HAPPENING NOW: We are live from the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva with a must-watch event on Reimagining global health security. Register and tune in now to hear from Atul Gawande, Maria van Kerkhove, Lu'chen Foster, and many more — with both in-person and online sessions.
Today we’re also asking leaders at Davos about structural racism in the foreign aid sector, and examining the future of Australia’s global development engagement.
Tuesday was a big day for announcements at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. My colleague Adva Saldinger shares this report:
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The WEF annual meeting is always known for its announcements and today was no exception. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced its first private sector contribution – from Comic Relief US – to its upcoming replenishment, which was double matched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Global Fund only has another $17.7 billion more to go to reach its goal.
Royal DSM and the World Food Programme announced they’ll continue to work together for another three years to scale rice fortification. WFP’s Executive Director David Beasley put pressure on the gathered elite to act on food security.
“There are enough leaders at Davos this week to end hunger not just by charity, yes that’s important in a singular crisis we are having right now, but long term we need their engagement, their ingenuity, their creativity,” he told the crowd at a panel.
A few hundred kilometers away in Geneva, my colleague Jenny Lei Ravelo tells me that Tuesday was also a big day for the World Health Organization and its chief as member states at the 75th WHA reelected Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for the position of director-general of WHO, unopposed. They also adopted a resolution that aims to increase WHO’s flexible funding in the next eight years.
In his post-election remarks, Tedros thanked member states for reelecting him and taking up the issue of sustainable financing of WHO.
Addressing the organization’s financial woes has been one of Tedros’ priorities. He floated the idea of more flexible funding to the organization, through an increase in assessed contributions, when he was elected director-general back in 2017.
An increase in flexible funding for the organization would help staff focus on working on their programs, instead of “wasting their time” raising financial resources, Tedros said.
WHA: Tedros’ reelection coincides with WHO financing overhaul
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Not so fast
Tedros’ reelection celebration may be marred by criticism of WHO’s “inadequate response” to allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse during the 10th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A letter from a team of United Nations rapporteurs addressed to him said the agency’s response may have “prevented a fair and thorough investigation of crimes of sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse” and “weakened the accountability for these crimes allowing perpetrators of these crimes to go unpunished.”
Among the criticisms was a failure to support criminal investigations in DRC, provide reparations to victims, and properly protect confidentiality of victims.
Read: UN rapporteurs say WHO failed DRC sexual abuse victims
New beginnings
Australia has a new prime minister. Anthony Albanese was sworn in Monday, as the first Labor government in nearly a decade takes office. Is the Australian foreign aid budget headed for a rebound?
Lisa Cornish reports for Devex that Albanese and new Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong have put Australian aid on the agenda as they head to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue summit in Tokyo, with new funding — and a new office — for Southeast Asia. Australia’s current aid budget stands at about 4.5 billion Australian dollars ($3.2 billion) a year. But Pat Conroy, as shadow minister for international development and the Pacific, alluded to new funding for “the rest of the world and multilateral institutions.” Here’s an in-depth look at what this new outlook on Australia’s development engagement could mean.
Read: Australia welcomes new era for aid (PRO)
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Uphill battle
When George Floyd, a Black man from Minnesota, was killed in police custody two years ago, it triggered something of a reckoning over racism in global development. Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, sat down with Adva — as part of our new podcast series Davos Dispatch — to discuss whether this tragic event led to any real changes within the sector.
“These are early days,” Byanyima says. Adding that “we've had racism with us for 500 years. It was an idea that was created to justify slavery,” and “it's entrenched in the institutions we have."
UNAIDS chief: Racism 'entrenched' in development institutions
+Tune in to our new podcast series Davos Dispatch for the latest updates and insights on WEF’s annual meeting.
Table talk
Last night George Soros held court at his traditional Davos dinner and Adva tells me the targets of his ire were Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. The leaders are “tied together in an alliance that has no limits,” he said. “They rule by intimidation, and as a consequence they make mind-boggling mistakes.”
While the war continues, the fight against climate change “has to take second place,” yet if the changes are irreversible, it could mean “the end of our civilization,” Soros said.
In an impassioned, and rather loud speech a few hours later, Al Gore likened dependence on Russian oil to a drug addiction at another dinner.
SDR solutions
“We are living in historic crisis times. Let us work to make 2022 the pivotal year when the global community reinvents the role of the SDR system.”
— Amadou Hott, Senegal’s minister of economy, and Daouda Sembene, former executive director at the International Monetary FundIn an opinion piece for Devex, Hott and Sembene detail what they consider to be one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways to mobilize additional liquidity for vulnerable African countries in the face of the global shocks they are facing.
Opinion: Ukraine conflict shows urgency of SDR reallocation for Africa
Fool me once
The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago narrowly avoided a financial scam involving a fake Gates Foundation grant and a U.N. secretary-general impersonator.
It turns out the global development community is a relatively easy target for scams and fraud, Rebecca Root reports for Devex. “A common tactic is fraudulent fundraising where money is raised in the NGO’s name but is diverted to another bank account,” she writes.
ICYMI: How to stop your development organization falling victim to fraud (PRO)
In other news
The landmark global agreement to impose more tax on multinational firms has been pushed back to 2024 over “difficult discussions.” [The Guardian]
Three more countries – United Arab Emirates, Czech Republic, and Slovenia – have reported their first cases of monkeypox. [BBC]
Overconsumption in high-income countries is creating unhealthy environments for children around the world, according to a UNICEF report. [UN News]
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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.
