Devex Pro Weekender: USAID ignored over Gaza pier, and Nigeria loses some presidential jets

We have a jam-packed edition this weekend, starting with one of our favorite agencies to scrutinize (and I’m sure they just love our constant scrutiny): USAID. Apparently, there were some internal doubts about whether U.S. President Joe Biden’s much-maligned maritime pier would be the best way to get humanitarian aid into Gaza — doubts I’m sure many NGOs and advocates shared. Also, Nigeria loses a few jets … to the Chinese; Kristalina Georgieva gets a new deputy managing director; the Brits get stingy; the World Bank tangles with Elon Musk’s X; and Tedros cooks up a storm. I’m filling in for Jessica Abrahams this week, and my colleague David Ainsworth will be taking on the following edition before Jess returns from a well-deserved break. Once she’s back, we’ll celebrate by rolling out a redesigned and refreshed Weekender — so break out the champagne (or mimosas, if you’re indulging in a traditional American Sunday brunch) and stay tuned! Bits and pieces Pier pressure: The temporary maritime pier that Biden ordered to be built to surge desperately needed aid into Gaza was called the Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore system, or JLOTS, but it might as well have been called just LOTS of problems. From the beginning, it was plagued by them: Nasty weather, high seas, security issues, and questions over who was responsible for the aid deliveries. Its critics also flagged a more fundamental flaw: Already-established land routes were widely seen as the better option, and the U.S. government’s time might have been better spent convincing Israel to ease up on its reported slow-walking of humanitarian assistance into the besieged strip. Some inside USAID were among the skeptics, according to a report by the agency’s Office of Inspector General. “Multiple USAID staff expressed concerns that the focus on using JLOTS would detract from the Agency’s advocacy for opening land crossings, which were seen as more efficient and proven methods of transporting aid into Gaza,” the report said. “However, once the President issued the directive, the Agency’s focus was to use JLOTS as effectively as possible,” it added. How effective it ultimately was is a matter of fierce debate. In the end, the $230 million pier was decommissioned after just 20 days, falling short of its goal of supplying aid to 1.5 million or more Palestinians over three months and instead delivering enough to feed 450,000 for one month. Still, a USAID spokesperson defended the project. “The humanitarian maritime corridor was always intended as an additive measure, not a replacement, for land routes. ... USAID’s advocacy, both publicly and privately, for the expansion of all humanitarian land routes into Gaza has remained consistent throughout the conflict,” the spokesperson told me, noting that between May 17 and July 17, nearly 20 million pounds of aid (that’s around 9,000 million kilos, for readers in the rest of the world) were transported via the humanitarian maritime corridor, one of the largest movements of aid into Gaza during this timeframe. Not flying high: From piers to planes, we travel to Nigeria, whose government recently had its wings clipped in a development dispute with a Chinese company. A French court has ordered the seizure of three Nigerian presidential jets in response to a longstanding financial dispute in which Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment alleged that Nigeria’s Ogun State government breached a contract to develop a free-trade zone, according to the Financial Times. Zhongshan accused Ogun of reneging on the deal and engaging in a “campaign of illegal acts” that ultimately elbowed it out of the 2007 contract. In 2021, a U.K.-based arbitration tribunal awarded roughly $75 million in compensation to the Chinese firm, an amount that has yet to be paid. Nigerian presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga countered in a statement on X that while the country’s attorney-general was working with Ogun State on an “amicable resolution,” Zhongshan obtained two orders from the Judicial Court of Paris “without any notice being duly served on the Federal Government of Nigeria and Ogun State Government.” “This arm-twisting tactic by the Chinese company is the latest in a long list of failed moves to attach Nigerian government-owned assets in foreign jurisdictions,” he wrote, adding that Nigeria “will always work to protect our national assets from predators and shylocks who masquerade as investors.” Opening the floodgates: The U.K. government got dinged on X for providing an ostensibly paltry £33,000 (about $43,350) in immediate humanitarian assistance to support over 12,000 people affected by severe flooding in Bangladesh. I don’t know how much the Brits care about critical tweets (sorry, Elon Musk), but on Friday the government announced it is shelling out an additional £450,000 to help more than 36,000 flood victims in eastern Bangladesh, where more than 5 million people have been impacted. It also touted the fact that this figure “brings the UK government’s total support to disaster preparedness and response across Bangladesh this year to over £1,500,000 … and is additional to the UK government’s ongoing support to help increase Bangladesh’s resilience to climate change.” X-ed out: Critics of Musk say that the billionaire has cast aside moderation guardrails and let X, the social media platform he bought that was formerly (and still is) known as Twitter, become a Wild West of both free speech — and hate speech. The World Bank got a taste of the latter’s cesspool after a CBS News investigation found that paid advertisements from the bank were popping up under a racist post from an account that prolifically features pro-Nazi and white nationalist content. CBS News found advertisements from numerous businesses under multiple posts from the account as it shared pro-Nazi content, including one post showing Adolf Hitler with the caption: “We defeated the wrong enemy.” Unsurprisingly, the bank was less than pleased. “The World Bank Group had already reduced its paid marketing on X while working with the platform to implement the strongest safety protocols X offers for our content,” a bank spokesperson told the news outlet, adding: “This latest incident is entirely unacceptable, and we are immediately ceasing all paid marketing on X.” WHO’s in the kitchen: In lighter X news, World Health Organization chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shared a video of him diligently cooking his favorite Ethiopian dish, Shiro, a stew made of chickpeas and spices for his family. As you’d expect from someone in his profession, his choice of food is renowned as low-fat and highly nutritious. “Wasn’t sure if they’d like it, pleasantly surprised when they loved it and cleaned their plates!” he wrote. From health chief to health chef in one easy step. ✉️ Do you have insights into any of this week’s bits and pieces? Let me know by replying to this email. Moving on International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva announced that Nigel Clarke, a member of parliament in Jamaica, has been appointed the IMF deputy managing director. “Nigel, an exceptional public servant with proven leadership in institution building and crisis management, has stewarded Jamaica to a stronger economic position. Welcome to the IMF!” she wrote on — what else? — X. The Aurum Institute, a leading Africa-based global health organization, announced that professor Dave Clark will succeed professor Gavin Churchyard as group CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2025. Churchyard, who founded Aurum and has led it for 26 years, will retire at the end of 2024. Aurum is a leader in the prevention and treatment of HIV and tuberculosis and played an important role in Africa’s COVID-19 response. Did we miss one? Is there a change on the horizon? Let us know at devexpro@devex.com. Job of the week Looking for your next job? Devex Talent Solutions is currently seeking applications for this position: Organization: Islamic Development Bank. Role: Division manager, resource mobilization. Location: Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Requirements: Ability to adapt to changing business circumstances to maintain the effective performance of complex and draw actionable steps from IsDB overall strategy. Speaking English and Arabic is mandatory, and French is preferred. Could this be your next job? Apply now via the Devex job board. In memoriam A Red Cross volunteer involved in the mpox response in the Democratic Republic of Congo has died, according to Jagan Chapagain, secretary-general and CEO of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. On Aug. 23, Jean Florent Mosebi, a DRC community-based surveillance focal point who was temporarily deployed to support the mpox response in the health zone of Lukolela, drowned in the Congo River when the boat he was in capsized, Chapagain wrote on X. “This tragic incident is a stark reminder of the risks our volunteers and staff undertake daily in hard-to-reach areas to deliver life-saving humanitarian work.”