Presented by Gates Foundation
We’ve entered a new era of global development — and as with all eras in history, it will be fundamentally defined by the people shaping, funding, and living through it. We reveal Devex’s list of 50 people doing just that for development.
Also in today’s edition: A Kafkaesque conundrum at the United Nations.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and his on-again-off-again ally Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, ended USAID as we know it. But they’re not on our Power 50 list. Why? Because while Musk may have fed U.S. foreign assistance into the proverbial wood chipper, many people behind the scenes are now picking up the pieces and crafting something new.
And they’re doing it in myriad ways, with backgrounds that span the spectrum of development and far beyond. So who’s No. 1? We start with an agency — and the person guiding it — that embodies the Trump administration’s aid strategy of geopolitical transactionalism and transition to self-sufficiency. In some ways, it could eclipse the State Department in reshaping foreign assistance, and thus this surprising leader is one to closely watch.
But there’s so much more. Here are a few highlights:
• A referee in the race to bring artificial intelligence to low- and middle-income countries
• An investment bridge between Africa and Persian Gulf state financiers
• An amateur radio operator — who in her day job is shaping global digital standards around the world, with the Trump administration’s backing
• A philanthropy president standing up to that very same administration
• A health entrepreneur who sold his past ventures for billions of dollars and who is now shaping the “America First” global health strategy
• A farmer and former sheriff who is poised to become a philanthropic giant.
• A long-time, steady hand at the World Bank who could see her portfolio and prestige blossom
• A YouTuber who is either saving the world or propagating white savior syndrome.
• A popular podcaster and former high-level U.K. official who traveled the world on foot for 21 months.
• An indefatigable advocate for African health whose polarizing presence sometimes resonates and sometimes chafes
That’s just a tiny sampling. All this week, we’ll be featuring a name you need to remember. As for our decision-making process, admittedly, it’s more art than science, but our newsroom worked hard to debate and formulate this list to help the development community pinpoint the power players who could make or break the sector.
Read the list: Devex Power 50
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres splashed cold water on those hoping the Trump administration was gradually warming up to the world body by warning that it’s confronting “imminent financial collapse.”
That stark warning comes despite the Trump administration’s recent pledge to spend $2 billion for U.N. humanitarian relief and Congress agreeing to fund U.N. programs that the White House had sought to eliminate, my colleague Colum Lynch writes.
So why the dark mood? Because, Guterres said, if member states — principally the United States — don’t either pay their dues in full and on time, or at least agree to overhaul the organization’s financial rules to enable it to manage a mammoth cash crunch, the United Nations will be, well, screwed (my words, not Guterres’).
At the heart of the crisis is a strange, somewhat convoluted circle that’s hard to square. The U.N. is required to repay governments hundreds of millions of dollars in credits for budgeted U.N. programs, even those that were never realized. And many of those programs were never realized in large part because the U.S. has not yet paid its dues for 2025. In essence, according to Guterres, the U.N. is being penalized for spending less than it has been authorized to spend.
“We are suffering a double blow: on one side, unpaid contributions; and on the other side, an obligation to return funds that were never received in the first place,” Guterres wrote in a letter to member states. “In other words, we are trapped in a Kafkaesque cycle; expected to give back cash that does not exist.”
Not all is lost, however, if Congress comes through to at least soften the blow.
Peter Yeo, president of U.N. advocacy group Better World Campaign, said he hoped that the current budget making its way through Capitol Hill would ultimately help ease the crisis. “Once the FY26 bill is passed and signed into law, we are hopeful that the US will transmit UN Regular Budget funds that will help to avert the financial crisis,” he wrote to Colum. “As you know, this bill provides enough funding for the UN to meet our CY 2025 financial obligations.”
Read: US funding pledge insufficient to avert UN financial woes
ICYMI: Congress may pass a $50B foreign aid bill. Will Trump spend the money? (Pro)
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It’s amazing how much one building can come to symbolize the battle over Trump’s approach to governing, which can alternately be seen as overly aggressive or refreshingly assertive.
The U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. — now subtly renamed the Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute of Peace — has seen its fair share of drama, and tenants. The latest plot twist: The administration wants to relocate hundreds of State Department staff into the USIP building, which is expected to also house Trump’s new Board of Peace in the coming months.
But lawyers of former USIP staff say the decision to sign a 10-year deal with the State Department violates a judge’s order limiting changes to the embattled institution, my colleague Elissa Miolene reports.
The litigation battle is now coming up on one year after the administration seized the gleaming Washington landmark, fired nearly all its staff, and installed political appointees to head it.
Andrew Goldfarb, an attorney representing former USIP staff, wrote that “construction is already underway” inside the $500 million facility. He warned that all of those changes violate court orders.
“A Federal judge ordered them out of the building and told them to leave USIP alone. That ruling is stayed while the government appeals, but a stay is not permission for the loser of a case to hijack the property of the winning party,” says George Foote, the counsel for former USIP leadership and staff.
Neither the State Department nor USIP responded to a request for comment, and the institute’s website has been stripped of everything aside from a video of Trump signing a peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda at the USIP headquarters.
Read: USIP lawyers warn Trump administration’s 10-year deal breaks court orders
Check out: Court watch — the latest on the USAID docket
Let’s end on a much-needed positive note: The world is on the brink of eradicating Guinea worm disease, which would make it the second human disease ever eradicated after smallpox, writes Dr. Kashef Ijaz of The Carter Center in an opinion piece for Devex.
“Now for the not-so-good news: The progress toward eradication is fragile, and all the hard-won gains could be lost without sustained commitment from the global community,” he adds, citing recent drops in funding for global health.
Guinea worm is a neglected tropical disease, a group of preventable diseases that disproportionately affect people living in poverty. The painful parasitic infection has plagued humanity since antiquity. Today, however, only 10 cases were reported on the planet. Compare that to 1986, when The Carter Center assumed leadership of the global Guinea Worm Eradication Program, and an estimated 3.5 million human cases occurred annually in 21 countries across Africa and Asia.
Ijaz credits that remarkable success not to a vaccine or medicine but to “behavior change and a network of hundreds of thousands of volunteers, trained to provide health education in their communities.”
But the fight is not over: “While the campaign against NTDs has been driven by strong country leadership, we need sustained global and financial commitments so we don’t drop the baton in our final lap toward eradicating Guinea worm and eliminating many other NTDs.”
Opinion: Guinea worm’s near-eradication shows what’s possible for tropical diseases
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The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza will open Monday to a limited number of people, as Israel bans Médecins Sans Frontières from operating in Gaza after the charity refused to provide a list of staff working in the occupied territory. [AP]
Proposed U.N. tax rules, if agreed, could require fossil fuel companies to contribute financially toward climate damage and introduce a global wealth tax on the ultrarich. [The Guardian]
More than 200 people were killed when heavy rains triggered a collapse at an improperly maintained coltan mine in eastern DRC. [BBC]
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