Devex Pro Insider: Preparing for Trump, and Gavi’s struggles

Congratulations! You’ve (nearly) made it to the end of the year. As things wind down for 2024, there’s not much happening this week by way of scheduled events — so instead of our usual Up Next section, you’ll find a roundup of our top stories of the year and a global development news quiz to check how much attention you’ve been paying! Keep reading for all of that, plus our usual insider tidbits from the week. This is the last edition of Pro Insider this year. I’ll be back to welcome you into 2025 on Jan. 5. See you then! Coming up: Kick off the new year with unique insights into how to prepare for the year ahead from Devex President and CEO Raj Kumar. He’ll be presenting his annual development forecast and taking questions from the audience — join us on Jan. 8. Also in today’s edition: Three global development leaders tell us how they're planning to advocate for aid under Trump, the WHO Academy opens its doors, and Gavi finds itself in an unusual situation. Bits and pieces The pressures of hosting. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is currently looking for $9 billion to complete its work from 2026 to 2030. So far, it's only raised $2.7 billion, but it still has its 2025 high-level pledging summit to go. That summit, it was recently announced, will be co-hosted by the European Commission and the Gates Foundation, which is noteworthy, because it's unusual for a major replenishment to be co-hosted by a philanthropic organization. It's understood there were challenges in finding a government that was willing to host alone, given the pressure that typically falls on hosts to plug funding gaps and encourage other donors. In this political environment, few donors have money left to spare. Gates has stepped up, which is good news for Gavi. But it's an uncomfortable position for multilateral funds to be in. Will Gates do the same for others that find themselves in trouble? And will everyone be happy with it if they do? Bienvenue. The WHO Academy opened its doors last week in Lyon, France, after seven years in the making. The school aims to provide top-tier training, both in person and online, to help fill critical gaps in the global health workforce and ensure health workers have access to the latest research. It aims to train 3 million health care workers — including nurses, clinicians, and midwives — by 2028. In addition to health workers, courses will be available to public health decision-makers and WHO staff members. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the French-funded academy during an all-day ceremony, and toured the 11,000-square-meter campus, which features training rooms, a simulation center, an emergency operations center, a TV recording studio, and a library. Tedros lamented that too often, WHO’s “world-class technical products,” such as guidelines and standards, sit unused on shelves. The hope is that the WHO Academy will go some way to changing that. What’s in it for us? In our final Pro event of the year last week, we asked three global development leaders how they’re preparing to advocate for aid under the incoming aid-skeptical U.S. administration. Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, CEO of the ONE Campaign, said it was clear that “we need to change the way we talk about development, with an emphasis on return on investment and why it’s mutually beneficial for the American people and the rest of the world.” There’s plenty of evidence for that argument, she said, and it ought to work on European leaders as well. What won’t work at persuading those leaders? “What we’ve heard loud and clear is [that] the moral imperative is not enough.” Meanwhile, Sean Callahan, CEO of Catholic Relief Services, suggested playing into leaders’ natural desire to compete with other countries. “There’s competition [when it comes to international engagement], and this administration is going to want to beat the competition,” he said. “Let’s not vilify China, Russia, and others; let’s beat them on the playing field.” Catch up on the full event recording, where the speakers discuss the trends that shaped global development in 2024, and how they’re preparing for 2025. Fit for a bank. The African Development Bank announced last week that it will be building a new “state-of-the-art” headquarters. While AfDB’s HQ will remain in Abidjan, the executive directors said it was important to “invest in a work environment that supports the well-being of its staff,” while bank President Akinwumi Adesina said that AfDB “deserves a headquarters befitting its global reputation.” I asked AfDB why they need a new headquarters and how much it will cost, but they had not responded at the time of writing. AfDB opened its headquarters in Abidjan in 1965 but relocated to Tunis for a decade in 2003 due to civil conflict in Côte d’Ivoire. The 1980s skyscraper that the bank currently occupies was renovated shortly before the bank returned to Abidjan in 2014. Adesina noted in a statement that the decision to invest in a new building “shows the Bank is here to stay permanently in Cote d’Ivoire, our home, for today and in the future.” ✉️ Do you have insights into any of this week’s bits and pieces? Let me know by replying to this email. Moving on Among the latest Trump administration appointments, Richard Grenell was named as presidential envoy for “special missions.” It’s unclear what this role will involve but there’s some indication he’ll be focusing on global conflicts and crises, as Trump said in a social media post that Grenell “will work in some of the hottest spots around the World, including Venezuela and North Korea.” Stéphane Hallegatte is now chief climate economist at the World Bank. Francesco Branca, director of WHO’s nutrition department, is leaving the organization at the end of the year. He’s joining the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva, and will be replaced at WHO by Luz María De-Regil. Tim Bromfield is moving on from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, where he has served as acting managing director of the Africa division, after more than 13 years. He’ll be replaced by Nzioka Waita. As for Bromfield, he’s moving to Conservation International where he’ll serve as vice president, Africa. Alex Reid is returning to the Gates Foundation as chief communications officer. Jessica Andrews is now the executive communications manager at Global Refuge. Did we miss one? Is there a change on the horizon? Let us know at devexpro@devex.com. 2024 in review It’s been a big year for global development news! In case you missed them, catch up on some of the biggest Pro stories below, or take our quiz for a reminder of what happened this year: Return to Trumpworld: Who will shape US aid policy? This beautifully presented multimedia story from just last month quickly became our best-read Pro story of the year. My colleague Michael Igoe took a look at the runners and riders who could shape U.S. aid policy under the incoming administration. If you’re looking for more on what might happen to aid under Trump, this Pro article on what we do and don’t know was also one of our most popular stories of the year. Scoop: The EU aid cuts revealed Back in September, my colleague Vince Chadwick revealed that the European Commission was planning to slash funding to the world’s poorest countries. He was handed internal figures showing an average cut of 35% to the least-developed countries over the 2025-2027 period — and some countries fared significantly worse. Haiti, for example, is set to receive €5 million ($5.5 million) per year through 2027, down from an average allocation of €33 million per year in 2021-2024; while the Central African Republic is expected to receive as little as €12 million per year, down from €43 million. Vince’s story gave our Pro readers critical early information about these drastic cuts at the world’s third-biggest donor. What's stopping USAID from localizing? Localization continued to be one of the biggest topics of interest to our readers. As Samantha Power’s time leading USAID comes to an end, the agency has failed to deliver on her ambitious localization targets. But why? In another of our most popular Pro stories of the year, my colleague Dave Ainsworth explored the obstacles holding USAID back. Power is moving on, but we’ve consistently heard that Trump’s government may continue the focus on localization — though primarily for financial rather than ideological reasons. So these barriers may still be relevant. And while some of the issues Dave highlighted are specific to USAID, others likely apply to other big bilateral donors as well, giving some insight into the barriers all around the world. What is the future of the INGO? It’s not just USAID that needs to make changes in order to achieve localization. Among nonprofits worldwide, it’s INGOs that still get the lion’s share of aid contracts, but many understand that more resources and power need to be handed over to locally led groups. What does that mean for these titans of the industry? What will their role be in this new order, and what changes do they need to make to get there? It’s something most of these organizations are thinking about intensively. My colleague Elissa Miolene spoke to them about some of the key ideas that are emerging. At the same time, INGOs are also struggling for other reasons, as we explored in this piece on what’s driving job cuts at some of the world’s biggest aid groups. Everything you need to know about the World Bank's reform plans Finally, another big overarching trend this year has been the growing momentum behind multilateral development bank reform — a project that was advanced at the recent Group of 20 meetings. But it’s often difficult to keep up with the complex and ever-evolving proposals. Ahead of the World Bank’s Spring Meetings earlier this year, Devex contributor Sophie Edwards gave our Pro readers this comprehensive overview of the reform plans at the world’s biggest multilateral development bank.