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At the AI for Development conference in Barcelona, speakers stressed equity and trust over hype. WFP and Norad showed pragmatic AI tools, while experts warned of bias and poor data. Their message: Diverse voices and responsible adoption matter more than speed.
Also in today’s edition: Is philanthropy more diverse and equal, and can debt be humanized?
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Trust, access, inclusion
At the second AI for Development, or AI4D, conference in Barcelona, the focus wasn’t on flashy model launches but on how global development can claim its place in the AI revolution, my colleagues Honesty Pern and Thomas Cserép report.
“To get AI right, it should be a right,” said Emmanuel Lubanzadio, OpenAI’s Africa lead, as he presented the efforts the company is making to improve access and literacy integral to equitable AI use — pointing to initiatives such as ChatGPT Go and an OpenAI Academy for Africa aimed at broadening access.
But the hype has outpaced reality, said Nasim Motalebi, the World Food Programme’s AI lead. “Only 5% of tasks have been automated,” she told the AI4D audience, “and more than 95% of organizations have failed to scale AI effectively.” WFP’s new Enterprise Language Model helps staff find information in real time — a pragmatic step toward “fast and scalable impact.”
Norad is also pushing ahead, with its custom AI model RAI speeding up the review of partner reports. But Norad Policy Director The Thanh Nguyen cautioned: “The system’s effectiveness and legitimacy hinge entirely on the data it consumes.”
For Lindsey Moore, CEO of DevelopMetrics, the challenge is making sure AI reflects real-world evidence. “If male-dominated AI is giving the answers, we’re going to lose incredible diversity of perspective,” she warned.
That’s why groups like Tech to the Rescue are running AI literacy boot camps before nonprofits adopt tools. “We realized the power of AI, the promise of AI is huge, the responsibility of building AI good and well is also huge,” said Mara Puacz, the head of impact at Tech To The Rescue.
Creative technologist Javier Ideami added a final caution. “Humans are very good at extrapolating even from very few examples,” he explained. “But AI has trouble with this. … So it’s crucial to bring different perspectives together if we want to build systems that can truly learn from the complexity of the real world.”
The message was clear: Equity, trust, and diverse voices matter just as much as efficiency if AI is to deliver real progress in development.
Read: How the development sector is finding its own way with AI
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Bean breakthrough
Mariangela Hungria, a Brazilian soil scientist credited with making her country an agricultural powerhouse, was awarded the world’s highest honor in food and agriculture at a ceremony Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa.
The World Food Prize is awarded annually to someone who has improved the quality, quantity, or availability of food. Hungria, who works for the Brazilian state-run agricultural research center Embrapa, has developed seed and soil treatments that help crops source nutrients through soil bacteria, significantly increasing yields while reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.
Thursday’s ceremony kicked off with a trumpet fanfare and featured Brazilian samba dancers in honor of Hungria’s home country. It concluded the Borlaug Dialogue, a three-day gathering of some 1,300 farmers, scientists, government leaders, humanitarians, and food systems experts from 75 countries.
In an emotional speech, Hungria called the award an “unimaginable honor.”
“I promise I will continue to fight against hunger and to promote agricultural sustainability until the last day of my life,” she said. The prize comes with $500,000 for her to continue her research.
It is estimated that Hungria’s innovations — which are used on 85% of Brazil’s soybean fields — have saved Brazilian farmers up to $40 billion annually in input costs while avoiding more than 180 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per year.
Hungria’s honor comes as U.S. soybean farmers are caught in the middle of a trade war between the Trump administration and China: Soybeans are the biggest agricultural export of the U.S., and China is typically the biggest buyer. But in response to U.S. tariffs, China has stopped buying U.S. soybeans — and is turning to Brazil instead.
In a panel discussion on Tuesday with Devex Senior Editor Tania Karas, U.S. soybean farmers touted the nutritional quality of their soybeans and their environmentally sustainable production methods, encouraging people to buy U.S. soy. But emerging markets can “never take the place of China,” said Randy Miller, a board member of the U.S. Soybean Export Council.
Background reading: Brazilian microbiologist wins 2025 World Food Prize
See also: World Food Prize laureates call for doubling of food and agriculture aid
Diversity gains
The U.S. philanthropy workforce is looking more diverse and more equal on gender — even amid “economic and societal pressures,” according to new data from the Council on Foundations.
“It’s heartening that despite everything, the sector appears to remain committed to diversity,” says Jason Ludwig, director of content at COF, which just released its 2025 Grantmaker Salary and Benefits Report.
The findings show progress: People of color in grantmaking roles are up 4% since 2022; women now lead 64% of foundations; and the CEO gender pay gap has also tightened, with women now earning 88% of the median salary that their male counterparts earn, rather than 84% as reported in 2024.
“That was the largest jump we’ve seen in a decade,” Ludwig says. “As a sector, we don’t typically undergo too many radical shifts … so whenever there are large spikes like say in the pay gap narrowing, it’s surprising.”
He credits the gains to a push toward future-proof philanthropy. “Nobody in this sector or anywhere else knows how a lot of things are going to play out … it has to make sure that it’s prepared to deal with things that are happening now, but also things that might happen three years from now.”
And the pressure is mounting. With the U.S. and U.K. slashing aid budgets, philanthropy is expected to step in just as inflation, shrinking donations, and shifting donor priorities make that job even tougher.
The cracks are already visible, Devex contributor Rebecca Root writes. Turnover is climbing, and community foundation staff are losing ground against inflation, even as private foundation salaries inch up. “Inflation has spiked so fast and so much that essentially it’s difficult for even modest [salary] increases to keep up,” Ludwig says. “It’s to the sector’s credit that we’re trying to overcome that, but there’s only so much anybody can do.”
His hope? That foundations lean on the data to strengthen pay, retention, and equity — and keep the progress going.
Read: US philanthropy shifts its gender pay gap, new report finds
+Listen: For the latest episode of our podcast series, Devex’s David Ainsworth, Colum Lynch, and Catherine Cheney explore how philanthropy is stepping up amid foreign aid cuts and other top global development stories from the week.
The human price tag
Africa’s debt story is usually told in stats. The African Center for Economic Transformation wants to show the human cost instead. Its new report models what happens if debt servicing is capped at 5%, 10%, or 14% of government revenue.
“People don’t actually know what it is costing ordinary Africans for us to … make the debt repayments we are making,” says Mavis Owusu-Gyamfi, ACET’s president and CEO. When we “start putting these into lives affected, it becomes tangible.”
The findings are stark. At 5%, Egypt could “literally … eliminate maternal mortality.” Ethiopia could send 330,000 kids back to school. Kenya could bring clean water to nearly 700,000 people. “Each of these numbers is somebody's child, somebody's mother, somebody's grandmother,” Owusu-Gyamfi says.
But Africa pays more just for being Africa. “When Ghana is paying five-point-something percent, and Greece is paying one-point-something percent … we were penalized even before we went to the market,” she says.
Owusi-Gyamfi wants bolder fixes — more IMF Special Drawing Rights, clamping down on tax havens, and even a 1% global tax on investment profits. Still, she stressed accountability at home: “You can’t borrow a seven- to 10-year euro bond for an infrastructure project that will take 20 years for a return [on investment]. You just can’t.”
Her warning is blunt: By 2050, 1 in 4 people on Earth will be African. “If Africa is not investing in the development of its people … the world is in trouble.”
“Fixing the debt issue makes policy sense,” she adds. “It’s not about charity.”
Read: African Center for Economic Transformation tries to humanize debt
In other news
The U.S. is reportedly considering replacing the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation with a new humanitarian aid delivery framework called the Gaza Humanitarian Belt, which will have 12 to 16 distribution hubs. [Reuters]
EU leaders met Thursday to hammer out the bloc’s 10-year plan to cut carbon emissions ahead of the upcoming U.N. climate conference. [France 24]
The World Health Organization says the tobacco industry is “intensifying efforts to interfere” with its anti-smoking and vaping treaty, using tactics to weaken and delay its implementation in national- and international policy settings. [The Telegraph]
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About the author
Helen Murphy
Helen is an award-winning journalist and Senior Editor at Devex, where she edits coverage on global development in the Americas. Based in Colombia, she previously covered war, politics, financial markets, and general news for Reuters, where she headed the bureau, and for Bloomberg in Colombia and Argentina, where she witnessed the financial meltdown. She started her career in London as a reporter for Euromoney Publications before moving to Hong Kong to work for a daily newspaper.
