Devex

Plus, expert advice on how to avoid job-search burnout. This week, we learn how a small group of global health and malaria experts mobilized after USAID-led funding cuts disrupted malaria programs. Through a new initiative, they’ve drawn on decades of technical expertise to help health ministries identify critical gaps in their malaria responses and are now seeking funding through the U.S. State Department to continue their work.

One set of questions kept surfacing during discussions: Who will shape AI? Where will the wealth it creates flow? Can governance keep pace? And will LMICs help shape AI's future — or simply adapt to decisions made elsewhere? Before heading to Geneva this week, I heard AI for Good was a trade show filled with robots, demos, and solutions — not a spot for the biggest debates about development or global governance. But this year was different.

The U.N.'s new Independent International Scientific Panel on AI hopes a shared evidence base can help governments navigate growing disagreements over the technology's risks, opportunities, and governance. As governments race to develop rules for artificial intelligence, members of a new United Nations scientific panel argue they first need to agree on something more fundamental: the facts.

In the industrial town of Thika, just north of Nairobi, Kenya, hospital administrator Sister Maria Inviolata has spent several years trying to maintain the Immaculate Heart of Mary Mission Hospital Kilimambogo. The challenge is the lack of funding, which means that the clinic struggles to purchase drugs and that rudimentary tests such as X-rays are of poor quality. The problem peaked in 2023 when staff were struggling to care for their patients due to a lack of resources.

As aid budgets shrink and philanthropy searches for greater leverage, foundations are increasingly asking where their money can achieve something that governments and markets cannot. At the recent Philanthropy Asia Summit, one idea came up in nearly every room: philanthropy as risk capital. This means funding the experimentation and uncertainty that other players are unwilling to bear. The discussion largely focused on public goods.

Opinion: The AU’s new agricultural strategy promises to transform food systems across the continent. Governments must give young people influence and accountability to avoid repeating the failures of previous agricultural plans. African governments have committed to increasing youth participation in agribusiness value chains. Yet under the 2014 Malabo Declaration, Africa's previous continent-wide agricultural strategy, only 10 of 55 countries were on track to meet that commitment.

Can West Africa’s commodity exporters capture the upside of higher prices? Plus, an effort to standardize — and scale — blended finance. West Africa entered 2026 on a relatively strong footing. After what ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development President George Agyekum Donkor described as “one of the most impressive results in a long while in normal times,” nearly every major macroeconomic indicator moved in the right direction in 2025. But the region barely had time to enjoy it.

Opinion: Executive-led anti-corruption commitments have a built-in conflict of interest. Auditors, election commissions, regulators, and citizens often do more to sustain reform than the politicians who announce it. Anti-corruption efforts often fail because the very executives charged with fighting corruption are themselves tarnished. Long-lasting anti-corruption reforms are only durable when independent agencies and citizens are not treated as external critics, but as co-owners.

For the latest episode of our podcast series, Senior Editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with senior reporters Jenny Lei Ravelo and Sara Jerving to discuss the top global development stories of the week. Listen to "Uncertainty over UNAIDS’ future and avoiding sexual abuse in Ebola response" on Spreaker. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, YouTube, or search “Devex” in your favorite podcast app.

The last major Ebola outbreak was marred by widespread sexual abuse and exploitation by many aid workers against the people they were purportedly there to help. Is the humanitarian sector doing enough to ensure it doesn’t happen again?