Devex Newswire: How Pakistan’s floods wreaked havoc in Malawi

We take a look at how a cholera bug circulating in Pakistan ended up ravaging Malawi. Also in today’s edition: Finally, some good news for U.K. aid policy, and how ringing for a pizza can help save a life in Zimbabwe. Listen: In the latest episode of our weekly podcast series, Devex Managing Editor Anna Gawel sits down with our resident U.N. expert Colum Lynch to discuss the key issues to look out for at the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Plus, keep an eye out for our UNGA preview and wrap-up special newsletter editions on Sept. 18 and 25, respectively. From Pakistan to Malawi It's often said we’re in an age of global crises, where diseases can spread rapidly across borders. COVID-19 demonstrated that to all of us, but while that threat has abated, it also goes for waterborne diseases which are growing more risky with climate change. Over the past year, Malawi suffered about 59,000 cholera cases, coming from a new strain of the bacteria, after rains and a cyclone brought on flooding. But the country had gone 20 years without a large outbreak — so where did it come from? Pakistan — says a new study. Researchers found that the new bacteria was the same strain that circulated during Pakistan’s devastating floods in 2022 and was likely brought into Malawi by an air traveler. Malawians had low immunity to the new bug and the country was overwhelmed by the floods and as a result “it completely shocked both the population and the health care staff,” Tulio de Oliveira, a co-author of the paper, tells my colleague Sara Jerving. Bugs have always moved across borders, but the case demonstrates the complexities thrown into global health by climate change, and its related events. The study has also highlighted the need for African public health officials to become more wary of climate disasters in faraway places. “Unfortunately, the number and the size of floods are becoming more extreme in the recent past, especially the last couple of years,” de Oliveira says. Read: How Pakistan's massive floods sparked Malawi's record cholera outbreak + For more content like this, sign up to Devex CheckUp, our free, weekly global health newsletter. UK aid performs … well? Since swingeing aid budget cuts began in 2020, the way the United Kingdom finances aid (or doesn’t) has been roundly criticized — a story Devex has covered extensively. Development officials from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office have scrambled for ways to do more with less. Their work has now been vindicated. A study projected the U.K. will meet a pledge to mobilize £8 billion ($9.93 billion) of development finance annually, ahead of schedule, Rob Merrick, our U.K. correspondent, reports. The pledge was made in 2021 by none other than former Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who went on to become the shortest-serving prime minister, notoriously outlasted by a lettuce. The main reason for success is the “innovative and meaningful” use of loan guarantees to international financial institutions, “demonstrating to other countries that multilateral banks can do more with their balance sheets,” according to the paper by the Center for Global Development. This demonstration comes at a critical time: expanding MDB lending is a key aspect of the international finance reform agendas being campaigned on at the highest levels of politics. Read: UK on track to hit £8B private finance pledge 3 years early Background reading: What will FCDO's British Investment Partnerships do for development? (Pro) + Devex Pro members can also dive into our analysis of how the U.K. spends its development aid. Not yet a Pro member? Start your 15-day free trial to access all our exclusive content. Blood money Blood is expensive in Zimbabwe, despite its medical importance for people with diseases like sickle cell anemia. And money to pay for it is also hard to come by. But what is popular, like anywhere, is using the mobile phone. The government spotted an opportunity in 2018 and launched the "Talk-Surf and Save a Life" scheme, a health levy under which 5% of every dollar purchase of airtime and mobile data goes to paying for free blood transfusions, as well as some drugs and health equipment in government and council facilities. The levy has been such a success that the government now bears the full cost of the production of blood. Read: How ringing for a pizza helps save a life in Zimbabwe War on drugs Donors spent $1 billion of aid on the global war on drugs between 2012 and 2021, according to Harm Reduction International. Yes, aid. Official development assistance is intended to assist, but spending it on the drugs war “runs counter to development aims” writes Naomi Burke-Shyne, the organization’s executive director, in an opinion piece for Devex. That’s seen aid contribute to surveillance and the persecution of vulnerable people caught up in drugs — which can actually harm development objectives, she argues. Under the aid-setting rules of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, narcotics control is an eligible subcategory of aid spending. And aid can also be spent on training police forces, intelligence gathering, and storing weapons — including in countries with poor human rights records. HRI wants to end spending aid on the war on drugs, of course. But Burke-Shyne also highlights the similarities between global drug policy and development — both, she writes, are rooted in colonialism — and both can look to the localization agenda for a way out. Opinion: Narcotics control has no place in the future of aid In other news The Rockefeller Foundation has committed to investing $1 billion over the next five years in climate solutions that will benefit low-resource communities worldwide. [Reuters] The Food and Agriculture Organization has launched its Emergency Livelihood Response Plan to assist over 10 million Sudanese in addressing food insecurity in the country. [VOA] According to a report from UNICEF and the World Bank, compounding crises have resulted in 333 million children worldwide still living in extreme poverty. [Barron’s] Sign up to Newswire for an inside look at the biggest stories in global development.