Devex Newswire: Is the EU flouting its own aid rules to shut out migrants?

The European Union may be pilfering its aid budget to seal off its borders.

Also in today’s edition: A new hire at the World Bank, and a chat with Australia’s global health wunderkind.

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Unwanted

The European Union continues to dip into its development budget to keep migration at bay, even exceeding its own guidelines for how much money can be diverted toward migration management.

That’s triggered a call for auditors to investigate the siphoning of funds from aid projects, my colleague Rob Merrick reports.

The 27-member bloc agreed to spend only 10% of funds within its seven-year €79.5 billion development budget on efforts to curb unauthorized arrivals. But in reality 14% was committed in 2021 and 2022, according to a document seen by the EU Parliament’s development committee.

The 10% guideline was breached even before the recent controversy over the swiping of €2 billion from the 2025 development pot to fund tougher border defenses, which was also criticized for flouting EU rules.

Since 2022, expensive deals have been signed with more North African countries to stem migration — raising the prospect that the 10% limit is still being shunted aside — and far-right parties are expected to push for it to be raised or removed altogether if they enjoy big gains in June’s parliamentary elections.

But a commission spokesperson says the 10% figure is “an indicative target,” adding that a full assessment of the extent of spending on migration management will only be possible at the end of the spending period in 2027.

Read: EU breaches aid spending guideline in shift to 'migration management'

A more meritocratic bank

The World Bank has appointed a new vice president for human resources, Devex has learned.

Radi Anguelova hails from the private sector, having previously headed up HR for jewelry company Swarovski along with roles at IBM, Coca-Cola, and Ecolab.

The appointment was announced by bank President Ajay Banga in an email to staff earlier this month. Anguelova, a Bulgarian national who was “selected competitively through a global executive search,” is due to start work in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 1.

One of Anguelova’s key jobs will be helping make the bank more meritocratic, Banga said in his email.

“People are our most important resource. You have heard me say numerous times that we want to help create better talent development systems, focusing on ensuring that our team members are exposed to growth opportunities based on what they do and how they do it - and not only whom they know and how long they have known them.”

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A resignation and a response

On Friday, Pia Wanek, the former CEO of U.S. nonprofit DT Institute, posted on LinkedIn a response to our article on her resignation.

My colleague Michael Igoe had previously reported that DT Institute’s announcement of Wanek’s May 15 resignation came days after Devex first reported that the nonprofit organization and its for-profit affiliate, DT Global, are currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“My departure from DT Institute was entirely my own decision - made some months ago - as it became clear to me the need to focus more on family and take some time to make important decisions about my career,” Wanek wrote.

“My departure was not predicated on the ongoing DOJ investigation, whose scope begins at the Institute’s inception in 2019. I joined as the Institute’s 2nd CEO in 2023," she added. "The Devex article and commentary in their email newsletter are the stuff of conjecture and innuendo.”

ICYMI:

• DT Institute CEO resigns amid Justice Department investigation.

• Justice Department investigating USAID contractor.

Moving on too soon?

He’s just 36 years old and is the face of global health policy for a Pacific powerhouse. So what exactly does Lucas de Toca do? My colleague Vince Chadwick sat down with Australia’s global health ambassador to find out.

Turns out pandemics are still top of mind for de Toca — even though for most people, COVID-19 is now firmly in the rearview mirror.

“I find it fascinating how people just want to move on from disease. If you look at history, we always talk about wars and changes of government and sovereigns and the Roman Republic. But we don't spend nearly as much time on plagues and disease events that actually have much more life-changing impact on societies,” he said.

“There's something about pandemics that people want to move on from. How many stories or silent films do we see on the 1918 pandemic? None. So I think there's a bit of wanting to move on from that that is very human,” he added.

But de Toca isn’t ready to move on. To the contrary, he said it’s imperative we finalize the pandemic accord currently being hammered out at the World Health Organization.

“We can't lose the momentum that the post-pandemic environment created. And also we can't imagine we've got 10 years to get this right, because pandemics only happen once in a generation. The conditions for emergence of new zoonotic jumps and a new pandemic keep getting worse,” he warned.

He also had some warnings for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which are seeking replenishments: Don’t count on funding being as forthcoming as it was during the pandemic heyday.

“From our perspective, we want to see these organizations succeed globally. But we are razor-sharp on making sure that they're delivering in our region.”

Read: Talking pandemics and power with Australia's global health wunderkind (Pro)

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Prodding private lenders

One of the biggest development conundrums today is the mountain of debt that global south countries are caving under. Many of the attempts to provide debt relief, such as the G20 Common Framework, are floundering because of resistance from private lenders.

The United Kingdom and New York could hold the key to compelling these lenders to finally play ball.

That’s because the debt contracts of many low- and middle-income countries are governed by laws in these two financial hubs — and legislation could be enacted in both to protect countries from private sector creditors holding out on debt relief, argue Liam Byrne, a member of the British Parliament, and Gustavo Rivera, a New York state senator.

“In our role as legislators in the U.K. and New York state, we have seen first-hand the devastating human impact of debt on communities, from Puerto Rico to Ghana,” they write in an opinion article for Devex.

“Around 3.3 billion people now live in countries where debt interest payments are greater than expenditure on health or education. Forty-five of the world’s lowest-income countries spend more on paying interest on their debts than on health,” they add, advocating for the Sovereign Debt Stability Act, which is moving through both jurisdictions and which they say “would ensure a level playing field for private lending.”  

Opinion: UK and New York laws have to be part of global debt crisis fix

In other news

A 1 degree Celsius increase in global temperature will lead to a 12% decline in the world’s gross domestic product, researchers have found. [The Guardian]

Tanzanian authorities and the IMF reached a staff-level agreement on a $790 million reform program to address climate change. [IMF News]

Austria will release funds to the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees that were previously blocked following allegations of staff involvement in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. [Reuters]

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