I’m writing this week from Davos, where the crowd for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting feels a bit smaller than in previous years. But after a two-year gap, there’s a sense of excitement at being back in person — COVID-19 testing requirements and all.
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This year, umbrellas have replaced snow boots as the event moved to the spring from its typical January dates. Meanwhile, the number of cryptocurrency and tech firm pop-up spaces has proliferated. (I learned that Bitcoin Pizza Day is a thing. Who knew?)
It’s admittedly an odd feeling for a journalist focused on global poverty, inequality, and humanitarian aid to find oneself at this exclusive gathering of elites in the Alpine hills.
Here’s what else I’m seeing and hearing:
• Lots of alarm bells. From the pandemic economic recovery to rising food insecurity to Russia’s war in Ukraine and climate change, the global economy is facing a “confluence of calamities,” as International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva put it Monday.
• Speaking of inequality, Oxfam’s latest report, out Monday — “Profiting from Pain” — shows its quickening pace: While a new billionaire was created roughly every 30 hours during the pandemic, nearly a million people could be pushed into extreme poverty this year at nearly the same rate.
• One of the key issues I’m tracking at WEF is innovations in financing humanitarian needs. I was struck by how the International Committee of the Red Cross President Peter Maurer described it as a way of seeking “exit strategies” against dependency on aid or interventions.
• ICRC has been at the forefront of this for years — it even launched the first humanitarian impact bond at Davos in 2017. Its new Goma West Resilient Water Project, announced Monday, is designed to build drinking water systems for half the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s part of ICRC’s aim to look longer-term rather than only solving the immediate challenge — in this case, avoiding perpetually trucking in water supplies. The organization has the World Bank and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation as partners for this project, with the goal of bringing in private sector partners or funders as well.
• Can digital currencies and cryptocurrencies transform aid? I’m not sure I’m convinced yet. One potential application to watch is a digital wallet to keep refugees’ money safe as they move across borders. This “brain wallet” just requires a passphrase so it can be accessed even if a device is lost, says Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO at Circle, a blockchain platform.
• UNICEF is exploring the space, especially as it looks to provide more cash aid. But there are key barriers: Systems haven’t been built with refugees as end users in mind, and people don’t understand the technology or can’t pay for a phone or data plan to access the platforms, says Carla Haddad Mardini, UNICEF’s director of private fundraising and partnerships.
• Net-zero commitments and ESG measurement are also high on the agenda. I’ll be at a climate event tomorrow looking at corporate commitments — particularly how many firms have missed focus and alignment in their climate commitments.
• I ran into U.S. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who was instrumental in passing the legislation that created the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. There’s work to be done to truly make it the development organization it could be, he told me, and DFC has been hamstrung by attempts to have it stray from that core mission. He also told me he’s discussing with the Biden administration how to push through a fix to an equity scoring issue that could unlock the agency’s ability to do more equity investments.
+ Tune in to our new podcast series Davos Dispatch for the latest updates and insights on this year’s meeting.
+ On May 25, we’ll be hosting a series of conversations outside of Geneva’s Palais des Nations with decision-makers, policy experts, and civil society activists from the 75th World Health Assembly. Attend in person or virtually. Register now.
Follow the money
The World Bank spent $17.7 billion on contracts in the 2021 fiscal year — $3.8 billion more than the previous fiscal year. Some of this was due to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
My colleague Miguel Antonio Tamonan took a deep dive into the data on the anti-poverty lender’s contract spending. He also compiled the top 10 contractors for the bank and noticed that only two were part of the 2020 list. Some shifts: more Chinese state-owned enterprises, and two pharma contracts — Pfizer Export BV and Moderna Switzerland.
Read: The World Bank’s top contractors in 2021 (Pro)
+ Join us on June 9 at 9 a.m. ET (3 p.m. CET) for a Devex Pro Live event Beyond NextGen: Solving the challenges of health supply chains. Pro subscribers can register here. If you’re not a Pro subscriber yet, you can sign up for a free trial to join.
Powering Africa
Although investor interest is increasing in Africa, the majority of funding in the sustainable energy sector still goes to foreign-owned companies. At last week’s Sustainable Energy for All Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, African entrepreneurs called for more investment in local sustainable energy startups — and called out funders for their lack of faith in local companies, Rumbi Chakamba reports.
Read: African entrepreneurs call for more investment in local energy startups
ICYMI: African leaders present unified position on a just energy transition (Pro)
What we’re reading
HSBC has suspended a top executive in charge of responsible investing for some irresponsible remarks. [BBC]
Australia’s new prime minister ushers in a new era for the country's development assistance. [Devex Pro]
Unrest rises as risks rain down on emerging markets. [Bloomberg]
The U.S. securities regulator is poised to crack down on misleading ESG investment claims. [Financial Times]
A blogger who sounded the alarm about bad U.N. investments is getting sued. [Devex]
Shabtai Gold contributed to this edition of Devex Invested.
About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
