Presented by The Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs
Everyone is waiting to see how the U.S. government will respond to the destruction Hurricane Melissa has wrought on the Caribbean now that America’s main disaster response agency has itself been destroyed.
Also in today’s edition: Cities are determined to be part of the COP30 conversation, and we take you inside Madagascar to see how the country is fighting a highly contagious disease that still haunts the global south.
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Encouraged, hopeful, wary, frustrated — those were just some of the emotions people expressed to my colleague Elissa Miolene for her article on the U.S. response to Hurricane Melissa, which ravaged Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba last week.
It’s the first test of the U.S. government’s response to a major disaster in its backyard since USAID was dismantled.
For some, there’s a feeling of fragile optimism: The State Department deployed disaster assistance response teams last Thursday, flew in search-and-rescue groups, and is working with local responders on the ground.
But for others, there’s an overwhelming sense of wariness, and a feeling — as stated by one former State Department official — that “we’re not coming close to what we should be doing.”
The State Department did dispatch regional disaster assistance response teams — commonly referred to as DARTs — to spearhead the U.S. government’s humanitarian response to the hurricane.
“This is our first bite at the apple to see how this is all going to be put into play for a hurricane like this, with the new status quo,” says Arlan Fuller of Project Hope. “I think we’ll deal with this on a case-by-case basis, but so far, all things are pointing in a promising and encouraging direction.”
But typically, USAID would have deployed DART teams before a hurricane made landfall, explained two other former senior USAID and State Department officials as well as Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International and a former senior official at USAID.
That’s why Konyndyk is in the wary camp. “It’s not like the car was there with the engine idling,” he says. “The car is there, but it has to get the tires put back on. It’s not ready to hit the ground running in the way that would have been the case a year ago, because these agencies have just been so degraded by these widespread budget cuts.”
Read: Hurricane Melissa tests a US disaster system without USAID
We often frame climate disasters as hitting countries, but in reality, they usually strike different parts of a country — and cities in particular are on the front line.
Many are also at the vanguard of battling climate change as national governments waffle on how dedicated they are to fighting soaring greenhouse gas emissions — the U.S. being the poster child for this dynamic.
So city leaders are stepping up to make sure their voices are heard at the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP30, in Brazil. And it appears folks are listening.
Experts tell Devex that cities will be featured in one of the key documents that will set the stage for the conference, the Baku to Belém Roadmap. It will outline the need for both public and private investment into cities, call for more direct access to climate funds, and request that multilateral development banks help reshape finance architecture to better integrate cities and subnational bodies.
Luis Saénz of the C40 Cities network and Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy joint program, calls it “a big win.”
“It’s a great demonstration of Brazil's commitment to sub-nationals and cities,” he tells my colleague Jesse Chase-Lubitz.
Exclusive: Cities stake their claim in COP30 Baku to Belém road map
Some good news from the Green Climate Fund: The board just approved a record-high level of funding of $1.3 billion in new project commitments, bringing its total climate finance approvals for 2025 to $3.26 billion, my colleague Ayenat Mersie writes.
The record-setting meeting comes amid plummeting foreign assistance — pressures GCF itself has not been immune to. Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump reneged on a $4 billion commitment to the fund.
But according to Executive Director Mafalda Duarte, GCF was prepared for that shock, noting that the fund’s 2023 replenishment cycle was a record-high for the institution — with or without the U.S. contribution.
“We do appreciate and understand that the international and geopolitical environment is challenging,” Duarte told a press briefing. “We are working on our strategy — how do we respond to this geopolitical environment while enabling greater ambition?”
Read: Green Climate Fund hits record $3.26B in project finance for 2025
It’s Career Week here at Devex, which means stories, events, and a salary downloadable to help a community battered by layoffs discover new opportunities.
Key to those opportunities in today’s fast-paced, cutthroat job market is artificial intelligence, the omnipresent new player in the hiring process.
AI is forcing applicants to rapidly evolve with the times. Alok I. Ranjan, a global development career coach and AI generalist, says success is no longer about knowing everything — “employers care less about static expertise,” and more about “learning faster than the system changes.”
“Development now needs bridge professionals; those who can connect technology, policy, and empathy,” he adds.
According to Valentina Murace, career coach and HR learning consultant at UNICEF, the key is knowing how to guide AI with thoughtful prompts and authentic inputs that reflect one’s real motivations. “AI can help you analyze a job description or refine your language,” she says, but it can’t explain why you want to do this work.
Likewise, Ranjan warns that AI can’t replicate an individual’s self-awareness or clarity of their impact and values — traits that can help a candidate stand out in a noisy market, writes Devex contributor Katrina Lane.
“The strongest professionals I’ve coached use AI to refine their message, not replace it,” Rajan says. “Their resumes sound like humans who understand technology, not like machines trying to sound human.”
Read: Four ways AI is changing the development job market (Career)
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“The idea of a child dying or being paralyzed by a vaccine-preventable disease is just tragic.”
— Katy Clark, senior program manager at Gavi, the Vaccine AllianceThose tragedies could play out more frequently because of sweeping foreign assistance cuts. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, for instance, plans to slash its budget by 30% next year — bringing it down to $786 million from $1.1 billion this year.
And these cuts aren’t some abstract policy decision. They’re translating into real-life pressures and do-or-die decisions.
My colleague Sara Jerving witnessed some of those pressures as she traveled across Madagascar, which is now in a race to keep polio at bay after beating back an outbreak that ran between 2020 and 2023.
It was done through a multipronged campaign that involved a constellation of players, from community health volunteers navigating remote terrain to international agencies coordinating logistics and funding. Along the way, they encountered vaccine misinformation, limited resources, frequent cyclones, and complicated data collection systems.
Today, those hard-fought gains are more fragile than ever. Join Sara as she treks through villages and makeshift clinics — and hears some mighty unhappy babies none too pleased with being jabbed — to chronicle the country’s battle against a terrible but preventable disease.
As Clark of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance puts it: “It’s critical that children are given the same opportunities in Madagascar as they’re given in Manhattan.”
Read the visual story: Against the odds — Madagascar’s fragile polio victory
Related: Global polio coalition braces for 30% budget cut
+ Here at Devex, we’re taking you from the centers of power where foreign aid cuts are decided to the places and people on the ground who are bearing the brunt of those decisions. Join us on Nov. 5 for the launch of The Aid Report, an editorially independent journalism project funded by the Gates Foundation to track the ripple effects of U.S. foreign aid cuts across countries and sectors — from health and education to peacebuilding, agriculture, and climate.
If your organization has relevant data or examples of how programs and people are being affected, whether positively or negatively, please email the editor, Kelli Rogers, at kelli.rogers@devex.com. You can also reach Kelli securely on Signal or fill out this short survey.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has written to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in an effort to resolve an impasse over which country will host next year’s U.N. Climate Change Conference. Australia’s bid is backed by Pacific island nations, while Turkey argues its Mediterranean location would help cut emissions from delegate travel. [Reuters]
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’ capture of El Fasher has worsened the humanitarian crisis in western Sudan, leaving thousands trapped, displaced, or missing as aid groups plead for greater access. [Al Jazeera]
A magnitude 6.3 earthquake shook Afghanistan early Monday local time, killing at least 20 and injuring some 320 others. [BBC]
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