U.S. President Donald Trump’s worldview on “gender ideology” and a U.N. conference on women. What could possibly go wrong?
Also in today’s edition: The foreign aid freeze fallout continues — with Inter-American Foundation, Chemonics, and personal services contractors on the losing end.
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UNequal rights
The 69th Commission on the Status of Women, which starts in New York today, marks the first major U.N. conference since Trump was reinaugurated. As such, it takes on added weight this year as a battleground between Trump’s anti-“woke” war on diversity and proponents of women’s rights, reproductive health, and a range of progressive issues.
Already, in closed-door negotiations on a political declaration for the Commission on the Status of Women, or CSW, the U.S. joined forces with Russia, Argentina, and other conservative states to strike language promoting efforts to achieve gender parity at the United Nations, my colleague Colum Lynch scoops. That doesn’t exactly bode well for those hoping the still male-dominated world body would finally elect its first female U.N. secretary-general.
“Candidates should not be selected based on sex but only if qualified,” said a U.S. official, urging delegates to water down language encouraging member states to nominate female candidates for the top U.N. job, according to notes on the confidential proceedings.
“The Trump administration is projecting a lot of its domestic agenda onto the UN,” Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group tells Colum. “The first Trump administration struck some pretty regressive stances on issues like gender and climate change at the UN. The new team is doubling down on that.”
The diplomatic standoff is also unfolding on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a landmark agreement devoted to advancing women's rights and equality.
“It’s a wake up call for us as feminists and for us as human rights defenders,” Ishaan Shah of the Young Feminist Caucus wrote in a text message. “We knew this was coming; it’s just that seeing it play out is devastating. If you look at how much has been done [to roll back agreements on women’s rights] in the first few months of this year, it’s a signal that we need to push forward stronger over the next four years to ensure we don’t roll back hard won and fought progress.”
Scoop: US pokes globalism in eye in women's rights talks at UN
ICYMI: Trump admin opposes UN commitment to broaden women's peace role
I anoint myself
Last week, we reported on the bizarre confrontation between Peter Marocco, Trump’s deputy USAID administrator, and the U.S. African Development Foundation, as staffers from the latter refused to allow Marocco and the Department of Government Efficiency to physically enter their office in a bid to keep them from dismantling their tiny government agency.
But USADF isn’t the only target. Trump has also labeled the Inter-American Foundation “unnecessary,” and apparently, he’s using a similar playbook to squash both agencies, according to a lawsuit filed by USADF CEO and President Ward Brehm. That includes rapid reductions in workforce and slashing functions down to the statutory minimum.
It also includes some strange maneuvering, my colleague Sara Jerving reports.
On Feb. 28, IAF received communication that Trump appointed Marocco as acting chair of the foundation’s board and the “communication represented that there were no other remaining members of the Board of IAF.” Marocco then held an “emergency board meeting” — as “the only purported board member” — outside IAF’s office because nobody was there to let him in, where he voted to appoint himself as acting president and CEO of IAF, according to the filings.
Read: Trump administration rapidly guts the Inter-American Foundation
And then there were none two
Few organizations in the aid sector have emerged unscathed from Trump’s foreign aid freeze, but some have had it worse than others.
Chemonics International, which was the largest for-profit contractor for USAID, has been pummeled by the agency’s collapse, with the vast majority of its contracts terminated.
However, last week, one of these termination letters was rescinded — focused on supply chains for malaria products, Sara reports.
Her article, which includes internal documents, vividly illustrates USAID’s own confusion about which contracts it has canceled and the haphazard nature of those terminations.
Read: Chemonics received over 100 US govt terminations, 1 was rescinded
Nothing personal
More than 1,000 personal services contractors who worked at USAID and tried to fight their termination on the grounds that it was unconstitutional lost a court battle last week, leaving their prospects in doubt.
U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols — who also sided with the government in a case involving USAID direct hires — denied a preliminary injunction to block the mass firing of PSCs.
Nichols said that the plaintiffs had failed to prove that USAID’s PSCs would suffer irreparable harm, that the court had the appropriate jurisdiction, or that a temporary restraining order was in the public interest.
Read: Judge denies temporary order in USAID personal services contractors case
Ingenuity on the job
The jobs landscape for the sector was already facing disruptions, from the advent of artificial intelligence to the transition to locally led development. Then came Trump 2.0.
“Before all this went down with the stop-work orders and the cuts, I was telling people, depending on their level, to estimate a job search to be anywhere from three to six months. Now I'm telling people it's going to be a year-plus potentially for them to find a job,” says Stephanie Mansueto, a social impact career coach.
“A lot of people will try to stay in social impact. They'll either shift to the global nonprofits, the foundations, or they'll go more toward domestic or home-country based positions,” she adds. However, foundations and private philanthropy won’t, unfortunately, be able to fill the gap USAID is likely to leave, meaning “there just isn't going to be enough … for everyone to get jobs.”
But not all is lost. Long-term data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on nonprofit employment shows that since 2007, employment in the space has risen despite disruptive events, Devex contributor Rebecca Root writes.
And resourceful job seekers don’t let a crisis go to waste. Lois Freeke of the NGO Recruitment says new initiatives will arise to combat Trump’s “America First” agenda, such as increased immigration support in response to the president’s immigration crackdown and movements “spurred into action” by the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Read: As the USAID dust settles, what's the development job market outlook? (Career)
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Run, forest, run
Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement, while expected, was still a big blow. But work continues behind the scenes.
My colleague Jesse Chase-Lubitz scoops that progress is being made on a fund called the Tropical Forest Forever Facility, or TFFF — originally announced a few years ago — that will measure which nations have done a good job at preserving their forests and reward them based on that data.
A new document acquired by Devex will be discussed today and tomorrow at a closed-door meeting in London by delegates from 12 countries that have agreed to partake in the fund. This includes Brazil and the tropical forest countries of Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Indonesia, and Malaysia, as well as nontropical forest countries such as France, Germany, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates.
The meeting this week is meant to bring clarity on who the first donors of the fund will be, which multilateral development bank will host it, and what more details on the final structure will be ahead of COP30 in Belém, Brazil, where the TFFF is expected to be front and center.
Scoop: Brazil hammers out details of forest fund ahead of COP30
In other news
At an emergency summit in Cairo, Arab leaders have approved Egypt’s $53 billion reconstruction plan for Gaza, rejecting any forced or voluntary displacement of Palestinians. [BBC]
Internet shutdowns in Africa reached a record-high number in 2024, with 21 shutdowns across 15 countries. [The Guardian]
Trump has nominated Lynda Blanchard to be the U.S. ambassador to FAO. [MSN News]
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Update, March 10, 2025: This article has been updated to reflect that Chemonics had one termination letter rescinded by the Trump administration.
About the author
Anna Gawel
Anna Gawel is the Managing Editor of Devex. She previously worked as the managing editor of The Washington Diplomat, the flagship publication of D.C.’s diplomatic community. She’s had hundreds of articles published on world affairs, U.S. foreign policy, politics, security, trade, travel and the arts on topics ranging from the impact of State Department budget cuts to Caribbean efforts to fight climate change. She was also a broadcast producer and digital editor at WTOP News and host of the Global 360 podcast. She holds a journalism degree from the University of Maryland in College Park.
