Presented by The Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs
We travel to the Qatari capital of Doha for the World Summit for Social Development, where leaders will look back at the lofty promises made in Copenhagen 30 years ago.
Also in today’s edition: World Bank staff are feeling disgruntled at the prospect of losing a huge slice of their workforce.
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The world was obviously a very different place 30 years ago. Artificial intelligence was still in the realm of sci-fi and even the internet hadn’t yet taken off. There was both tragedy and hope in the development sector: The Rwandan genocide had just shaken the world, triggering soul-searching but also determination to lift up the global south.
There’s been progress — chipping away at extreme poverty for example — but the overall picture of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals is a bleak one, with the SDGs almost certainly out of reach by their 2030 deadline, especially against today’s backdrop of plunging bilateral foreign assistance.
This is the quandary leaders and advocates will step into as they gather this week in Doha for the Second World Summit for Social Development, which, for the United Nations, is a chance to renew the commitments made in 1995 — specifically in the core areas of eradicating poverty, expanding employment, and building more inclusive societies.
The report card on those three areas isn’t one you’d want to take home to your parents. On poverty, “The numbers are devastating,” says Celia Sudhoff of Global Policy Forum Europe. “Thirty years ago, Copenhagen set out to eradicate poverty. We’re far away from that.”
On employment, the Doha declaration describes how millions of workers barely make enough to survive. And on social inclusion, the declaration notes how digital divides, demographic changes, and a myriad of other challenges have deepened inequality, writes my colleague Elissa Miolene, who’s on the ground for the summit.
It all adds up to a $4 trillion annual deficit to accomplish the SDGs, which, it’s safe to say, is an almost unattainable sum.
So what’s the point of thousands of delegates, civil society members, and U.N. reps converging on a gleaming city to rehash the failures of the last 30 years?
“I think it’s very important that these conferences take place, because it does shed light again, for the world, about what's going on,” says Stephen Schlesinger of the Century Foundation. “But in the end, it's all about financing, and the money just isn't there.”
Read: World leaders adopt Doha Political Declaration as US stays silent
The Trump administration will largely be absent from the World Summit for Social Development, having previously said it no longer even recognizes the SDGs. Another shocker? The administration will be mostly MIA for the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, in Brazil.
But that doesn’t mean the U.S. won’t have a presence. It will, in fact, have a pretty sizable one thanks to the America Is All In coalition, which brings together U.S. governors, mayors, tribal leaders, businesses, and universities committed to climate action.
Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and co-chair of the coalition, said more than 100 local leaders are expected at COP30. “We are going to be there to support climate action, representing roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population, three-quarters of the U.S. GDP, and more than 50% of U.S. emissions,” she says.
Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists, like others, expressed disappointment at the loss of the U.S. at the federal level — but also hoped that the world can move on.
“It’s going to take all countries acting together to tackle this problem, and that's why we're all going to COP30 in Belém — to make sure that the global effort stays on track, and that the U.S.-Trump administration actions are isolated,” Cleetus says. “We’re going to Brazil in a very sober frame of mind, no question, but we’re also going in with the recognition that our actions still matter.”
Read: US federal officials to skip COP30 as local leaders vow to fill the gap
Related: The world is moving ahead on climate — with or without the US, says John Kerry
Potentially major cuts are causing big-time heartburn at the World Bank, which is planning to eliminate all short-term consultancy positions by 2027, my colleagues Adva Saldinger and Sophie Edwards reveal.
A September presentation to the board, seen by Devex, outlines proposals to fully phase out short-term consultants — or STCs — who currently make up roughly a quarter of the bank’s workforce, with no new appointments allowed after July 2026.
The bank says the institution has become too reliant on this “contingent workforce” and that critical tasks must be brought in-house. It also says the goal is to “build a more strategic and sustainable approach” to temporary hiring, not to cut costs.
But insiders say the change reflects pressure from shareholders to rein in costs, streamline operations, and comply with national labor laws.
Either way, staff warn that the effects could be far-reaching, upending project delivery, threatening visa security for foreign nationals, and eroding the bank’s ability to draw on global expertise.
“The proposed overhaul of the contract architecture represents a significant shift that, without a more careful analysis, could impair instead of improve the World Bank Group’s ability to service its clients,” the staff association wrote in a statement to the Human Resources Committee of the board last week.
The staff association does not oppose reform, but called for “comprehensive consultation” to ensure changes are “efficient and humane.”
Read: World Bank staff alarmed by plan to phase out short-term consultants
Related: Standing out when applying to the World Bank and other multilaterals (Career)
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For all the staff discontent, the World Bank isn’t sitting on its hands (or capital), procrastinating in the face of devastating aid cuts. One of the key ways it’s trying to de-risk projects to better attract private financing is by merging its disparate guarantee operations under one umbrella housed at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, or MIGA.
The new one-stop shop is part of broader changes across the bank aimed at better integrating its public and private sector arms to mobilize private capital, Adva writes.
“There is an inflection point that is happening inside the World Bank Group, and that inflection point is a recognition that we need to move from being solely or primarily a lending bank to becoming a leveraging bank,” says Junaid Ahmad, MIGA’s vice president of operations.
Guarantees, he adds, are at “the vanguard of the change that’s happening systematically across the World Bank Group.”
Read: World Bank’s guarantee platform is a pilot for broader shifts underway
Background: The World Bank launched a one-stop guarantee shop. Here’s how it’s going (Pro)
Further reading: In a changing world, where do World Bank reforms stand? (Pro)
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More than $70 trillion in inherited wealth will change hands over the next decade, which could widen the inequality gap, consequently undermine social mobility, and threaten democratic institutions unless steps are taken to address it. [The Guardian]
Famine has now been declared in Sudan’s El Fasher and Kadugli, as conflict intensifies. [The Telegraph]
The International Finance Corporation plans to expand local-currency lending and direct investments across Africa to help scale projects and attract major global investors, as part of efforts to draw more private money and limit currency risks. [Reuters]
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