Devex Newswire: A bitter split at Pathfinder

A leading reproductive health NGO has been abandoned by its founder's descendants, who say they will be withdrawing their financial support.

My colleagues Michael Igoe and Shabtai Gold exclusively report that two longtime board members of Pathfinder International — both children of founder Clarence Gamble — resigned Monday, saying that they had lost faith in the organization’s leadership. Siblings Walter Gamble and Judy Kahrl wrote in a letter to Pathfinder’s biggest supporters that an alleged lack of transparency, high staff turnover, and low morale within the organization were chief among their reasons for leaving.

The family also said that it is withdrawing all future financial support from the organization, which implements more than $100 million annually in reproductive health and family programs, many of which are supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development. According to the letter, the family has given more than $40 million to Pathfinder since it was founded by Clarence Gamble, an heir to the Procter & Gamble fortune, in 1957.

Kahrl tells Devex that she was filled with “sadness” over the situation.

“The international staff is excellent,” she says. “But the management back here in the U.S. is failing, failing the international staff … And the board is not taking its responsibility as a good board should.”

Exclusive: 2 Pathfinder board members resign over transparency concerns 

Local network

Officials from the European Commission and USAID recently outlined plans to work with local philanthropies. The changes come as donor countries are facing pressure from civil society groups to have more local leaders and communities weigh in on aid delivery, as I report for Devex Pro subscribers.

Announcements about new USAID processes and policies for working with local partners should come within the next six to 12 months, according to USAID’s Michele Sumilas, who said the agency is facing challenges that “are just so widespread and complex and interrelated that without local solutions that are owned by local partners, we are not going to be able to find a way forward.”

Devex Pro: US, EU aid officials preview policy changes on local philanthropy

ICYMI: What's changed in global philanthropy, and what more is needed? 

Still waters

The World Wildlife Fund is calling for action to restore and protect rivers that are critical to food production. Over a third of global food production depends on rivers and yet rivers are often overlooked in discussions about conservation and food security. They were also neglected at last week’s U.N. Food Systems Summit, the group said.

Currently, about 25% of the world’s food comes from cropland irrigated by river water and 75% of those irrigated crops grow in water-stressed areas, according to the report. WWF said there should be a shift to nature-positive food production, an emphasis on ensuring sustainable fisheries and safeguarding free-flowing rivers, and a switch to healthy and sustainable diets.

Read: Support for rivers runs dry despite their role in food production

+ For the inside track on how agriculture, nutrition, sustainability, and more intersect to remake the global food system, sign up for Devex Dish, our latest newsletter.

Licensed to aid

Over the weekend, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued two general licenses for aid and humanitarian work in Afghanistan. The GL 14 authorizes the United States government, NGOs, and certain international organizations and those acting on their behalf, to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan. The GL 15 authorizes certain transactions related to the exportation or reexportation of agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices.

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!

It’s the 10th anniversary of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, or GIZ, which was created through a merger between three German government agencies focused on development and technical cooperation. To commemorate the occasion, my colleagues  Janadale Leene Coralde and Miguel Antonio Tamonan dig into GIZ’s purse strings — just after Germany’s election left parties jockeying to form a governing coalition.

They found that over the past decade, procurement has risen from being 36% of the agency’s total business volume in 2011 to 55.3% in 2020. GIZ also awarded over half a billion contracts to 1,519 firms between January 2020 and July 2021.

Read: Top GIZ contractors: A primer

+ Devex Pro subscribers can learn more about what a post-Merkel coalition government means for Germany's development ministry in this analysis. Not yet a Pro subscriber? Sign up now and start your 15-day free trial.

Clarion call

Election experts Banbury and Ellena say democracy is declining and corruption is on the rise — but U.S. President Joe Biden’s global Summit for Democracy, scheduled for December, could be a turning point.

Opinion: Corruption is a pandemic. The solution is democracy

In other news

Biden will officially nominate Africa CDC's head to PEPFAR [Devex]

Canada announced Monday that it will raise its Afghan refugee resettlement cap to 40,000 people. [New York Times]

A U.S. Senate committee has urged Biden to direct the Treasury department to “ensure full accountability” in its investigation of the World Bank Doing Business report controversy. [Reuters]

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison may sit out the United Nations climate change conference in November, citing the need to focus on national issues. [BBC]

Shabtai Gold contributed to this edition.

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