Devex Pro Weekender: Death of the 0.7%, and job cuts at Tearfund

Is the 0.7% dead? It’s more than 50 years since the aid spending target was first set, yet very few countries have ever met it. The only one of the top five donors to hit it in 2022, the latest year for which we have data, was Germany, but there have since been significant cuts to its aid budget. The former flag bearer of the target, the United Kingdom, which enshrined it in law back in 2015, is no longer meeting it and apparently has no intention to do so in the immediate future. In today’s edition, we hear from an event where questions were raised about the future of the target. Plus, the Nutrition for Growth Summit plays catch up, the Tony Blair Institute heads stateside, and a major development charity loses 10% of its staff. Coming up: Introverts, this event might be for you. We’ll be hearing from international career coach Simone Anzböck about how to network when you hate it. Jessica Abrahams Editor, Devex Pro Bits and pieces Staur power. The world’s biggest donors have repeatedly committed to a target of spending 0.7% of gross national income on official development assistance, or ODA. But at an event hosted by the Center for Global Development in London a couple of weeks ago, Carsten Staur — chair of the Development Assistance Committee, which measures donors’ performance against the target — faced questions about whether it might have had its day. Tamsyn Barton, chief commissioner of the U.K.’s official aid watchdog ICAI, argued that “It’s created a push to damage the integrity of ODA,” as donors try to expand the bucket of what counts with ever-more tenuous contributions — she cited the high proportion of ODA that is spent within donor countries, most notably to support refugees but also on things such as research. In some cases, “Countries are effectively just funding themselves,” she said. “Is it time to de-link spending targets if you want to preserve the integrity of ODA?” Staur defended some in-donor spending, saying that he is not “religious” about where money is spent if the outcome meets humanitarian or development objectives. “If a Somali refugee goes to Kenya … you support that person through ODA … If that person goes to London … you should actually be able to support that person in the same way,” he argued. Similarly, “If you invent a vaccine against malaria, it doesn’t matter whether you invent it in Britain or in Uganda.” Nonetheless, he acknowledged that donors spending money within their own borders had become a “concern” for many — an understatement, perhaps, for an issue that has dominated criticism of DAC in recent years — and that it’s “a politically difficult issue to address.” At the drinks reception after the event, another U.K. aid expert said they felt the target was no longer serving its purpose, since it had ended up acting as a ceiling rather than a floor. But given it’s still miles off for most countries — the average DAC donor is delivering just 0.37% of GNI as ODA — it might still hold some “aspirational” power, as Staur put it. So what do we think? Is the 0.7% dead in the water? Send thoughts by replying to this email. Slow off the starting line. We finally have official word on the Nutrition for Growth Summit. By convention, the pledging summit for malnutrition is hosted by the Olympics host but there had been nerves about the French commitment given a lack of publicized information about what was happening. A few months ago, though, veteran diplomat Brieuc Pont was named to lead the summit and now the dates have been formally announced as March 27-28, 2025. A little later than expected, but it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Job cuts. Tearfund, one of the U.K.’s biggest development charities, with an income of £85 million last year, is cutting its internal policy work as part of a second round of redundancies. The Christian aid charity had already cut 74 roles within the past year and is now looking at cutting another 40, Third Sector reports. That would mean a total loss of more than 10% of its global staff. The charity said the cuts were due to falling unrestricted income — a trend it was seeing across the sector — and higher operating costs caused by inflation. As a result, it would be “moving away from high-level policy work and focusing on more locally-led influencing,” such as equipping churches and communities to advocate for local changes. ✉️ Do you have insights into any of this week’s bits and pieces? Let me know by replying to this email. Moving on Mary Beth Goodman has been appointed as a new deputy secretary-general of OECD, responsible for the environment, public governance, and development portfolios, including sustainable development and climate finance. She’s a U.S. diplomat who served as the U.S. Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health Security during the pandemic. Sheila Mburu has just started as deputy head of the International Pandemic Preparedness Secretariat. She was previously a health adviser at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and is also a Mo Ibrahim Foundation fellow at Chatham House. Speaking of the Tony Blair Institute, it’s appointed David Milestone as managing director of the Americas as it pursues an expansion in the region. He’ll be setting up their D.C. office but will lead work across Latin America and the Caribbean as well. Milestone has held roles at USAID, the Aspen Institute, and most recently the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, with a focus on innovation. Dr. Anthony Fauci, of COVID-19 fame, is joining the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University as a distinguished senior scholar. He already holds roles within the schools of medicine and public policy at the university. The AGRI3 Fund — a blended finance fund that supports the transition to sustainable agriculture — appointed Deniz Harut as its next CEO and managing director. Harut was previously executive director of climate change investment firm Pollination. Evelyn Gitau has joined the Science for Africa Foundation as chief scientific officer. She was previously director of programs at the African Population and Health Research Center. Asif Ali has joined MedAccess as health markets access director. He previously worked in the global access program at Roche Diagnostics. Bethany Hardy is the new senior communications officer for gender equality at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, based in D.C. Cynthia Kahumbura has been promoted to co-executive director of Jacaranda Health. The organization partners with governments to improve maternal and newborn care in public hospitals. Job of the week Devex Talent Solutions is assisting the Solidarity Center in its search for a senior award specialist based in Washington, D.C., to work on award administration and donor relations. They’re asking for at least 10 years of award management and compliance experience, including experience of administering multimillion dollar or multiregional awards from federal agencies. Could this be you? Find out more about the role and apply via the Devex job board. Remember: Your Devex Pro membership includes access to the world’s largest global development job board. Search for more opportunities by experience level, location, sector, organization, and more. Up next Skoll. My colleague David Ainsworth is heading to the Skoll World Forum, the annual gathering of social entrepreneurs in Oxford, U.K. There's no shortage of star power on the stage, with headline speakers including former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden, and George and Amal Clooney. Dave will be sharing updates from the summit. If you're there and interested in sharing your story, or just catching up, drop him a line on david.ainsworth@devex.com. April 9-12. Food security. The Asian Development Bank is hosting the Asia and Pacific Food Security Forum at its Manila headquarters this week. The bank says the region is home to the highest number of people experiencing acute food insecurity worldwide. The forum will tackle issues key to improving the situation, including the interconnected threats of climate change, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity. The heads of ADB, the World Food Programme, CGIAR, and more will be in attendance. April 9-12. Women in health. The WomenLift Health Global Conference is heading to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to push for women’s leadership in global health. Featuring a host of high-level women from across the global health space, themes include “transformative leadership,” allyship, and practical action. April 6-8. Did we miss one? Is there a change on the horizon? Let us know at devexpro@devex.com.