Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write: Tech billionaire Elon Musk has been engaged in a Twitter debate with World Food Programme head David Beasley over aid transparency, and how many people $6 billion can save from starvation.
Let’s back up.
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Last month, Beasley tweeted his congratulations to Elon Musk for surpassing Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest person. He also challenged Musk to help save 42 million people from famine, which Beasley suggested could be done with $6.6 billion.
Musk took the bait — and invited his 62.1 million Twitter followers along for the ride. On Sunday, he tweeted back, challenging Beasley to publicly detail how $6 billion would “solve world hunger” and pledging to “sell Tesla stock right now and do it” if he gets a convincing answer.
Beasley has now gone on TV to talk about WFP’s work and celebrate the fact that he got a famous billionaire and potential mega-donor to engage publicly with the organization, even if said mega-donor publicly questioned the organization’s integrity.
Musk — in what many describe as “trolling” rather than genuine engagement — has provoked skepticism about how aid organizations spend their money, and how they determine what certain number of dollars can solve huge global problems.
So who wins here?
My colleagues Stephanie Beasley — no relation to the WFP chief — and Shabtai Gold talk to philanthropy and food policy experts about the challenges of fundraising for complex issues via trend-friendly social media posts — and what this might tell us about Elon Musk’s unique and evolving approach to philanthropy.
Read: Elon Musk-WFP Twitter 'feud' raises accountability questions
Show them the money
As Africa secures more deals to manufacture vaccines, thus increasing access to COVID-19 prevention on the continent, “the time is now for us to be creative.” That’s according to Nafisa Jiwani, managing director of health initiatives at the United States International Development Finance Corporation, who spoke at a Devex event Tuesday about innovative ways to encourage investment in such ventures.
Devex Pro: Innovative financing to boost COVID-19 vaccine access
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State of emergency
Kenya closed its border with Ethiopia Wednesday, and aid organizations have begun removing nonessential staff after the country declared a state of emergency Tuesday amidst worsening conflict.
“Dying for Ethiopia is a duty [for] all of us,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Monday in a public address, calling on citizens to take up arms against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which is reportedly advancing on Addis Ababa.
5.2 million people in Ethiopia are already in need of urgent assistance, and the rapid escalation in violence, instability, and restricted movement is likely to make the humanitarian crisis worse. At the same time, my colleague Sara Jerving reports that some aid groups have been forced to reorganize their operations and begin relocating nonessential staff and families based on recommendations from donors and embassies.
Read: Aid groups begin removing some nonessential staffers from Ethiopia
On Wednesday, one year after the conflict began, a joint investigation by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the government’s Ethiopian Human Rights Commission released its findings.
Michelle Bachelet, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, reported Wednesday that “all parties to the Tigray conflict have committed violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law.”
Their report did not determine whether genocide has taken place and said this question requires further investigation. They “could not confirm deliberate or wilful denial of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in Tigray or the use of starvation as a weapon of war,” and called for further examination of this as well.
Read: Joint investigation into Tigray conflict documents widespread abuses
The room where it happens
Do you know which country sent the most delegates to this year’s climate conference in Glasgow? That would be Brazil — with 479.
According to an analysis by Carbon Brief, COP 26 has the largest attendance so far, with nearly 40,000 people registered to attend. No wonder those security lines are so torturous — or maybe that was just bad planning.
Source: Carbon Brief
As my colleague Will Worley reports, attending COP is not the same thing as getting access to the negotiations. Civil society representatives have described an “unprecedented level of exclusion” from the official negotiating areas, raising concerns about transparency and accountability.
Read: At COP 26, civil society groups fear exclusion from negotiations
Today’s poll
Next week, Will and others on the team will be reporting on COP 26 from Glasgow. To bring you timely updates, we’d love to hear from you:
Now or never
“I think it’s a tactic to postpone the decision that we need to take in consensus after this pandemic.”
— Björn Kümmel, chair of the WHO Working Group on Sustainable Financing, on the argument that the organization should be reformed before it gets more funding.Vince Chadwick and Jenny Lei Ravelo report on the state of play for raising the World Health Organization’s membership fees to address a longstanding funding problem.
Read: Last chance for WHO funding reform, leading diplomat warns
In other news
Three U.N. agencies launched a new initiative Wednesday to boost weather monitoring in 75 low-income countries and small island states. [Reuters]
With only 46% of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean fully vaccinated, the Pan American Health Organization has urged governments to prioritize immunization of high-risk groups instead of offering jabs to children and booster shots. [New York Times]
UNICEF wants to directly fund teachers in Afghanistan, amid donors’ funding freeze on the Taliban-led government. [Reuters]
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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.
