Presented by Sabin Vaccine Institute
Welcome to the United Nations General Assembly, where schmoozing mixes with substance and where people attending UNGA question the point of UNGA as they race from one UNGA-related event to another. This Devexer is no exception — but in my defense, I did it to bring you the inside scoop.
Also in today’s edition: An Ebola outbreak declared in Uganda, and the state of humanitarian aid to Pakistan.
Halfway marks
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While it’s easy to be cynical about the pageantry that UNGA has become, it’s hard to overlook the sobering reality that at the halfway mark, the world is nowhere near achieving the Sustainable Development Goals it set out in 2015.
It’s only fair to ask then: What is the point?
For many, the point is that something is better than nothing.
“We have tried never to make the perfect the enemy of the good,” former U.S. President Bill Clinton said at the start of the Clinton Global Initiative, one of the main side events at UNGA.
He said that for all the questions about the metrics that CGI has and hasn’t met, it’s helped 400 million people in over 180 countries since 2005. Even if you can’t solve everything, he said, that doesn’t mean “we shouldn’t do our part.”
Celebrity chef José Andrés said he embraced that ethos when he founded World Central Kitchen to help feed people in the wake of humanitarian disasters.
“I always say that the big problems, they have very simple solutions,” he told the CGI audience. “You can go home, bring the experts, and start meeting, and you start planning. ... And then you try to do a better plan, and a week later you’re still meeting and still planning. Or you can do what we did. We began cooking, we began finding food, we began finding helpers.”
Andrés spoke to our food reporter Teresa Welsh for our UNGA Decoded podcast, in an episode that will air later this week. We also nabbed Chelsea Clinton for an episode recorded in what CGI attendees lovingly referred to as “the glass box” — i.e., the cold (and not-so soundproof) studio in one of the lounges.
Also on our podcast roster: Rockefeller Foundation President Rajiv Shah — who, according to my colleague Michael Igoe, shared off-mic what he thinks have been the three biggest advances in famine relief in recent decades:
• A shift toward treating famine as a medical crisis.
• The development of ready-to-use-therapeutic-foods and other nutrient-dense products.
• Andrés’ disruption of famine relief programming through World Central Kitchen's mass mobilization of local people.
Tune into episodes of UNGA Decoded all week — and start by listening to the first episode, which asks the question “What even is UNGA?”
UNGA Decoded episode one: Raj Kumar on shaping development narratives
Act locally
In keeping with her agency’s stated focus on localization, USAID Administrator Samantha Power announced a new regional initiative meant to direct more funding to local organizations in sub-Saharan Africa. The Africa Localization Initiative is modeled after Centroamerica Local, a current project by the U.S. Agency for International Development in Latin America, which set aside $300 million over five years.
What’s still not clear from the announcement made at an UNGA side event is the funding amount or the time frame.
“Putting this into practice could be as simple as translating USAID solicitations into local languages so more organizations can apply,” Power explained. “Or it can be as complex as infusing local customs and expertise into our programs.”
Read: Samantha Power announces USAID Africa Localization Initiative
+ Devex Pro members can read our exclusive story on how USAID will define “local” in its funding targets and our analysis of the state of funding for local contractors in 2021. Not gone Pro yet? Start your free 15-day trial.
Star power
“I think that’s [NATO Secretary-General] Jens Stoltenberg over there,” one attendee shrugged inside the midtown Manhattan Hilton, before reaching for the strawberry-peach-infused water placed alongside the all-vegan menu — yes, the vegan chocolate cake was good, but the lack of real milk for coffee was not a hit.
After so many years, it’s easy to become jaded about the speeches and schmoozing of events such as UNGA. But then you’re reminded that events like these have real-world implications.
I ran into Amy Rahe, North America managing director of The Freedom Fund, a nonprofit to combat human trafficking and modern-day slavery, just after Hillary Clinton had announced that The Freedom Fund along with Walk Free and the U.S.-based Stardust Fund together pledged $3 million in seed funding that will provide unrestricted grants to at least 300 organizations around the world led by human trafficking survivors.
“I feel really beyond excited,” Rahe said. “As a survivor myself, who’s experienced the ways in which we continue to downplay the importance of survivors, leave survivors out of the sector that is combating modern slavery, to me, to hear someone at Hillary Clinton’s level say, ‘This is what’s important, we have to uplift these individuals,’ — I just feel overjoyed.”
From the archives: 3 things Freedom Fund knows about eradicating modern slavery
Alarm bells
Meanwhile, far from Manhattan, the government of Uganda declared an outbreak of Ebola in the central part of the country Tuesday. The case was confirmed in a 24-year-old man in Mubende district and is a result of the investigation of six suspicious deaths there this month. Another eight suspected cases are currently receiving care.
The virus is the relatively rare Sudan strain, according to the World Health Organization, a variant last seen in Uganda — and the world — a decade ago. While the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, sold under brand name Ervebo, has been successful in containing Ebola outbreaks, it is only approved for the Zaire strain. WHO said in a release that another vaccine produced by Johnson and Johnson could be effective against the Sudan strain, but it has not yet been tested.
Read: Uganda declares outbreak of rare Ebola strain with no approved vaccine
+ For more content like this, sign up to Devex CheckUp, our free, must-read newsletter on global health.
Paltry progress
37.9%
—That’s the proportion of the U.N. appeal for disaster aid to Pakistan that’s been funded, despite widespread coverage of and dismay at the recent floods that have submerged one-third of the country. Get a look at the biggest donors and the other organizations that are coming to Pakistan’s aid — or not — with this deep dive from my colleague Miguel Antonio Tamonan.
Pakistan: After the flood, how much aid is flowing to the country? (Pro)
In other news
A group of countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change have prepared a paper for discussion at UNGA demanding a global tax on carbon, air travel, or high carbon emitters to fund loss and damage payments. [The Guardian]
The Inter-American Development Bank board of directors reviewed on Monday the result of an investigation into allegations made against the bank’s president Mauricio Claver-Carone. [Reuters]
A report by independent human rights experts has found the Ethiopian government has deprived some six million people in Tigray access to basic services and humanitarian assistance. [France 24]
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About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
