Devex is back after a weeklong break, and we return with a fresh edition of Money Matters to catch you up on everything you missed. We’ve got new articles on some big plans from the Gates Foundation, and a preview of what may come next as the State Department takes on ownership of U.S. foreign assistance.
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Big bets
The Gates Foundation is becoming an increasingly powerful force in the world of aid — amping up its spending as everyone else cuts back. Anyone interested in knowing more should check out our recent interview with Gates CEO Mark Suzman, in which he answers many of our readers’ burning questions. This week, we’ve also got interviews with two key figures outlining some substantial new spending plans.
Dr. Anita Zaidi, president of the gender equality division at the Gates Foundation, explains a commitment to spend $2.5 billion over the next five years to advance more than 40 promising innovations to improve women’s health outcomes.
Furthermore, Director of Global Education Benjamin Piper lays out how the foundation is also doubling down on educational spending.
Read: Gates Foundation will spend $2.5B to boost women’s health innovations
Plus: Gates Foundation doubles down on education as other donors scale back
Watch: Gates CEO on what the next 20 years hold, and what it means for partners (Pro)
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Funding activity
We publish tenders, grants, and other funding announcements on our Funding Platform. Here are some of the most-viewed from the past 10 days.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has released a tender inviting companies to upgrade a power grid in Papua New Guinea.
The European Investment Bank has committed €21.5 million in equity financing for the construction and acquisition of energy-efficient and affordable housing in Kenya.
The European Union is providing €1.6 million in emergency humanitarian funding to support people most affected by the recent violence in southern Syria.
IDB Invest has released a $50 million financing package to boost credit access for small businesses in Brazil.
The World Bank has approved a $650 million loan to strengthen the emergency preparedness and response capacities for disasters and climate risks in Turkey.
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The state of State
It’s been a tumultuous year for U.S. foreign assistance, culminating in a decision to scrap the U.S. Agency for International Development and deliver aid through the Department of State.
Amid story after story about cuts, it’s easy to lose track of the fact that the U.S. is still slated to spend more than $60 billion on aid by the end of the next fiscal year, and it will be the State Department that’s tasked with doing so. But does it have the expertise, the personnel, and the infrastructure to do so?
My colleague Michael Igoe has been taking a long look, and it seems far from clear, from his investigations, that the State Department is in any position to even issue its first tender in the near future.
Read: The future of US foreign aid
+ Michael recently launched a limited edition Saturday edition of the Devex Pro Insider newsletter, where he examines some of the biggest questions about the evolving realities of U.S. aid. Sign up to Devex Pro to get the newsletter straight to your inbox.
Look back in anger
Meanwhile, my colleague Elissa Miolene has chronicled the decline and fall of USAID over the last six months.
Since then, we’ve seen a few new developments. In particular, a fascinating memo filed by Andrea Capellán, a director in USAID’s Office of Acquisition and Assistance, questions the authority with which many decisions were made in that period.
Exclusive: USAID director alleges 'malfeasance' since Trump aid freeze
On the chopping block?
For two other U.S. foreign assistance organizations, there are very different futures ahead under the new Trump administration.
For the Millennium Challenge Corporation, it’s a question of survival as a diminished force. Many had feared that the organization would be shuttered altogether, but that won’t be happening now. However, many of its grant agreements with other nations, known as compacts, will be scrapped.
At the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, on the other hand, the plans are for rapid expansion, with an increase in its maximum portfolio size from $60 billion to $250 billion. But DFC is still not without problems. Its authority to operate is due to expire later this year, and DFC cannot function effectively without it. Congressional time to reauthorize is fast running out.
Read: Millennium Challenge Corporation will survive, but many programs might not
Read more: Trump has big plans for DFC as reauthorization deadline looms
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Kiss, merge, or avoid?
Earlier this year, a survey of organizations affected by the U.S. aid cuts found that a third were considering a restructuring, and many feared they might close.
That’s led to the launch of a new program, known as Civic Strength Partners, to support organizations going through a change process, whether that’s merging, partnering, searching for new funding, or shutting down altogether.
More than 150 nonprofits have already signed up, and several of those are in the process of shifting their operations. More are expected to follow.
Read: As US aid dwindles, more turn to restructuring to stay afloat (Pro)
All the hungry people
It’s good news — just about.
The number of hungry people in the world has been falling gradually each year since the pandemic, according to new figures in the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, produced by five U.N. organizations.
That’s an update on the previous year, when the figures showed that there had been a slight increase — although the figures still come with a big margin of error, and they predate the latest aid cuts, so the truth is hard to know.
Global progress on hunger rates is driven by improvements in South America and southern Asia, the report said. But in Africa and Western Asia, the picture is getting worse.
Read: The number of hungry people worldwide is falling, says UN report
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About the author
David Ainsworth@daveainsworth4
David Ainsworth is business editor at Devex, where he writes about finance and funding issues for development institutions. He was previously a senior writer and editor for magazines specializing in nonprofits in the U.K. and worked as a policy and communications specialist in the nonprofit sector for a number of years. His team specializes in understanding reports and data and what it teaches us about how development functions.
