Presented by Tetra Pak
Citing health concerns, Cindy McCain is stepping down as the head of the World Food Programme, leaving behind a financially strapped agency wrestling with cascading hunger crises.
Also in today’s edition: Oxfam GB is undergoing its own leadership turmoil, which has made some question the charity’s decision-making process.
+ How do you land your next mission-driven role amid the aid sector disruption? On Tuesday, March 3, we’ll have Alder Bartlett for a Career Briefing to talk through how she went from losing her long-term role at USAID to becoming the COO of Oregon Housing and Community Services and give practical strategies on how to succeed in a competitive job market. Save your spot now.
The World Food Programme is facing a leadership test after the early departure of Cindy McCain, who suffered a mild stroke in October. Her five-year term was set to end in April 2028 but instead she will be leaving in three months to give her adequate time to focus on her recovery, the U.N. food agency said in a statement.
“Serving this incredible organization has been the honor of a lifetime,” McCain said in her statement.
McCain’s track record at WFP is mixed. Under her predecessor, David Beasley, WFP’s budget ballooned from $5.8 billion in 2016 to $14.1 billion in 2022. But amid COVID-19 and Trump administration cuts, that growth was unsustainable and cratered, forcing the agency to slash food rations, my colleagues Colum Lynch and Ayenat Mersie write.
McCain’s tenure was also rocked by internal tumult over her perceived failure to denounce Israel’s bombardment of Gaza more forcefully.
In addition, questions constantly swirled as to whether U.S. President Donald Trump would keep McCain — the wife of the late Sen. John McCain and a Biden appointee — at the head of an agency long dominated by the United States. Now, her departure allows Trump to install his own candidate to lead a major U.N. humanitarian agency.
In fact, just days before McCain’s announcement, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. agencies in Rome, Lynda Blanchard, pushed for greater efficiencies, saying, “U.N. duplication and mandate creep takes our focus from helping communities and countries become self-sufficient, blurs accountability, and inhibits our capacity to get the best results.”
Sources familiar with the transition say Blanchard and Kip Tom, a U.S. ambassador to the U.N. agencies in Rome during Trump’s first term, are being considered as potential replacements.
“Kip Tom wants the job for sure,” says one Republican source. “He will implement an America First agenda in WFP and the UN more broadly. WFP could use a good DOGE-ing and Kip would definitely do that.”
For now, McCain’s deputy, Carl Skau of Sweden, will serve as officer in charge whenever she is away from the agency’s Rome headquarters.
Read: WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain to step down, citing health concern
Meanwhile, Oxfam GB is going through a very different leadership test — or mess, depending on what you want to call it.
It started with the controversial departure of CEO Halima Begum amid allegations about her leadership and conduct, though that was just the tip of the accusatory iceberg. Since then, Begum has claimed the NGO “brutally” dismissed her and made her feel “humiliatingly infantilized.” Chief Supporter Officer Jan Oldfield was then appointed as acting CEO, despite being weeks away from leaving the organization herself.
The charity has undertaken an independent review of its governance. It’s also on the hunt for a replacement — apparently without much luck. According to two sources, more than 100 people have been approached about the vacancy but there has been little interest in taking on the position. A spokesperson for Oxfam did not address the allegation.
In the meantime, Joyce Idoniboye, the charity’s chief people officer, has agreed to step in as “acting CEO” until an “interim CEO” has been appointed. In a statement shared with Devex, Oxfam said that once the charity has an interim CEO, it is looking to appoint a permanent CEO (like I said, messy).
That doesn’t sit well with some. When he resigned from his role as trustee of Oxfam GB on Jan. 18, Dr. Balwant Singh, criticized the charity’s decision-making around leadership following Begum’s departure.
“A departing senior leader was appointed as interim CEO, while a highly respected Black woman leader serving as Chief People Officer — centrally involved in resolving safeguarding compliance failures — was excluded from consideration and from key processes,” Singh wrote in his resignation letter, seen by Devex, ostensibly referring to Idoniboye. “These decisions raise serious questions about values, governance competence and risk awareness.”
Read: Oxfam GB in extended leadership limbo as CEO search drags on (Pro)
+ Stay ahead of the curve in this crucial time for global development by signing up for a Devex Pro membership with a 15-day free trial today and gain unlimited access to all our expert analyses and one-on-one briefings with sector leaders, funding data and opportunities from top donors, exclusive news content, and the Pro Insider — a weekend newsletter covering our industry’s big moves and the people behind them.
The United Kingdom hasn’t exactly been a stellar paradigm of development success for a while now. In fact, exactly a year ago, two days before his first White House meeting with Trump, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the biggest cut to U.K. international assistance in history.
“Twelve months on, the evidence is in: The decision has failed on its own terms,” writes Adrian Lovett, executive director for the U.K., Middle East, and Asia Pacific at ONE, in a Devex opinion piece, arguing that the cuts “should be halted and subjected to a serious review before further damage is done.”
He also argues the cuts — made on the back of a defense spending surge — aren’t doing Starmer any favors.
“Overall, as historical analysis shows, Keir Starmer has joined a group of British prime ministers who share two features in common: the biggest cutters of international aid are also the most unpopular prime ministers in modern history,” he writes. “That is not a causal relationship — but cutting aid certainly does not form part of a winning electoral strategy.”
“But perhaps the most striking recent development is that the U.K., in claiming to follow the U.S. lead, now in fact occupies the top spot on the aid cuts leaderboard,” he adds. “The conclusion is uncomfortable: Britain is retreating further and cutting deeper than America.”
Opinion: Britain’s international aid cuts have failed. It’s time to change course
So far, the string of bilateral health compacts that the U.S. State Department has signed have been with African nations. Now the Trump administration is turning its attention to the Western Hemisphere, where it just signed its first health agreement.
The U.S. will provide up to $22.5 million to Panama over the next three years, with Panama cofinancing the agreement by increasing its own health spending by over $11 million during that time frame, my colleague Sara Jerving reports.
The Panama agreement emphasizes HIV control and disease surveillance, which the U.S. hopes will help prevent diseases from reaching its shores — particularly important given Panama is its neighbor.
To recap, the administration’s “America First” health strategy prioritizes providing money directly to governments as opposed to funneling it through NGOs — a stance that was clearly spelled out during the signing.
“This funding goes straight to the people of Panama, not bloated NGOs, so the benefits reach those who need it most,” said U.S. Ambassador to Panama Kevin Marino Cabrera.
Not all of these signings are going smoothly, however. This week, the U.S. announced that Zimbabwe rejected a $367 million, five-year agreement, and that instead it would begin winding down its health aid in the African country. Zimbabwe reportedly refused the deal over concerns around it undermining its national sovereignty in areas such as access to health data and critical minerals.
Read: US State Department signs first Western Hemisphere bilateral health deal
The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals aren’t in stellar shape, though Europe has long been seen as the closest region to achieving them. But new analysis from the 2026 Europe Sustainable Development Report warns that rising defense spending and cuts to development budgets — in the vein of the U.S. and U.K. — are stalling progress on the SDGs.
The trade-offs are clear, my colleague Jesse Chase-Lubitz writes. As defense budgets expand, development spending constricts. A recent report from the ONE Campaign warns that “a security architecture monopolized by defense undermines long-term stability, even as governments spend record sums on military preparedness.”
Experts also caution against the trend of conflating development progress with defense stability. “If they link defense to development, we risk the securitization or militarization of development, which has never been effective, never been impactful, and we never prefer that,” Habib Ur Rehman Mayar of the g7+ Secretariat tells Jesse. “The first step is always peace.”
Read: Europe still leads on SDGs, but progress is stalled
Last week, Bill Gates pulled out just hours before he was due to take the stage at the AI Impact Summit in India. As fresh headlines swirl around his past ties to Jeffrey Epstein, I sat down with my colleagues Catherine Cheney and David Ainsworth to talk through what this moment might mean — not just for Gates, but for the broader power dynamics that shape elite philanthropy. In the latest episode of our This Week in Global Development podcast, we also unpack the biggest takeaways from the summit.
Listen: Key takeaways from the AI Impact Summit, and philanthropy under scrutiny
+ You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, YouTube, or search “Devex” in your favorite podcast app.
U.S. First Lady Melania Trump will chair a United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday as the country takes on the body’s rotating presidency. [Reuters]
Marking the anniversary of Britain’s aid cuts, 93 U.K. NGOs urge the government to restore funding, warning that the cuts are already costing lives and leaving vulnerable populations at risk. [The Independent]
The family of U.N. expert Francesca Albanese has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging sanctions that target her for criticizing Israel’s policies against Palestinians. [Al Jazeera]
Sign up to Newswire for an inside look at the biggest stories in global development.