Devex Newswire: A new dawn for development or a return to irrelevance?

The last few decades have been pretty good for global development as it morphed into a mega force to be reckoned with. But will 2023 be the year the sector is forced to reckon with the harsh realities that threaten to tear it down? Also in today’s edition: Long COVID gets short shrift in lower-income countries, and a pandemic warrior gets her due. + Join us: Every month this year, Devex Pro members will have access to a virtual roundtable, with members able to join the conversation and ask questions. Kick off with us on Wednesday, when a group of CEOs in the globaldev space will discuss localization, their own roles, and the future of work. A good run Global development has had an impressive run. Over the last few decades, it transformed from a vague idealist pastime into a full-fledged, multibillion-dollar industry that has made serious gains on issues such as poverty. There was global solidarity, lots of money, and high hopes. Then came 2022, when many of those hopes came crashing down. Now, the development community is waiting to see if 2023 ushers in a new era that renders the heydays of yesteryear obsolete. Devex Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar breaks down the seismic shifts in global development — namely, the renewed great power competition among China, Russia, and the West reminiscent of the Cold War; high interest rates and inflation; slower economic growth; and fast-rising, climate-driven humanitarian backsliding. How governments, multilateral banks, philanthropists, NGOs, and corporations respond to those challenges will help determine the trajectory that development takes in 2023 and whether it will rise to meet the occasion, or revert to a darker time. From the editor-in-chief: 3 ways 2023 may define a new development era + Raj will be in Davos for the World Economic Forum annual meeting later this month, along with Devex correspondent Vince Chadwick. Register here to be invited to our Davos events. A debilitating enigma Long COVID took a backseat during much of the pandemic as the residual effects of the coronavirus on the body remained a mystery. The symptoms still confound doctors and researchers, although the phenomenon is getting more attention — but not on the global scale needed to help people whose lives have been irrevocably changed by it. And we could be talking tens of millions of lives around the world, my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo writes. The problem is we don’t really know how many: The World Health Organization is relying on individual countries for information, resulting in a black hole of data that’s especially deep in low- and middle-income countries. Padma Priya, a journalist living in India who founded the Twitter account @LongcovidIndia, says most of the evidence on long COVID there is anecdotal. She’s urging WHO to do more studies so governments can better understand the scale of the problem — and not view COVID-19 strictly through an economic recovery lens. After all, she points out that “if previously able people are becoming disabled, that also has an impact on the economy.” For Priya, the issue is personal. She first got COVID-19 in April 2020. She recovered after a few weeks but then she was at a market when her heart started racing and she fainted. It took a year — and another COVID-19 infection — to get a concrete diagnosis. “[E]veryone kept saying, ‘oh, you know, after a bad viral or any flu you do get that sort of fatigue,’” she tells Jenny. “But I never improved.” Read more: The mind-boggling challenge of long COVID Productive restlessness South Africa’s revolutionary mRNA technology and transfer hub was created to address the inequality of testing, treatment, and inoculation exposed by COVID-19 — and help the global south produce its own vaccines. Enter Petro Terblanche, who is overseeing the development of that technology as the managing director of Afrigen Biologics. Devex contributor Andrew Green writes that Terblanche is somewhat of a restless expert. “I get bored,” she tells him. She pursued an education that shifted from zoology to oncology, pivoting again to the epidemiology of air pollution after she graduated. In later roles, Terblanche helped develop South Africa’s biotech policy and nuclear strategy. All of this culminated in taking over as managing director of Afrigen, a biotech startup on the outskirts of Cape Town — and in becoming an advocate for the local production of pharmaceuticals and vaccines. The transition hasn’t been all smooth-going, with hurdles like finding skilled workers, but Terblanche says she’s ready to stay on until she gets it right. “I thought, I have never made something out of nothing,” she says. “This program is a convergence of everything I’ve ever learned.” Petro Terblanche: A global advocate for local production Pooling generosity If individual philanthropists like Melinda French Gates can make such a profound difference, just imagine what an entire group of philanthropists could accomplish. That’s the idea behind philanthropic collaboratives, which French Gates herself recently gave a shout-out to, my colleague Stephanie Beasley writes. What are global philanthropic collaboratives? Basically what they sound like: A group of philanthropists collaborate to pool their funds. Stephanie writes that the mission usually involves tackling large systemic challenges such as climate change, world hunger, and gender inequality — and that mission is increasingly appealing to megadonors. Read: What are philanthropy collaboratives, and why do megadonors like them? Jobs galore There may be a shortage of development funding as economies shrink around the world, but there doesn’t appear to be a major shortage of career opportunities. Over 91,000 job postings were featured on Devex’s jobs board last year. In a New Year’s tradition, our careers team scoured our database to uncover which agencies were the busiest recruiters last year and which experience levels and skills had more opportunities to choose from. Read: The top 10 global development employers of 2022 (Career) + Join Devex Careers Editor Justin Sablich on Jan. 13 for a LinkedIn Live event on Networking 101 — Pro tips and best practices. Save your spot. Tell us more Before we wrap up, a small request: we are looking into solutions to help Devex Pro members connect, share information, and build the next step of their careers. To give you a tool to help you better do your job, we would like your feedback — a five-minute survey is all we need! And if you aren’t a Pro member yet, start today with a 15-day free trial to enjoy our offering of exclusive insights and deeper analysis of the development sector. In other news Brazil aims to take the lead in addressing climate change as its new environment minister announces new climate-centric initiatives. [Reuters] The United Nations Development Programme estimates that an additional 9 million people in Pakistan are at risk of falling into poverty, while a total of $16 billion is still needed to assist the flood-affected country's long-term reconstruction. [UN News and The Washington Post] U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar announced Thursday that the U.S. will allocate an additional $23 million in immigration aid to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. [Reuters] Sign up to Newswire for an inside look at the biggest stories in global development.