Devex Pro Weekender: MAGA’s plan for the World Bank and baby talk at Skoll

As the World Bank concludes its Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., a proposal is forming that could pull the rug from under its plans. The Heritage Foundation, an influential right-wing think tank, wants the United States to withdraw from the institution if Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November, apparently seeing it as a waste of money and a suspicious “foreign entity.” (Never mind that it’s based in the U.S. capital, it’s traditionally led by a U.S. national, and the U.S. is its biggest and most influential shareholder.) It sounds far-fetched — but then-President Trump withdrew from both the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement last time he was in power (though the former was never completed by the time he left office.) While he might need congressional approval to actually withdraw from the World Bank, he could simply stop giving it money. That would leave a vacuum and a big question over who might fill it — eyes are, of course, on China — which might give him pause for thought. “These geopolitical issues are not lost on the adults in the room, even in a Trump administration,” Vijay Tata, former chief counsel at the World Bank, told Politico. Although, maybe not. “If China wants to waste money on the World Bank … they should have at it. It’s not going to increase their power, it’s gonna make them poor,” slapped back long-time Trump adviser and co-author of the report, Stephen Moore. Want to know more about the Heritage Foundation’s ideas for foreign aid under a potential Trump presidency? My colleague Elissa Miolene brings Pro readers the details. Coming up: What’s the real story about the state of the world? Our high-level event on Tuesday will explore how the media shapes our view of what’s happening, and whether there’s space for a more nuanced narrative. Also in today’s edition: Baby talk at Skoll, why the U.K. development minister is working overtime, and a memorial scholarship for Saleemul Huq. Jessica Abrahams Editor, Devex Pro Bits and pieces Working overtime. Until last week, Andrew Mitchell was merely the U.K. international development minister, but now he is also deputy foreign secretary — the first holder of this more illustrious title. The surprise promotion must mean he has some beefed-up duties, or at least a bump to his current salary of just over £123,000 ($153,400), right? Err, no. The U.K. government stressed this is “an unpaid, honorific courtesy title” to recognize his work covering for his boss — Foreign Secretary David Cameron. Cameron is not an MP since he quit Parliament a few months after the Brexit vote threw the country into turmoil and therefore he sends Mitchell to face the flack of questions in the House of Commons, including recent tirades over the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, as he is now known, revived his political career last November without being reelected to the Commons. Instead, he was handed a peerage in the posh end of Parliament, the unelected House of Lords. MPs have demanded that Cameron come to the Commons to face the music, but he does not seem keen — leaving Mitchell to explain why, for example, the U.K. is still selling weapons to Israel. The pair are close friends and allies, so the arrangement is not thought to cause any friction. And now he gets a fancy new job title, too. Baby talk. Everybody who gives a talk at a conference wants to have slides, with pretty visualizations and highlighted keywords. But how useful are they? Not very, according to impact measurement expert Caroline Fiennes, who spoke at a side event at the Skoll World Forum. “How many of the billions of slides that you’ve seen can you actually remember? Probably about three,” she wrote on LinkedIn after giving her (slide-free) talk. “They’re almost completely useless unless they have data which you really need to talk through.” Her comment led my colleague David Ainsworth, who attended Skoll, to think back through all the slides he’d seen there. He could only remember one, and it had absolutely no useful information in it. It was a picture of some babies. The babies were used to introduce a talk on measuring systems change, and they were put there by John Kania of the Collective Change Lab. As Kania explained, he was there to talk about the importance of using data, and the data clearly shows that people like a presentation better when it has babies in it. So if Dave’s anything to go by, the data doesn’t lie. - Want to hear more from Skoll? For Pro members, David wrote down some takeaways Coming to Cameroon. The African Development Bank opened its new office for Central Africa last week, nearly five years after it signed the agreement with Cameroon to host the office in its capital Yaoundé. I asked them if it had taken longer than planned and why, but didn’t get a reply — to be fair, a pandemic did happen during that time. Unfortunately, AfDB also didn’t answer questions about how many staff members would be based at the office, which will manage a current portfolio worth $6 billion, or who’s heading it up, so I’ll have to let you know if I discover anything more. Loss and damage legacy. Many in the global development community were shocked by the sudden loss of Saleemul Huq shortly before the COP climate conference last year. The director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development had been a much-respected and much-loved figure in the climate world, known particularly for his expertise on loss and damage and his advocacy for local voices. Now, ICCCD and the International Institute for Environment and Development — where Huq was a senior associate — have launched a scholarship to continue his work, as part of their Loss and Damage Research Observatory. The Saleemul Huq Memorial Scholarship will be awarded annually to three researchers, practitioners, or local organizations from lower-income countries, to work on loss and damage. The first round is already open for applications. They are also seeking mentors for the prize winners. ✉️ Do you have insights into any of this week’s bits and pieces? Let me know by replying to this email. Moving on Kristalina Georgieva was confirmed to serve a second term at the helm of the International Monetary Fund. The EU has announced a host of new heads of delegations, including Veronika Boškovic Pohar as the chargé d’affaires to Afghanistan, Ioannis Giogkarakis-Argyropoulos as ambassador to Haiti, Sofie From-Emmesberger as ambassador to Ethiopia, and Belén Martinez Carbonell as ambassador to U.N. Geneva. Meanwhile, veteran EU official Astrid Schomaker is the U.N.’s new biodiversity chief. Several U.S. government nominees were given the seal of approval by the Committee on Foreign Relations last week: Dorothy Camille Shea for deputy representative to the U.N.; Dafna Hochman Rand for assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor; Andrew William Plitt as assistant administrator of USAID (Bureau for Middle Eastern Affairs); and Elizabeth Shortino as U.S. executive director of the International Monetary Fund for a term of two years. Alix Peterson Zwane has joined Duke University as the first executive in residence at the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project. Zwane, the former CEO of the Global Innovation Fund, will work with the Duke community to tackle global energy access challenges. In a big hire for the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, Woochong Um will be joining as CEO from the Asian Development Bank, where he has most recently served as managing director general. Ron Guerrier is now chief technology officer at Save the Children U.S. He was previously global chief information officer at HP, Inc. Martin Fitchet is the new CEO of the Medicines for Malaria Venture. He was formerly global head of global public health at Johnson & Johnson. Did we miss one? Is there a change on the horizon? Let us know at devexpro@devex.com. Up next Financing for development. The follow-up to the U.N.’s Financing for Development Forum is happening this week, a key touchpoint on the road to the fourth international conference in Spain next year. They’ve recently released their annual report on financing for development and this week’s three-day event will help set priorities and next steps for the conference. There’s also a special high-level session with the Bretton Woods institutions. April 22-25. Social investment. AVPN, the largest social investor network in Asia, is hosting its flagship conference in Abu Dhabi, the first time it’s been held in West Asia. Conversations will center on impact investing, philanthropy, climate finance, health inequities, and blended finance. My colleague Sara Jerving will be there if you’d like to connect. April 23-25. DFC. Earlier this month, Devex Pro members got access to an exclusive conversation with Nisha Biswal, deputy CEO of the U.S. Development Finance Corporation, about what the future holds for the world’s largest bilateral DFI. Now, the Atlantic Council will be hearing from CEO Scott Nathan about its strategic priorities, especially energy security. April 24. African development. African heads of state are meeting with the World Bank in Kenya to identify key priorities for financing and advocate for an ambitious replenishment of the International Development Association (which World Bank chief Ajay Banga has said he wants to be the biggest.) Separately, the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development is also happening this week, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. April 28-29.