Devex Newswire: A $20 million surprise from Melinda French Gates

Melinda French Gates only recently resigned from the Gates Foundation to strike out on her own, but she’s already making waves with her philanthropic giving approach, which is very different from that of her ex-husband.

Also in today’s edition: The World Health Assembly ends on a potentially hopeful note. Plus, many small island states may be richer than lower-income countries, but they face many of the same shocks, with far less help.

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A multimillion-dollar shocker

What would you do if $20 million suddenly appeared in your bank account?

A dozen lucky, and likely very pleasantly surprised, individuals got to experience that adrenaline rush when philanthropist Melinda French Gates — who recently split from the foundation she co-founded with her her ex-husband Bill Gates — dropped the news that they would be receiving $20 million apiece to share with others whose work they find most effective.

Sabrina Habib is one of those lucky individuals. Habib, co-founder of Kenya’s largest childcare network, Kidogo, was at an airport holding her toddler when she received the news.

“I was trying to read the email, process it, and juggle my daughter at the same time,” Habib tells my colleague Elissa Miolene for her in-depth report. “She was like: Mummy, mummy, mummy! And I was like: Just one second, just one second!”

The philanthropist’s only ask to those individuals — from former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to Afghan education activist Shabana Basij-Rasikh — was that they “direct the money to organizations doing urgent, impactful, and innovative work to improve women’s health and well-being,” according to French Gates’ philanthropic investment company, Pivotal Ventures.

In addition to those dozen recipients, 16 organizations have been given unrestricted funding to support women and girls worldwide — a sign that French Gates is embracing a “trust-based” grantmaking approach which the Gates Foundation has historically shied away from.

“It’s an incredible experiment,” Habib says. “And I hope one that can be followed. This approach could really redefine how we do philanthropy and how we can put power into things that don’t always get the spotlight.”

Read: Inside Melinda French Gates’ $1 billion 'incredible experiment' (Pro)

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A rare bit of good news

While the headlines out of the World Health Assembly last week were sometimes bleak, as the historic effort to clinch a pandemic treaty was put off for another day, the news wasn’t all bad. After burning the midnight oil, countries closed out the proceedings with a new package of amendments to the International Health Regulations, the legally binding instrument that defines countries’ rights and responsibilities during public health emergencies.

It could be a game-changer.

Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand and co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, said that if fully implemented, the amendments “can result in a system that can better detect health threats and stop them before they become international emergencies.”

But the implementation part could be a major sticking point, my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo writes. Countries will now have to decide whether to accept the amendments or reject them. As early as Saturday, one country, Slovakia, expressed “serious concerns” about the amendments and asked to be disassociated from them.

Still, after months of laborious negotiations, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus seized on the moment as a cause for celebration: “The success of the IHR amendments demonstrates that in our divided and divisive world, countries can still come together to find common cause and common ground,” he said.

Read: Countries agree to amend global health security rules

ICYMI: The holdouts on negotiating amendments to the IHR at WHA77

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Trouble in paradise

To many outsiders, small island developing states, aka SIDS, like Antigua and Barbuda seem like idyllic oases. But for these SIDS, life is no paradise as they confront the forces of climate change and the burden of crippling debt.

To that end, Antigua and Barbuda hosted a major international conference last week to deliver a 10-year strategy to safeguard the future of SIDS, a grouping of 39 island nations and 18 associate members.

“This is a crucial gathering at a time of unprecedented global challenges, in which SIDS found themselves on the front line of a battle against a confluence of crises, none of which they have caused or created,” said Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda.

While many countries today face this confluence of crises, SIDS’ vulnerabilities are unique. For many, an extreme weather event or storm can wipe out an entire year’s worth of economic output, writes Chloé Farand for Devex. Meanwhile, ballooning debt has hamstrung SIDS’ ability to invest in basic services and climate resilience.

And because they have relatively high levels of income, SIDS receive less concessional lending and less resilience finance than lower-income nations.

A recent policy brief by the United Nations Development Programme found that breaking SIDS’ costly disaster-response cycle requires “ramping up adaptation investments immediately,” with $4.7 billion to $7.3 billion needed annually by 2030.

“We are talking about a few billion dollars a year over the next 10 years that could literally transform the economies of almost a fifth of the United Nations member states into viable 21st century economies,” Achim Steiner, who heads UNDP, tells Chloé. In contrast, he pointed out, the world is lavishing $2.44 trillion on military and defense budgets.

Read: Small island states seek world’s ‘full support’ for resilience strategy

Opinion: Why small island states' new 10-year agenda prioritizes climate

Small states, big problems

Climate change and debt aren’t the only threats SIDS are grappling with. They face a whole host of health threats as well, write WHO’s Tedros and Antigua and Barbuda’s Browne in a Devex opinion piece.

“SIDS have disproportionately high rates of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory conditions,” they write. “Pacific island countries account for nine out of the top 10 countries in the world with the highest prevalence of obesity among both women and men. … Tobacco use and mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety are also highly prevalent.”

Tedros and Browne outline four ways that leaders and donors can help, including more aid and debt relief, as well as adopting WHO’s “best buys,” such as taxes and regulation, “which are powerful tools for limiting the impact of health-harming products, such as foods high in sugar, unhealthy fats or salt, or highly processed foods.”

Opinion: Let’s heal the health challenges faced by small island states 

An unhealthy nexus

Tedros and Browne’s opinion piece points out that SIDS’ health issues are exacerbated by climate change. This interlinkage between climate and health was also highlighted at WHA, where a resolution on the topic was put forth during the Geneva gathering.

However, one solution was conspicuously absent: the phaseout of fossil fuels. Panelists at Devex CheckUp @ WHA77 said health professionals have an obligation to call out this glaring omission.

“It’s not a luxury for the health community or a choice. It is just their moral duty to talk about it if they are really concerned about protecting their patients’ lives. The climate crisis is a health crisis,” said Shweta Narayan of Health Care Without Harm.

Fellow panelist Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown, echoed that sentiment, saying climate change “is undermining the very basic building blocks of health.” She cited a recent study which found that 5 million people die each year from outdoor air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels.

It will only get worse as the world warms up.

“That future could be really disastrous. It could be a death sentence for millions if not billions,” she warned.

Read: Health workers have a ‘duty’ to demand fossil fuel phaseout, experts say

+ ICYMI, catch up on all the panel discussions at our Devex CheckUp @ WHA 77 event.

In other news

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the European Union have condemned an Israeli bill to label the U.N. main agency for Palestinian refugees a terrorist organization. [TIME]

Greece and Italy have denied a report that they have reached an agreement with the U.S. to accept the resettlement of migrants and asylum-seekers from Latin America to discourage migration to the U.S. [Reuters]

The number of displaced people around the world because of conflict has reached and could exceed 114 million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. [AP News]

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