Devex Invested: A tale of two UNGAs

There are always two sides to the United Nations General Assembly, now underway in New York: the political theater, and then the work itself — often happening on the margins.

Or at least, that’s how a senior Rockefeller Foundation official puts it. We are aiming to bring you both sides, so do sign up for our daily Newswire if you haven’t already.

Our U.N. correspondent Colum Lynch is leading our team of reporters on the ground and has these stories already on how the U.N.’s Pact for the Future got done (despite Russia’s best efforts to nix it) and which people to really keep an eye on this week and why.

Adva is in New York too, hosting (among other things) a conversation on Thursday with Millennium Challenge Corporation Deputy CEO Chidi Blyden on unlocking the path to Africa’s economic transformation. That’s part of Devex’s own multiday summit, The future can’t wait: Shaping tomorrow, today. Details here.

You can hear from our reporters on what to expect at UNGA in our This Week in Global Development podcast.

And that Rockefeller official was Naveen Rao, talking to Devex Senior Reporter Jenny Lei Ravelo about what he calls the woeful state of financing for the health impacts of climate change — and what to do about it.

Read: Climate finance for health — 'Woefully short, woefully slow'

And don’t miss: UN states call Russia's bluff, adopt Pact for the Future

Plus: Who's who at the UN Future Summit and UNGA 79

+ You can still join the Devex news team in person or online for our two-day summit this Wednesday and Thursday on the sidelines of UNGA 79. Register now — it's free to attend!

What they want you to talk about

A lot of events at the start of this crazy week in New York have been focused on expanding energy access across Africa. And we learned some new information about the World Bank and African Development Bank effort to bring electricity to 300 million Africans by 2030.

In part, those organizations look to be getting a little help from their friends. The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, Sustainable Energy for All, and the Rockefeller Foundation announced a Mission 300 Accelerator to support the effort — including through a new $10 million technical assistance facility, a Mission 300 Leadership Group, and a push for private sector investment.

World Bank President Ajay Banga called the lack of energy access “a matter of some degree of shame for all of us,” at an event Monday. Negotiations are underway on energy pacts with 15 countries that will help each nation set out clear objectives and a path to get there. A summit in Tanzania in January will seek to push things forward as well. Adva will have more on this to come, including an interview with Mission 300 Accelerator CEO Andrew Herscowitz.

Background reading: World Bank, AfDB aim to bring electricity to 300 million Africans

Will you follow me?

Denmark is trying to send a message — and maybe push other donor countries — when it comes to the replenishment of the International Development Association, the World Bank’s fund for low-income countries. On Monday, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that her country would increase its IDA contribution by 40% — giving 3.3 billion Danish kroner (about $491.7 million).

The early commitment kicks off a busy few months ahead of the pledging conference in December at a time when many donor governments are cutting development funding, rather than increasing it.

“IDA needs — to be very clear — more money,” Frederiksen said at a press conference at the United Nations on Monday, adding, “I ask all donors, old and new ones, to follow the example.” 

“This is not a pipe dream,” Banga said at the same event, pointing to the 12 countries that have graduated from IDA since 2000.

ICYMI: World Bank's Banga wants 'largest of all time' IDA replenishment (Pro)

Under pressure

Across the pond, Anneliese Dodds, the United Kingdom’s new development minister, is feeling the heat from advocates to follow through on a previous demand that the country change a law that governs investors — a move that many see as critical to helping low-income countries struggling with debt, our colleague Rob Merrick reports.

The vast majority of debts owed by lower-income countries to banks, hedge funds, and asset managers are overseen by U.K. law or New York law and there has been a push from advocates in both places to pass legislation that would compel those private investors to act.

In a April 2021 letter to the then-Conservative government, Dodds wrote that the U.K. can “require private sector creditors whose debt contracts are governed by English law to implement debt restructuring on terms as favourable as sovereign creditors,” adding that the U.K. had a responsibility to act.

Now that the Labour Party is in power, advocates want to see her follow through.

Read: UK aid minister called for ‘debt justice law’ before taking power

Related op-ed: UK and New York laws have to be part of global debt crisis fix 

Czech mate

It’s been a big week in European politics too, with the proposal of a 2024-2029 leadership team by the president of the European Commission last Tuesday.

When it comes to global development, the commissioner-designate is Jozef Síkela of the Czech Republic. A former banker and now minister of industry and trade, he set off alarm bells among NGOs when he tweeted his plan to use the new role to work on “opening new markets for European companies.” Civil society is increasingly worried about the commission using its substantial official development assistance budget (worth $26.9 billion in 2023) to advance Europe’s interests rather than the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals — no matter how much the commission insists those two things are the same.

Síkela must still be confirmed, however. The European Parliament usually likes to claim at least one scalp by knocking back one of the proposed commissioners in hearings that will take place in the coming weeks.

Síkela’s detailed CV is now out, and it includes at least one line that is likely to cause some teeth grinding in low-income countries. He states that he “openly supports” the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, which is meant to make it more expensive to import carbon-intensive products into the EU but which has gone down like a lead balloon in many global south countries.

Even commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, admitted in her new political guidelines that Europe needs to “listen and respond better to the concerns of our partners” affected by the so-called European Green Deal.

Still, the buzzword in Brussels these days is “competitiveness,” and on that front Síkela seems raring to go.

Read: Are the proposed new EU aid leaders a good fit for the job? (Pro)

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Speaking of green …

Von der Leyen announced a new Green Coupon Facility on Monday in New York.

“What we have then seen is that when a developing country issues green bonds, it often has to pay a very high interest rate to investors – the so-called coupon,” the German told leaders of small island states. “This is of course a big obstacle if you do not have enough fiscal space … With this Green Coupon Facility, Europe will then subsidise part of the coupons for green bond issuers who face very high interest rates.”

What we’re reading

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance battles for funds as donors face financial pressures. [Financial Times]

Banga shouldn’t get his “biggest” at the cost of IDA’s best. [Center for Global Development]

The Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will co-host the fifth Finance in Common summit in South Africa. [AFD]