Devex Pro Weekender: Knives out for Gates, Oxfam on strike, and COP 28 kicks off

Hello and happy Sunday, Pro readers! Here we go! COP 28 is finally upon us. This first week, which officially starts on Thursday, is centered around technical discussions, with a lot of advocates arriving to try and get their message heard. The high-level negotiations will take place next week. Get a head start by joining our Devex Pro leader roundtable on Tuesday, where you’ll get the inside track from some of the climate leaders at the heart of the discussions and have a chance to get your questions answered. A Devex team will be on their way to Dubai soon. If you’ll be there too, please make sure to say hello. Devex Pro members are invited to join us for a series of invite-only events — sign up here for more details. If you’re not going to be there in person, we’ll be your eyes and ears on the ground. Also in today’s edition: A very unofficial biography of Gates, Edesia Nutrition wins Bezos’s support, and Oxfam workers agree to strike. Jessica Abrahams Editor, Devex Pro Bits and pieces Out of the Gates. Tim Schwab, journalist and Gates's nemesis, has finally published his long-awaited book on the billionaire Bill Gates and his famous foundation. Full disclosure — this reporter has not managed to read it yet. But according to reviews, it’s pretty scathing. Schwab accuses the foundation of exaggerating its impact and claims its main purpose is to launder its founder’s reputation. He describes Bill as a “greedy, coldhearted, tyrannical monopolist.” One of his sources compares the Gates-funded vaccine alliance Gavi to a “drug dealer” that gets low-income countries hooked on vaccines. There is no doubt that the Gates Foundation and its work deserve full and proper scrutiny. Whether “The Bill Gates Problem” achieves that or not is unclear. Here’s the assessment of The New York Times reviewer, Business Investigations Editor David Enrich: “Schwab makes a strong case, based on years of reporting, that under the direction of a humbler man the Gates Foundation would probably be a more effective force for good. “The problem is that Schwab is rarely content to let the facts speak for themselves. Page after page devolves into insinuation and screeds against capitalism. And Schwab’s palpable anger toward the ‘dead-eyed,’ ‘bleating’ Gates at times left me questioning the reliability of his narrative.” But it’s a start — literally, because there are at least two more books on Gates forthcoming from other journalists. Musical interlude. In other Bill Gates news, the philanthropist shared his Spotify playlist for the holiday season last week. One for the end-of-year office parties, perhaps? Get ready for the festive period Gates-style by bobbing along to a heady mix of Madonna, the Beach Boys, and Dolly Parton, plus some lesser-known and international options suspiciously crowded into the bottom half of the list. Big bucks for Plumpy’Nut. The Bezos family made a substantial donation of $137 million to Edesia Nutrition, it was announced last week. The nonprofit social enterprise — which produces specialized foods to treat malnutrition in humanitarian crises — was founded less than 15 years ago and had an income of $65 million in 2021, so it’s a pretty big boost. Edesia claims the gift is “one of the biggest single donations to fight malnutrition.” It will be used to double production of “Plumpy’Nut,” a nutrient-packed food that the organization claims has a 92% success rate for curing severe acute malnutrition, and for advocacy work. In the press release, Edesia said the donation would ensure that Plumpy’Nut “can do for malnutrition what penicillin did for infections.” Urpilainen in limbo. The worst-kept secret in Brussels was confirmed last Sunday when the European Union’s development commissioner Jutta Urpilainen announced that she wants to run for president of Finland in January for her center-left political family. However, she said her campaign would only start on Dec. 2 — until then, she’s on deck as development commissioner. It’s a funny kind of limbo to occupy for two weeks, which Urpilainen spent, errr, meeting the Finnish permanent representation in Brussels and calling for reform of the bloc’s migration policy. But is she doing that as development commissioner or presidential candidate? My colleague Vince Chadwick asked for the rules that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen laid out for Urpilainen’s two weeks of limbo. See what you make of them here. Oxfam on strike. It’s official: Oxfam workers in Great Britain have voted to strike for the first time in the organization’s history. Office and shop staff will walk out for 17 days in December amid a pay dispute. A spokesperson for the nonprofit said pay demands from staff union Unite were “simply not affordable” and that they would be doing “everything possible to minimize the impact [of the walkout] on our work.” ✉️ Do you have insights into any of this week’s bits and pieces? Let me know by replying to this email. COP 28 toolkit To help our Devex Pro members get ready for the U.N. climate summit, we’ve prepared a set of practical resources: • The key issues at stake this year. • The main negotiating blocs and what they want. • The COP 28 jargon buster. • For those attending in person, how to make the most of being there. • How to make your voice heard above the noise at COP 28. Don’t forget to join us for our leader roundtable on Tuesday and keep an eye out for our all coverage from the ground. Up next COP 28. Get ready with our toolkit above, sign up for the Devex Climate + Summit, much of which you can join remotely, and keep track of the official negotiation schedule. If you’re not there in person, there are plenty of online events and conversations you can join, such as the OECD’s virtual pavilion, and make sure you’re signed up to the Devex Newswire for the daily updates from our reporters. Nov. 30-Dec. 12. Public health in Africa. The third International Conference on Public Health in Africa, or CPHIA 2023, is taking place in Lusaka, Zambia, with a focus on “repositioning Africa in the global health architecture.” It’s organized by the African Union and Africa CDC. Nov. 27-30. Careers and HR. The Career Development Roundtable brings together multilateral organizations including the U.N. agencies and international financial institutions to work on HR issues. This year it’s taking place in Washington D.C., where Devex has an office, so some of our team will be there. They’re keen to speak to you about the current recruitment landscape and the challenges to come. If you’re interested in meeting them, email ashlea.burke@devex.com. Gender equality. The Center for Global Development is hosting its ninth annual Birdsall House Conference on Gender Equality, named after the think tank’s founding President Nancy Birdsall. This year it will focus on women’s representation in the workforce and leadership of international financial institutions, with insights from senior women at the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and more. Nov. 29. EU-Africa. If you’re interested in the EU’s never-ending assortment of African strategies, there’s a public hearing this week led by the European Parliament’s development committee, which is particularly focused on the relationship amid “new geopolitical realities” and on food security. Nov. 28. Moving on Nerea Craviotto Ortega is starting a new position as European senior policy analyst at ODI. Mathieu Loubet is now regional coordinator for East Africa at Expertise France. Allison Burden is starting as program director for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Habitat for Humanity International. Did we miss one? Is there a change on the horizon? Let us know at devexpro@devex.com.