Day 3 felt more hopeful than expected, with some delegates telling us “the document is good!” and “the people are happy!” and “I came into this very pessimistic, and am pleasantly surprised.”
Multilateralism feels alive and well at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, according to world leaders. And delegates seem to be coming to the table ready to work towards concrete solutions.
Journalists, on the other hand, are not feeling like we’ve found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Whoever designed the media room definitely had high expectations for how many journalists would show up. The room, which could fit at least four soccer fields, is largely empty. We don’t blame the journalists who opted out, though — we are still being forced to find chaperones to take us into the area of the conference where delegates negotiate.
About the authors
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
Jesse Chase-Lubitz
Jesse Chase-Lubitz covers climate change and multilateral development banks for Devex. She previously worked at Nature Magazine, where she received a Pulitzer grant for an investigation into land reclamation. She has written for outlets such as Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and The Japan Times, among others. Jesse holds a master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Regulation from the London School of Economics.
