When the U.K. Labour Party returned to power in July, it raised hopes of renewed independence for the country’s foreign aid programs. But under a new review led by former Columbia University president, Minouche Shafik, those ambitions appear to fall by the wayside.
Also in today’s edition: Takeaways from the Africa Food Systems Forum, and a search for answers to India’s lagging women’s labor force participation.
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A long hard look
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When Minouche Shafik resigned as president of Columbia University — four months after she drew fierce criticism for her handling of protests on campus over the war in Gaza — she also unveiled her second act: chairing a review of the U.K. government’s approach to international development.
As my colleague Rob Merrick reports, at the time, news of the review struck some as a welcome signal that the Labour Party might be turning some of its rhetoric about revitalizing a weakened U.K. aid architecture into reality. Before winning the election in July, Labour had promised “a new model” for development.
While they backed away from earlier pledges to restore a fully independent U.K. international development department — à la the late, great DFID — Labour leaders floated a possible independent agency tucked inside the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. (And as everyone at USAID and the U.S. State Department will tell you, that model never leads to turf battles.)
Now it looks like U.K. aid independence has been taken off the table.
Rob reports that the scope of Shafik’s review appears to exclude the idea of greater separation of diplomacy and development, and instead seeks to double down on greater integration. Foreign Secretary David Lammy has asked Shafik to examine how the U.K. government can “maximise the impact” of the “integrated development diplomacy model” created by the 2020 merger.
The review will also look at recruitment and retention, appropriate use of funds, and improving U.K. aid’s comparative advantage.
Read: UK development review seeks to deepen controversial FCDO merger (Pro)
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Prescription filled?
Some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies — Pfizer, Sanofi, Eli Lilly — have talked a big game about making their drugs available to more people at lower prices. Are they following through?
The Access to Medicine Foundation set out to answer that question with its first analysis of “patient reach” approaches taken by 20 big pharma companies. Devex contributor Andrew Green reports that the research turned up some positive findings. One big one: 19 of the 20 companies are engaging in measures to determine patient reach. That’s important, since you can’t manage what you don’t measure.
But the picture gets a little cloudier when it comes to what these companies are doing with the information they collect.
“They’re serious about health equity. But how serious they are comes down to what they do about it. And only a handful of these approaches really have a method behind them and are being used by the companies themselves,” says Jayasree Iyer, the foundation’s CEO.
Many of the companies the foundation examined use sales volume as a proxy for patient reach, but that may not tell them much about whether they are actually expanding access, Andrew reports.
Read: Are drug companies making good on their access promises?
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Picking up the tab
In 2014 the African Union’s Malabo Declaration aimed to end hunger on the continent by 2025 by improving economic growth through agriculture-led development. Part of that call to action was that governments should spend 10% of their public budgets on agriculture. With one year to go until the deadline, they are stuck at just 4.6%.
Against that backdrop, nine heads of state, 37 ministers, seven former heads of state, 40 heads of international agencies, and about 4,900 other people gathered in Kigali, Rwanda, last week to drum up some momentum and financial support for the new plan that will replace the Malabo Declaration — the Kampala Declaration, a draft of which is due out in January.
David Njagi was there too, reporting for Devex on the biggest takeaways from the Africa Food Systems Forum, the continent’s largest agriculture conference.
David reports that African leaders at the forum were clear-eyed about falling short of their food systems ambitions: roughly a quarter of the continent’s population is affected by hunger shocks, child malnutrition levels are high, and a continent containing some 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land imports $60 billion of food every year.
Read: 4 takeaways from the Africa Food Systems Forum
Related: African groups want ‘reparations’ for Green Revolution’s shortcomings
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Looking for work
Despite India’s rapid economic growth, women’s labor force participation has lagged behind other countries at similar levels of development. At 37%, it is significantly lower than the global average of just over 50%, and lower than neighboring Bangladesh, Disha Shetty reports for Devex.
While this was previously seen as a supply-side problem — with lack of education and home dynamics taking the blame — researchers increasingly point to a lack of available jobs that pay enough to allow women to outsource child care.
Disha writes: “When a country grows economically, the expectation is that the gender gaps would narrow. But research from around the world shows that this does not always happen; countries at similar income levels can also have vastly different gender gaps.”
One potential culprit in India’s gender workforce gap: the tech industry. Disha writes that the rapid growth of this particular market in India disadvantages women who disproportionately lack access to smartphones, and could be reinforcing gender segregation in the job market.
Read: India’s women want to work but the jobs are missing
In other news
The International Committee of the Red Cross is brokering talks between Myanmar’s ruling junta, rebel groups, and neighboring countries to enable cross-border humanitarian assistance for the war-affected nation. [Reuters]
A United Nations agency is urgently requesting $13.3 million in aid to assist over half a million people impacted by severe floods and storms devastating Yemen. [UN News]
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has called for World Bank aid to tackle the country's worst drought in decades, which has devastated agriculture and halved the economic growth forecast. [Bloomberg]
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About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
