ONE, an advocacy organization co-founded by rock icon Bono and Robert Shriver, is planning to reduce its staff by approximately 30% as part of a strategic shift.

Also in today’s edition: Experts stress the need for development finance institutions to change how they operate and manage investments during a crucial year for low-income countries. Plus, we look at emerging trends in MacKenzie Scott’s giving.

ONE direction

The Washington, D.C.-based ONE will eliminate 50 positions as part of a strategy to address rising costs and increasing competition in the fundraising realm, my colleague Michael Igoe scoops. The organization aims to tighten its focus on key global development priorities, concentrating resources around the overarching goal of unlocking financing to reduce poverty and preventable diseases in Africa.

ONE combines two nonprofit organizations, including a lobbying arm, and is considered influential among policymakers. Its new approach will include creating more platforms for African leaders to engage in policy discussions.

“Africa has always been at the heart of ONE’s mission, but ONE’s new strategic plan puts its work with African leaders and influencers in sharper focus,” the organization said in a statement to Devex.

It also wants to focus on funding replenishments for the vaccine alliance Gavi and the International Development Association, the World Bank’s fund for the lowest-income countries, among other areas, the group said.

The changes come as ONE celebrates its 20th anniversary and undergoes leadership shifts, including Bono stepping down from the board in 2023 and CEO Gayle Smith resigning after seven years.

ONE wants to become a more agile entity better positioned to succeed with its mission, says its interim president, John Spears. While this restructuring is challenging, “ONE is committed to fully supporting our colleagues during this time and continuing to pursue our critical advocacy work,” he adds.

Read: ONE to cut 30% of staff in strategic shift (Pro)

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Tough times ahead

The future of development finance hinges on addressing key challenges this year, such as global geopolitical and economic uncertainties that make it harder for low-income countries to access the money they need. There also are questions about the broader impacts of the World Bank's ongoing reform initiatives within the complex development finance system, experts said at a recent Devex Pro event.

While many development finance institutions may receive a capital boost in the coming years, simply injecting more money into existing institutions without altering operational approaches won’t make the impact necessary, panelists said.

There should be "product reform" and a shift in the way these institutions operate, said Stephanie von Friedeburg, managing director of banking and capital markets advisory at Citi.

“Getting more money into those institutions and deploying it in the same old way is not going to give us the multiplier that we need to make a difference,” she said.

Beyond technical changes in investment management, there also is a need to address how lower-income countries can have a more substantial voice in the development finance system, the panel said.

Watch: Development finance must adapt to meet new needs, experts say (Pro)

Tigray in turmoil

The Tigray region of Ethiopia faces a dire humanitarian crisis, with people on the brink of starvation 15 months after a cease-fire agreement between Tigray rebels and the federal government was signed to alleviate their suffering, researchers Teklehaymanot Weldemichel and Birhan Gebrekirstos write in an opinion piece for Devex.

The conflict over the past three years has led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives, systematic targeting of farmers, and destruction of crops, resulting in one of the worst humanitarian and human rights catastrophes in recent decades, the article’s authors write. Despite the signing of a cease-fire agreement in November 2022, the crisis persists — exacerbated, they explain, by the suspension of food assistance by the U.N. and USAID due to reports of aid theft and diversion.

The regional government of Tigray recently warned of an unfolding famine that could rival that of the 1980s, which led to the deaths of more than one million people. Currently, approximately 4 million people in Ethiopia are thought to need food assistance — and farmers in the region are struggling to revitalize agricultural production because they are low on resources and grappling with severe drought and other climate shocks.

Opinion: How targeting Tigray farmers has contributed to brink of famine

Background reading: Decades of Ethiopia aid manipulation

Scott in the act

Billionaire MacKenzie Scott, currently worth $33.1 billion, is still on a mission to downsize her fortune and give the bulk of it to charity. The ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has gifted more than $16 billion total to nonprofits in recent years.

Last year alone, she donated more than $2 billion. And just last week, Bloomberg reported that in 2023 alone she also unloaded nearly 65.3 million shares in Amazon, about a quarter of what she owned, worth roughly $10 billion.

Scott is notoriously press-shy, preferring to publish occasional blog posts about her no-strings, unrestricted grants, which are often multimillion-dollar gifts. However, some trends have started to emerge in her charitable work that provide clues to her thinking and strategy, according to new data from Panorama Global, a U.S.-based philanthropic advisory firm that has been researching the impact of Scott’s giving.

“The average gift sizes are becoming more uniform across focus areas and regions, emphasizing her commitment to take a deeper dive to address the root cause of inequities and disparities,” a spokesperson for Panorama Global tells me.

According to the data, some of Scott’s top priority areas were education, equity and justice, economic security, and health. And while Scott’s giving continues to be primarily in the United States, 18% of gifts went to organizations serving geographies outside of the U.S. and 13% went to organizations serving the global south. Overall, 130 gifts went to organizations in sub-Saharan Africa and 94 went to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Background reading: MacKenzie Scott gave more than $2B to nonprofits in 2023

+ Pro members can get the most out of our coverage of Scott’s philanthropy such as:

• Funders skeptical of Scott’s philanthropic giving style.
• Scott grantees share tips for managing her windfall grants.

In other news

Canada announced new funding, worth 40 million Canadian dollars ($29.8 million), for humanitarian aid to Gaza. [Reuters]

The U.N. and its humanitarian partners are seeking $1.6 billion to help 5.2 million Somalis requiring lifesaving humanitarian and protection assistance. [Xinhua]

South Africa asks U.N. Security Council to detail enforcement of the International Court of Justice’s Israel ruling on delivering aid and minimizing harm to Palestinians. [Bloomberg]

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