Key moments to watch in 2024

It’s January, and we’re all slowly beginning to grapple with the year ahead of us. As ever, there are plenty of events in the global development calendar. To help you prepare for 2024, this is a guide to some of the big moments we’ll be watching throughout the year, and why they matter. Make sure you’re signed up to the Devex Newswire to follow our coverage of these events, and more. Davos Kicking off the year in traditional fashion, we have the World Economic Forum annual meeting in mid-January on the snowy slopes of Switzerland. Unlike the other summits and conferences on this list, official decisions are rarely made at Davos — there aren’t any intergovernmental negotiations or treaties to be signed. But like it or not, it gathers many of the world’s most powerful people in one place, and a lot of important conversations happen here. Some people take the topics that stand out at Davos as an indicator of what’s going to matter in the year ahead. We’ll have a team on the ground to keep you posted. African Union Summit The African Union has declared education to be its theme for 2024, so we can expect a focus on that when heads of state and government gather for this year’s summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in February. Also on the agenda, though, are its evolving health institutions under the newly autonomous Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The governance framework for the new Africa Epidemics Fund, a financing pool that will help countries on the continent prepare for and respond to disease threats, will be up for approval. And it’s possible that some of the leadership roles for the new African Medicines Agency will also be signed off, although as of late November we were told that the final nominations for the agency’s nine-member board were still coming in. These institutions are potentially of huge importance to the continent, helping it better coordinate on health issues and reduce dependence on outside institutions during health emergencies. Later in the year, Africa CDC will be holding its flagship conference — the International Conference on Public Health in Africa — in Morocco. It’s the first North African and first Francophone country to host it. World Health Assembly Each year in May, the World Health Assembly — the governing body of the World Health Organization — gathers in Geneva to discuss priorities and vote on key decisions. Importantly this year, the result of lengthy negotiations on a pandemic treaty will be presented for consideration. The treaty would lay the ground for a more equitable and coordinated response to disease outbreaks but it’s become controversial due to a misguided belief that it would remove countries’ sovereignty. There are also sticking points over how an equitable response will be achieved. Ongoing discussions about WHO’s funding situation are also likely to take center stage, including a potential first “investment round” (in other words, a replenishment or pledging event) for the U.N. health agency in 2024 — it should be presenting a plan for this at the executive board meeting this month. Member states agreed to sustainably finance WHO in May 2022 but a potential Trump presidency in the United States could pose challenges . AI for Good Summit This summit in Geneva, Switzerland, in May aims to identify how artificial intelligence can be used to advance the Sustainable Development Goals. It’s led by the International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. body, and has taken place most years since 2017. But this year is different. People are talking about AI in a way they never have before. Global development organizations are actually starting to use it (check out our interviews with the Red Cross and World Food Programme on this topic, with more to follow). Yet there are risks and many people are still grappling with the potential. We’re expecting engagement with this year’s summit to be higher than ever and AI to be one of the big talking points throughout the year. Election superyear Elections will be taking place in several key donor countries — most notably, of course, the U.S. presidential election, the campaign for which kicks off with party conventions in July and August. With it looking increasingly likely that incumbent Joe Biden will face off against former President Donald Trump, there’ll be a lot at stake for aid — especially at a moment when the flagship U.S. global AIDS initiative PEPFAR is fighting for its life amid the “culture wars.” During his previous tenure, Trump implemented an expanded version of the “global gag rule,” which impacted funding for women’s health care services globally, rolled back climate commitments, and pulled out of WHO, which he may well do again. There are also big open questions about the future of aid to Ukraine and the potential for a renewed effort to hollow out government agencies. An election is also likely to take place in the United Kingdom some time during 2024. The Labour Party is widely expected to win, which is probably good news for aid. Although the party has disappointed many in the sector by refusing to commit to restoring an independent aid department or returning the budget to 0.7% of gross national income, a Labour government would still be expected to gradually increase the budget and mark the end of a particularly turbulent few years for U.K. aid. In an interview with Devex in October, the party’s shadow international development minister — who could well be the U.K.’s next aid chief — laid out her vision for aid. Meanwhile, European Parliament elections will take place in June, bringing with them a new team of European commissioners, who are responsible for proposing EU policies and legislation. The potential impact on aid is not yet unclear but the shock victory of the far-right Party for Freedom in the recent Dutch election has enhanced fears that anti-aid and anti-migration parties will be successful — a concern with managing migration has played a significant role in the EU’s approach to global development in recent years. UNGA and the Summit of the Future The United Nations General Assembly in September is an anchor moment in the global development calendar, bringing together a huge number of players in one place, and Devex always has a team of reporters on the ground. Alongside it come a host of official and unofficial side events. Last year, the big U.N. conference in town was the SDG Summit; this year it’s the Summit of the Future. The summit aims to “forge a new global consensus on what our future should look like, and how we can secure it” and is intended to codify U.N. Secretary General António Guterres’ blueprint for U.N. reform, known formally as “Our Common Agenda.” Ironically, the Summit of the Future was originally supposed to take place last year, but was delayed by a coalition of low- and middle-income countries who worried it was a distraction from the SDGs. With the summit now on track to convene in New York, the race is on to negotiate the terms. Governments had until Dec. 31, 2023, to submit proposals for a declaration to be agreed by world leaders at the summit. The chief negotiators, Antje Leendertse of Germany and Neville Gertze of Namibia, will circulate a “zero draft” declaration to governments on Jan. 22, and formally present it on Jan. 29, kick-starting a year of intense negotiations. Devex World This list would not be complete without our flagship summit, Devex World, which is returning in October. There’ll be limited spaces available for the in-person event in Washington, D.C., and you can also tune in online. Watch out for more announcements to come or sign up to be notified when registration opens. World Bank annual meetings This is another regular meeting that holds particular significance this year. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings will take place in October back at the two organizations’ home in Washington, D.C. It’s just weeks before a U.S. election that could have significant knock-on effects for the bank. And there’s a lot on the table: the ongoing work around World Bank reform, an open question about a general capital increase, and the launch of the next International Development Association replenishment, which World Bank President Ajay Banga says he wants to be “the largest of all time.” Nutrition for Growth Summit 2024 The Nutrition for Growth Summit — a pledging event for malnutrition — has now been running for more than a decade, with a tradition of being hosted by the Olympic country. The first one was held in London in 2013, then again in Tokyo in 2021, and this year it’ll hit Paris. Food advocates were thrilled with the $27 billion raised last time. Food security has only risen up the priority list in the years since then, with the knock-on effects of the pandemic, global economic situation, and war in Ukraine, and many were hoping for another rallying moment. But although France committed to hosting the summit more than two years ago, the organization feels a little hazy — there’s still no confirmed date, location or agenda, although previous conferences were in early December — and concerns are growing that there won’t be the same momentum behind it this time around. COP 29 Looking all the way ahead to December, we are of course already thinking about COP 29 in Azerbaijan. For climate activists, the location is a concern, marking the third year in a row that the U.N. Climate Change Conference of Parties, or COP, will be held in a major oil-producing country — and one with a poor record on human rights — amid fears that the fossil fuel industry is managing to exert a growing influence over the U.N. climate summit. Top of the agenda will be the need to agree a new climate finance target — the new collective quantified goal — and rallying countries to deliver much more ambitious national climate action plans.