The government of Ethiopia refused to allow the president of Médecins Sans Frontières Spain to enter Tigray or meet with federal authorities investigating last year’s killing of three MSF staffers.
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Also in today’s edition: The former United Nations relief coordinator says donors are losing focus, and The Rockefeller Foundation plans a major climate change pivot.
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“We still do not have any credible answers on what happened to our colleagues that day,” MSF Spain President Paula Gil wrote in a statement published Tuesday.
Gil’s trip to Ethiopia came over one year after three MSF employees were murdered in Tigray while providing health services to conflict-affected communities. The New York Times linked the killings to government troops on orders of a commander.
“I was not granted permission from the authorities to visit Tigray, which meant that I could not pay tribute to the families of Tedros and Yohannes, our two Ethiopian colleagues who were brutally murdered, or inform the families on the progress of MSF’s internal review of the incident. I was also unable to meet any representatives from the Federal Government to continue the discussion about their investigation into the killing of our three staff, despite requests sent to the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice, and Defence,” she wrote.
MSF had been vocal about the “deliberate and widespread attack on healthcare” in the region. In an excruciating in-depth report earlier this year, my colleague Sara Jerving documented how that deliberate destruction has unfolded and what it has cost those directly affected.
Read more: MSF Spain president refused entry into Tigray
Stay on target
Mark Lowcock, the former United Nations relief chief, says donors are losing sight of extreme poverty as the key priority in global development.
In a wide-ranging interview with my colleague William Worley, Lowcock levels particular criticism at the British government where he used to serve — and which he says used to be a global leader in tackling extreme poverty, but is now enacting its third round of major aid cuts in three years.
A “significant problem” is how much aid goes to “places where it doesn't make a big enough difference, particularly in middle-income and better off countries,” Lowcock says.
He argues that multilateral development banks have “drifted away from what should be their core mission” because they find it more comfortable to lend to “middle-income or successful low-income countries who don't really need the money.”
Read: Mark Lowcock on how extreme poverty fell off UK aid's radar (Pro)
+ Devex Pro members can also read an insider view of the U.K. aid cuts from a former senior official of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. Not a Pro member yet? Start your 15-day free trial.
Not a good look
Winnie Byanima, the head of UNAIDS, is among those who encountered travel disruptions — or in some cases flat-out denials — en route to the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada. It’s a deeply unfortunate prelude to a conference that is supposed to be all about equity and inclusion.
The International AIDS Society, which hosts the major global health gathering, says the issue is with the government of Canada.
“Visa delays and denied visas are an urgent concern and affect our ability to host a conference that is truly inclusive and representative of the communities most affected by HIV,” IAS said in a statement on its website last week.
But many see this as the latest reason to stop hosting global health and development conferences in wealthy capital cities that make it difficult or impossible for people directly affected by the issues under discussion to be there.
+ Stay tuned for more coverage on this story from my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo, who is following up on this story today.
+ For more content like this, sign up for Devex CheckUp, our free, must-read weekly newsletter for exclusive global health news and insider insights.
Isn’t it ironic
The Rockefeller Foundation is going all-in on climate change and all-out of fossil fuels.
This week, foundation President Rajiv Shah announced that the funder will make climate change central to its programmatic, operational, and investment strategies, including through a new 2025-2030 strategy that will be shared with trustees within the year.
My colleague Stephanie Beasley reports that the foundation — built on a fortune derived from the oil industry — has previously said it would divest its $6 billion endowment from fossil fuels. It now also plans to increase its climate action by focusing on areas such as food security in Africa, South Asia, and other regions likely to be impacted by severe droughts and flooding.
Read more: Rockefeller Foundation re-focuses on climate, wrestles with oil legacy
On message
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. says the country needs its own Center for Disease Prevention and Control and a vaccine institute.
Jenny reports that in Marcos’ first State of the Nation address, the son and namesake of the late dictator also proposed legislation establishing a medical reserve corps and described “discussions with pharmaceutical companies” about bringing down drug prices by opening the market to generics.
Read: Philippine President Marcos Jr. revives calls for a national CDC
Hits keep coming
“The outlook has darkened significantly since April. The world may soon be teetering on the edge of a global recession, only two years after the last one.”
— Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, chief economist, International Monetary FundShabtai Gold reports that a worsening economic outlook is prompting worries that governments in low-income countries will lack the fiscal power to invest in basic services such as health and education, hurting development goals.
Learn more: IMF warns of 'gloomy' economy rife with uncertainty and high inflation
+ Sign up to Devex Invested, our free, must-read newsletter that gives you insights on how development finance leaders are tackling global challenges. Our latest edition offers a road map for MDBs to spend hundreds of billions more.
In other news
Violent protests against the U.N. in the Democratic Republic of Congo that resulted in at least 15 deaths, including that of a peacekeeper and two U.N. police officers, may constitute a war crime, according to U.N. chief António Guterres. [Al Jazeera]
New York City has requested the World Health Organization rename monkeypox due to its stigmatizing effects that may keep patients from seeking treatment. [France 24]
The heat wave currently occurring in Seville, Spain has a name: Zoe. The city became the first in the world to categorize and name this weather phenomenon. [Time]
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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.
