We have an exclusive on a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the financial practices of a USAID contractor and its nonprofit affiliate.
Also in today’s edition: A vault in the Arctic could be humankind’s last hope if the world comes crashing down.
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Justice investigation
A major USAID contractor, DT Global, and its nonprofit affiliate, DT Institute, are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, my colleague Michael Igoe scoops.
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Michael obtained a confidential internal memo that Pia Wanek, DT Institute’s CEO, sent to select staff in February informing them that the inquiry is “related to DT Global’s Federal contracts and grants,” and instructing them to preserve any related documents and materials.
“The inquiry appears to be focused on allocation of indirect and other costs to Federal contracts and grants, allowability of charged costs to Federal contracts and grants, and representations and documentation related to the same,” Wanek wrote.
The Justice Department’s current inquiry follows a lawsuit filed in 2021 and first reported by Devex, which alleged that DT Global, the for-profit company, illegally misused its nonprofit affiliate as a “vehicle for profit and marketing.”
In their statements to Devex, DT Global and DT Institute wrote that the current investigation is “similar” to that past case, which the organizations pointed out was “closed with no adverse findings.”
“We are fully confident that our operations and practices are highly professional and ethical, and that the Department of Justice will again come to a resolution with no adverse findings,” they wrote.
The Justice Department investigation is just getting underway.
Exclusive: Justice Department investigating USAID contractor (Pro)
Background reading: USAID contractor accused of misusing its nonprofit affiliate
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On Her Majesty’s Seed-cret Service
A “doomsday vault” buried beneath a thick layer of permafrost and rock on a remote Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic that safeguards the world’s food supply? It sounds like the plot of the next James Bond flick, but in fact, the vault is very real — in addition to being really cool (no pun intended).
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is home to more than 1.25 million seed samples of over 6,000 plant species from nearly every country. Opened in 2008, the repository serves as a backup for the world’s seed banks — making it the last line of defense against threats to global food security such as climate change, war, and pandemics, Devex Senior Editor Tania Karas writes.
The two agricultural scientists known as the fathers of the vault were recently recognized for their pioneering work with the 2024 World Food Prize.
Cary Fowler, the U.S. special envoy for global food security, and Geoffrey Hawtin, the founding director and executive board member of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, will share the $500,000 that comes with the annual award, which is seen as the equivalent to the Nobel Prize for food and agriculture.
“I think when we first really started to put plans together for the seed vault that eventually was built in Norway, there were more than a few people that thought that this was some grand folly,” Fowler tells Tania. “So it's quite touching, really, to have people in our field … who've seen fit to recognize this body of work.”
Read: Scientists behind arctic 'doomsday' seed vault win World Food Prize
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The $4 trillion question
Nearly 10 years ago, the International Conference on Financing for Development was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to tackle the financial barriers standing in the way of sustainable development success.
Nearly a decade later, not only has that goal gone unfulfilled, it’s been compounded by a seemingly unstoppable train of crises, from conflict and climate change to the enduring economic stranglehold of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So the United Nations is taking another stab at it.
The world body recently kicked off talks to prepare for the next financing for development conference to be held in Spain in 2025 — a milestone event whose aim is nothing less than the transformation of the global financial architecture, my colleague Adva Saldinger writes.
It’s a tall order, but today’s times demand nothing less. The most recent U.N. financing report finds there is now a $4 trillion annual financing gap to achieve the SDGs, up from $2.5 trillion prior to COVID-19.
As U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres puts it, “many developing countries are simply unable to make the investments they need in sustainable development.”
And when these countries “turn to the global financial system for help, they find that it is unable to provide a global safety net to shield them from shocks. They find a system incapable of helping them forge stability or sustainability. They find a system that they had no hand in creating, no voice in shaping — and that remains unresponsive to their needs,” Guterres laments.
Read: UN forum helps set agenda for 2025 financing for development conference (Pro)
A house divided
U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin is worried the creation of a new Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State could set the stage for a turf war with their frenemies over at USAID, Michael tells me.
Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland and chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voiced that concern at a hearing last week to confirm the appointment of John Nkengasong as head of the new bureau.
Cardin asked Nkengasong to explain how he plans to work with USAID so that the “turf differences” do not “impact on our ability to be effective in dealing with global health issues.” To ease the senator’s mind, Nkengasong pointed to a “beautiful document,” the White House’s newly released global health security strategy, which the longtime crusader in the fight against HIV/AIDS said clearly explains how different agencies involved in global health will coordinate with one another.
Cardin pressed further, asking Nkengasong how the State Department and USAID will ensure they aren’t fighting over funding at a time when aid budgets are tightening. Nkengasong assured him that the State Department’s new bureau is not a threat, since the flagship HIV program PEPFAR has been around for over two decades, and the rest of his mandate is mostly focused on policy coordination and diplomacy.
Opinion corner
There’s an increasing backlash against “establishment” humanitarian organizations that some say are neither neutral nor independent, “especially if the authorities are taking a close interest in who gets assistance and who doesn’t,” writes Alexander Matheou of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “The allegations around proximity to power stick because there is truth to them.”
Delivering blended finance at a country level is complex, but don’t underestimate its role in bridging the vast sustainable development finance gap, argues John Murton, senior sustainability adviser at Standard Chartered Bank.
The “30x30” initiative is a landmark commitment made by world leaders to protect and conserve at least 30% of the planet’s land, ocean, and freshwater by 2030. Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Melissa Wright and SkyTruth’s Mitchelle De Leon write about a new, free tool to track progress on this critical conservation goal.
+ Want to write an opinion article for Devex? Email us your pitch at editor@devex.com.
In other news
South Africa has urged the International Court of Justice to mandate Israel to withdraw from Rafah and allow access to U.N. officials, aid workers, investigators, and the press. [Reuters]
Germany faces a monumental security challenge at Euro 2024, as it aims to protect the safety of fans and players amid tense global conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. [France 24]
The Taliban’s refugee ministry confirmed 315 deaths and over 1,600 injuries due to flash floods in northern Afghanistan. [Al Jazeera]
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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.
