The COVID-19 crisis has, within weeks, upended the way we work. International travel, a hallmark of a global development career, is halted. Many of us are now working from home alongside partners, children, and a host of other responsibilities and distractions. Organizational priorities are being shifted, funding threatened, and with furloughs and layoffs already happening in some organizations, there is mass uncertainty around the future of jobs and employment in our sector.
To help our community understand what this all means for careers and the workplace, I am launching a video series of conversations with human resources leaders, career experts, and other industry figures to get their take. While this moment presents enormous challenges, it also provides an opportunity for accelerating much-needed reforms in how and where we work. There will be an extraordinary demand for new skills and expertise to respond to the COVID-19 crisis in some of the most vulnerable countries, even as a number of projects may see cuts.
Whether you are managing talent within your organization or thinking about your own career, this series is meant to provide guidance for navigating these challenges and shed light on new opportunities on the horizon.
About the author
Kate Warren@KateDWarren
Kate Warren is the Executive Vice President and Executive Editor of Devex, where she leads a global team of journalists, event producers, and communications and marketing professionals to drive conversations around the most pressing and urgent issues of our time, including climate, global health, food security, philanthropy, humanitarian crises, and foreign aid funding. Through live journalism — via in-person and virtual events — along with insider news, analysis, podcasts, content series, and special reports, Kate and her team ensure the most important ideas, voices, and debates reach an influencer audience to drive impact and make progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.
