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USAID chief Samantha Power hit the 100-day mark this week. Between high-profile trips to Central America, Sudan, and Ethiopia — and appearances with Steven Colbert — Power has signaled she wants to shift the agency’s funding away from the usual suspects.
Since before taking office as USAID administrator, Power has kept up a steady drumbeat about her concern that too little of the agency’s funding flows to local and community-based organizations.
“Throughout much of USAID’s history, a majority of projects have been awarded to the same select group of large contractors — a reality that holds back healthy competition, limits our exposure to new approaches, robs small businesses of the chance to gain valuable experience, and doesn’t make the best possible use of valuable taxpayer dollars,” she told a small business conference in June.
Power would not be the first USAID administrator to take on a procurement reform agenda aimed at broadening the agency’s partner base. Past efforts to do exactly that have yielded mixed results — sometimes in the face of stiff opposition.
But the Pulitzer Prize-winning genocide scholar and former U.N. ambassador is also not the typical profile to lead America’s bilateral aid bureaucracy.
On one hand, it remains to be seen whether Power will dive into the politically charged weeds of USAID’s procurement policies and congressional mandates. On the other, her tenure coincides with a much bigger conversation about equity, decolonization, and power embedded within the foreign aid system.
Power has also brought back some veterans of past localization battles to help accomplish her plans for the agency — though these are still coming into view.
Read: Is Samantha Power taking on the aid establishment?
Blind spot
Bilateral donors aren’t the only ones struggling to support local organizations, it turns out. My colleague Stephanie Beasley reports that African NGOs are also underfunded by philanthropies — including African philanthropies.
African funders directed just 9% of large gifts to NGOs based on the continent between 2010 and 2019, while non-African funders provided just 14% to these groups, according to a recent report from the African Philanthropy Forum and The Bridgespan Group.
Read: Even African philanthropists underfund African NGOs
Financial planning
The U.K. aid budget has been subject to steep and sudden cuts, leaving organizations scrambling to shore up funding in the wake of the government’s decision to pull back. My colleagues Janadale Coralde and Miguel Tamonan attempt to demystify the U.K. funding picture with this analysis of FCDO’s pipeline.
Devex Pro: Highlights of FCDO’s pipeline for the next 3 years
ICYMI: My colleague Will Worley has been tracking the U.K. aid cuts.
Worst-case scenario
The Taliban forces advancing in Afghanistan captured three more major cities this morning: Kandahar, Herat, and Lashkar Gah. The U.S. government plans to deploy 3,000 troops back to Kabul to evacuate American embassy staff and U.S. citizens, with the Taliban expected to put pressure on the capital in the next 30 days.
In the room
“It was really exciting, and it was a space where we were able to air out our problems and the recommended solutions.”
— Cleopatra Makura, a 24-year-old from ZimbabweThe White House sought expert input this week on its forthcoming gender policy strategy. The experts? Young women and adolescent girls from around the world.
Read: White House gets gender policy input from global group of young women
Drug test
The World Health Organization plans to test three additional candidate drugs to treat patients with COVID-19, Jenny Ravelo reports.
Solidarity PLUS will be the second phase of a COVID-19 treatment trial. The first phase evaluated remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, and interferon drug regimens, but preliminary results showed little or no effect on hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
The next phase will look at artesunate, a derivative of artemisinin used for malaria; imatinib, a cancer drug taken orally; and infliximab, a monoclonal antibody used to treat autoimmune conditions such as Crohn's disease.
“We need more [tools] for patients at all ends of the clinical spectrum, from mild to severe disease, and we need health workers that are trained to use them in a safe environment,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Read: WHO to test 3 additional drugs as COVID-19 treatments in 52 countries
In other news
A one-time 99% tax on the wealth billionaires gained during the pandemic could provide COVID-19 vaccine to every adult in the world, and still leave them with $55 billion in excess, according to one analysis. [The Guardian]
Médecins Sans Frontières aid workers have been denied entry visas to Madagascar, putting the charity's projects in the country at risk of closure. [MSF]
EU’s foreign policy chief on Thursday urged other major world economies to set tighter carbon emissions targets in time for the U.N. climate summit in November. [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.
