Presented by Eleanor Crook Foundation
USAID is shifting from traditional aid to fostering economic growth. With rising global debt and China’s influence looming, the agency is pushing for a bold new strategy focused on debt relief, self-sufficiency, and resilience.
Also in today’s edition: We look at consultancy careers and what the United Kingdom is doing about money laundering. Plus, the International Court of Justice is hearing testimony on legal responsibility in relation to climate change.
+ Tune in: As part of this year’s Global Humanitarian Policy Forum, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar will lead a fireside chat with Tom Fletcher, the new U.N. relief chief, on Dec. 13 in New York. Register now to join the conversation.
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For years, USAID stuck to a familiar playbook: Fund education, health care, and agriculture, and hope free markets would handle the rest. But when Samantha Power became USAID’s administrator, she was surprised to find economic growth wasn't front and center. “I had thought [it] would be really at the center of what USAID did,” she admits.
The leaders of USAID’s partner countries seem to agree. Their message to Power? “We want trade, not aid,” she says. But shifting focus isn’t so simple. Over 90% of USAID’s budget is earmarked by the U.S. Congress, leaving just a sliver of discretionary funds for big economic initiatives. To make matters worse, USAID’s in-country economist count has plummeted from 35 to just nine over the past decade, writes my colleague Elissa Miolene.
Recognizing the growing demand for economic self-sufficiency, Power launched the Economic Resilience Initiative, a $99 million push to stabilize economies, create jobs, and connect countries to supply chains. Early wins are already in motion. In Ecuador, USAID is helping the government secure $1.3 billion in concessional financing from the International Monetary Fund. In the Dominican Republic, the agency is upgrading a port to bolster exports. And across Africa and Asia, USAID is supporting key mineral supply chains in places like Ghana, Kenya, and the Philippines.
But there’s a bigger, more urgent backdrop to all of this. Lower-income nations are drowning in debt. Today, 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt payments than on health or education. Power sees an opportunity for the United States to step up — especially as an alternative to China's development strategy. In many of these countries, debt repayments to China now far outstrip new loans coming in.
“When we talk about countering [China’s] influence and providing real options to low- and middle-income countries, this is what it looks like,” Power says. USAID isn't the only player here. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, or DFC, has nearly doubled its investments since 2020, backing private sector projects with loans, equity, and grants. The Millennium Challenge Corporation also funds projects tied to economic growth and governance reform.
Power argues that USAID’s 7,000-strong workforce plays a crucial role in making these investments count. They're helping countries collect taxes, manage public budgets, and reform procurement to ensure funds from DFC, the World Bank, and others actually deliver results.
Her pitch to Congress? “Go all in on this approach.” It’s not just about economic growth, she says, but about “economic resilience — theirs and ours.”
Read: How economic growth became a forgotten priority at USAID (Pro)
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David Lammy has vowed the United Kingdom will no longer be the world’s “money laundering superpower,” as he will put an end to the scandal of lax financial rules exploited by kleptocrats to “asset-strip” low-income countries, and now there’s evidence he really means it.
The U.K. foreign secretary has appointed as his anti-corruption champion a veteran former member of Parliament who has made a career out of fighting “dirty money” flows through the U.K.’s poorly regulated Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, our U.K. correspondent Rob Merrick tells me.
Margaret Hodge may be 80 years old, but campaigners are confident her anti-corruption flame burns brightly within. “Those exploiting tax havens will sleep less easily tonight,” says Joe Powell, chair of Parliament’s all-party anti-corruption group.
Hodge herself says: “The time has now come to put an end to dither and delay. We must take determined and effective action.”
Perhaps the “dither” she means is the repeated failure to force the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies to open up company ownership registers — to make it harder to hide dirty money — as they were ordered to do after a 2018 parliamentary revolt led by … Hodge. A December 2023 deadline to act was simply ignored, but a fresh deadline just became a lot more likely.
Related: Former UK development minister claims tax havens use royal connections
+ Catch up on all the latest news in the U.K. development sector.
The International Court of Justice is in the process of hearing testimony from nearly 100 countries that want to clarify the legal responsibility of governments in relation to climate change.
The countries giving testimony hope the court will recognize that high-emitting countries have a duty under international law to reduce emissions and provide reparations for climate-related damages. They want to see this responsibility categorized not just under climate law, but also under human rights law, my colleague Jesse Chase-Lubitz tells me.
“The idea behind it is to show agency by those most affected, to get some clarity by the court about what the obligations are and what might the consequences be if there's a breach,” says Jan Yves Remy, an international trade lawyer in Barbados and the leader of the St. Lucia delegation at the ICJ proceedings. She adds that these rulings are not legally binding. “More indirectly, the idea is to give added gravitas to the negotiations.”
The movement was started five years ago by law students in Fiji. Soon after, the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, which was battered by a double cyclone last year, took up the mantle. Vanuatu brought the case to the U.N. General Assembly, which then passed it on to ICJ.
The countries want to see decisions on two aspects: The obligations that emitting countries have to protect the earth from greenhouse gases and the legal consequences in cases where “by their acts and omissions, [states] have caused significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment.”
Switching from a full-time role to freelance consulting in global development isn’t just a career change — it’s an identity shift. Becoming a consultant “doesn't happen overnight,” says Simone Anzböck, an international career coach and development consultant, during a recent Devex career event. It takes new skills, fresh approaches, and a clear strategy to thrive.
Anzböck outlines four common work styles for new consultants, and only one of them is where you want to be. Here’s the rundown put together by our Careers Editor Justin Sablich:
• The analyzer: Always waiting for “perfect conditions” to act. Result? Missed deadlines and lost opportunities.
• The scatterbrain: Too many ideas, too little action. You’re pulled in every direction, procrastinating as a result.
• The juggler: Busy but aimless. Overcommitting leads to burnout, lower-quality work, and constant reactivity.
• The operator: The ultimate goal. Operators take focused, strategic action; know their priorities; and stay firmly in control of their work orbit.
Want to be an operator? It starts with self-awareness. Understand your current style, then shift toward focused, decisive action. Need more guidance? Check out Anzböck's full breakdown in the event replay.
Watch: Discover your consultant type and which one you should strive to be (Career)
+ Start your 15-day free trial of a Devex Career Account membership today to unlock all our exclusive career resources and get full access to the world’s largest global development job board.
Several European countries have stopped processing Syrian asylum applications following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, leaving a lot of asylum-seekers in limbo. [BBC]
Humanitarian aid has largely been blocked from being delivered in northern Gaza in the past two months, according to the U.N. [AP]
In 2022, human trafficking increased 25% more than 2019 pre-pandemic numbers, according to a U.N. report. [Reuters]
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