Devex Newswire: Health declarations met with mixed reactions

The high-level meetings at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly are over, but our coverage is not, because despite the tedium, tired rhetoric, and traffic, UNGA is a useful temperature check of the world’s most burning problems, including health and climate. Also in today’s edition: A few philanthropic titans stepped up their climate commitment, and the most active development organizations hiring in New York. + Join us tomorrow, Sept. 26, at 12 p.m. ET for our global health leaders’ roundtable discussion where our panel of experts will examine the role of communications in an evolving global health landscape. This session is open to all. TB continued In addition to taking stock of the flagging Sustainable Development Goals and the protests and promises associated with Climate Week, last week’s UNGA featured three high-level meetings focused on health — specifically, universal health coverage, pandemic preparedness, and tuberculosis. On making sure we’re better prepared for the next pandemic, some hailed the declaration that emerged as “historic,” while others effectively characterized it as, well, meh, my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo writes. Likewise, the declaration on TB inspired mixed emotions. Jenny reports that TB advocates were disappointed it didn’t fully reflect some key asks, such as monitoring national strategic plans. There was also the usual fear that commitments won’t translate into action. “The challenge for every country is how they are going to and whether they will meet the ambitions that are actually set, or whether these targets frankly are simply numbers written on a piece of paper that nobody will adhere to,” British legislator Nick Herbert said. Nevertheless, billions of dollars were earmarked to fight the world’s top infectious disease killer among other concrete deliverables, said Lucica Ditiu of the Stop TB Partnership. “I am a believer in things that you can measure because then you can keep people accountable,” she said. “It’s not ideal, it’s not ambitious enough. But it’s something we can work with.” On a lighter note, during a Stop TB Partnership event on Friday, Herbert recalled his visit to Kenya when he was a newly elected member of the U.K. Parliament over 15 years ago. After learning about how devastating tuberculosis is, he went back to the U.K. to form a group on the disease and created badges that read “Stop TB,” which he handed out to members of Parliament who expressed an interest in joining his campaign. A year later, he learned they weren’t exactly interested in TB. “I handed out hundreds of these badges. And it was only after a year that I realized people thought it’s let’s ‘Stop Tony Blair,’” he said. It wasn’t a complete waste though: He got the U.K. government to adopt a public health strategy to deal with incidences of TB in the country. Read: Tuberculosis gets some ambitious commitments. But will they be met? ICYMI: Advocates say the UN pandemic meeting was a dud. What's next? Toothless self-policing? Treaties set the rules of the road for major international issues, but if there’s no way to enforce those rules, signatories can run roughshod over them. That’s a big concern as negotiators in Geneva haggle over the draft of a global pandemic accord, which experts fret will lack mechanisms to hold signatories accountable for their actions. Negotiators are looking to “punt that off, kick the can down the road. ... That’s nonsense. You can’t do that,” said Lawrence Gostin of the World Health Organization during Devex’s two-day summit on the sidelines of UNGA. Nina Schwalbe of Spark Street Advisors agreed, pointing out that self-reporting can only do so much. “Treaties, or whatever, they’re just a piece of paper unless there’s monitoring and accountability associated with it,” she said. Read: Pandemic treaty draft lacks accountability Raiding aid for climate It’s hardly a secret that wealthy countries have been derelict in providing the climate financing they promised over a decade ago. At the same time, they have been coughing up some money lately to help lower-income countries hold the line against climate change. But it may be coming at the expense of other development priorities, according to a recent report by CARE, an international NGO. “The majority of climate finance is development finance in disguise. Money is being diverted towards climate change action, but at the expense of financial support for health, education, women’s rights, and poverty alleviation,” report co-author John Nordbo said in a statement. “This was not the agreement in 2009, when it was clearly stipulated that climate finance was meant to be additional to existing funds for development,” Nordbo added, arguing that substituting development aid for climate funding was “dysfunctional, deceitful, and unjust.” Read: Donors raiding development aid to pay for climate, report warns Billion-dollar bet It’s not all storm clouds on the horizon for the climate. Though a barrage of protests throughout New York City and a steady stream of apocalyptic warnings during the Climate Ambition Summit at the U.N. didn’t seem to convince wealthy governments to significantly increase their climate commitments, a few philanthropic titans did step up. The Rockefeller Foundation pledged $1 billion over the next five years to support the transition away from fossil fuels to more sustainable energy sources, Devex philanthropy reporter Stephanie Beasley writes. “The Foundation has made many big bets in its history, and we believe climate change’s threats and the climate transition’s opportunities—especially for the most vulnerable—justify what will be the biggest and most impactful bet in our history,” Rajiv Shah, the foundation’s president, said in a statement. Meanwhile, billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg announced he would commit an additional $500 million to the Beyond Carbon Campaign, a philanthropy-backed effort to address climate in the United States. Other pledges came from the IKEA Foundation, Salesforce, and Google’s philanthropic arm. Read: Rockefeller, Bloomberg, other major donors bet big on climate at UNGA Big Apple appeal For all the grumbling about New York City traffic (that I’m admittedly guilty of), Manhattan is a magnet for professionals. And while the U.N. is the obvious go-to for development types, it’s not the only game in town. Based on data from the Devex job board, my colleagues Raquel Alcega and Kristiana Louise Ortega have identified the most active development organizations hiring in New York over the past 12 months that are not within the U.N. system. Read more: The top global development employers hiring in New York (Career) + If you’re not a Devex Career Account member yet, we’re currently offering 50% off on annual membership. Members can access all career advice events and articles, our complete job board, and much more. Opinion corner • Despite serious setbacks, Shameran Abed and Esther Duflo take a more positive approach to ending extreme poverty, arguing that the tools are already in place, including the money and the know-how, and that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We do, however, need to summon the political will to double down on what works. • Speaking of what works, Yolande Wright argues that cash transfers have more than proven their worth as an anti-poverty intervention, yet too many donors now think of cash as the “thing to beat” rather than the “thing to scale.” • Human mobility has always been integral to human development, writes Amy Pope, pointing out that 1 in every 8 people is on the move, and every one of these migrants has unique skills and perspectives. Yet many face closed doors, not welcome mats. • The sense of urgency that the COVID-19 pandemic lit seems to have dimmed, according to the UHC Movement Political Advisory Panel, which is “deeply concerned about this stagnation” and that world leaders are taking health and well-being off the highest political agenda. In other news Armenia urged for immediate deployment of a U.N. mission to monitor human rights and security in Nagorno-Karabakh, citing concerns over aid delivery during the fragile ceasefire. [VOA] The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is set to make climate finance its top lending priority, with plans to allocate $7 billion to 8 billion annually by 2030, amounting to over $50 billion in the next decade. [Financial Times] African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said that the bank is on track to produce $25 billion worth of food, projecting food insecurity in Africa to be overcome in five years. 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