It’s been a whirlwind week in the world of global development. Shortly before I signed off the previous edition of this newsletter, the Trump administration announced it was suspending almost all U.S. foreign assistance pending a review. In the week since then, my inbox and social media feeds have been full of messages from people who have lost work, organization leaders who are unsure how to respond, and global development professionals trying to make sense of the situation and the impact on the people they work with.
Following the announcement of the aid freeze, we held an emergency briefing for our Devex Pro members. There was a huge level of interest in this event — and on that note, I want to apologize to anyone who had problems joining.
In an unprecedented situation, we reached capacity within seconds of the event starting, so some of you received links to watch via YouTube instead. We have upgraded our systems to ensure it doesn’t happen again, and you can catch up on the full recording here.