unaffordable for many.
There’s more optimism brewing in another humanitarian hot spot: the Democratic Republic of Congo. For decades, DRC has been caught in near ceaseless conflict, compounded by disease outbreaks, climate shocks, and soaring levels of displacement.
But on Wednesday, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi pushed ahead on an effort to change that: the Kivu to Kinshasa Green Corridor Reserve.
The corridor will stretch across the entire Congo Basin, protecting some 310,000 square miles of rainforest. It aims to generate clean energy, create jobs, and stabilize the DRC’s interior. And while it was first announced late last year, Tshisekedi unveiled a new component of that project — the Congo Basin Fund — on Wednesday afternoon.
Through a concessional investment vehicle, DRC will now “build an economy that respects both people and nature,” said Tshisekedi, accelerating the development of green businesses within the Green Corridor. The European Union has mobilized $1 billion for the effort, according to EU Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Síkela, and is working to scale up more funding from the private sector.
“I can say without any bashfulness or reservation, that this is one of the strongest and most exciting proposals that I’ve been privileged to be part of in the years that I’ve come to the World Economic Forum,” added former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. “This is a huge idea. And it depends on the best of private sector [and] public sector cooperation.”
Speaking of tech, AI has been the talk of this year’s Davos. All week, I’ve heard about countless AI-infused development projects — including one from the World Food Programme, which is using a statistical modeling tool to streamline its supply chain operations and thus reduce the cost of essential food delivery. It’s just one of many programs operated by the WFP Innovation Accelerator, a Munich-based initiative focused on sourcing and scaling new solutions.
“We know that accelerators and innovation work in the private sector — you see it all around with artificial intelligence,” says Bernhard Kowatsch, who founded the accelerator in 2015. “Why can’t we use it not just in pilots, but at scale for humanitarian response?”
▶️ Watch the entire conversation with Kowatsch (Pro)
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Kowatsch wasn’t the only one at Davos repping WFP. The organization’s executive director, Cindy McCain, made the case for reshaping the food system, and experts from the private sector backed her up.
“I can no longer rely on governments around the world to support WFP in any way. They have the ability to do some, but the truth is, the problems are too big,” said McCain, speaking from a Davos stage on Thursday. “We need the private sector, we need people from around the world to help mitigate some of this.”
McCain said that she’s been pushing those in her political circles to do something about the challenges WFP is responding to, from natural disasters to humanitarian conflict to climate shocks.
“But the truth is, no one is paying attention,” she added.
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UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima echoed McCain’s argument when it came to global health — especially in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization.
“We may be at a point where we never see development funding returning to where it was,” Byanyima told our president and editor-in-chief, Raj Kumar, in an interview this week.
U.S. funding provides lifesaving treatment to millions of people through UNAIDS. Byanyima called for emerging economies like Mexico, China, and Brazil to step it up on global health funding, arguing that the current setup remains “very colonial,” with a handful of countries calling the shots.
She pointed to a stark statistic: Low- and middle-income countries send $30 million per hour back to wealthy nations through debt repayments while receiving a fraction of that in aid.
“You’re talking of people without their daily tablets that keep them alive and healthy,” she warned, while pushing for gradual transitions toward country self-financing.
🎧 Listen to the full interview with Byanyima.
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In the Congress Center: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose security almost accidentally knocked François Bonnici, the director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, clean off his feet.
We also spotted Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, sharing a hug with Mel B, aka Scary Spice — who asked the politician her age. At 38, Shinawatra is the youngest person to ever hold Thailand’s highest office.
At Badr Jafar’s annual breakfast: John Kerry, former U.S. secretary of state; Steve Davis of the Gates Foundation; Catherine Russell of UNICEF; and Jagan Chapagain of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
At Barry’s Piano Bar: Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo breaking down the dance floor while singing “Summer of ’69.”
At the Schaltzap: Cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing at the Arctic Basecamp, where every year, scientists and activists roll out their tents — and sleep in freezing temperatures! — to draw attention to climate risks.
In the media village: Suzan Craig of KAEĀ, the Villars Institute, and WWF-New Zealand trying on WEF’s virtual reality goggles.
In the ICON house: Cardinal Peter Turkson, who tried to tune into a session on brain health discreetly (think: turtleneck above his clergy collar) but was spotted and forced to take the mic.
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