This Week in Global Development

More than 90% of global vision loss is preventable or treatable with low-cost interventions such as cataract surgery or prescription glasses. Yet 1.1 billion people worldwide currently lack access to basic eye care — a number projected to double by 2050 without strategic action.

In this special edition episode of the This Week in Global Development podcast, sponsored by The Fred Hollows Foundation, Kate Warren, executive vice president and executive editor at Devex, sits down with The Fred Hollows Foundation’s CEO, Ross Piper, and director of strategic initiatives, Amanda Davis. Together, they explore how eye health can move out of clinical silos and onto the agenda of heads of state.

The conversation examines the compelling economic case for vision care, noting that every $1 invested yields a 28-fold return in economic productivity. Piper and Davis discuss innovative financing models such as the World Bank-backed Vision Catalyst Fund, practical strategies for integrating eye care into primary healthcare systems and school screenings, and targeted approaches to eliminate gender disparities in vision loss.

This week we are at Building Bridges, a conference aiming to bring different stakeholders together to build investable solutions to global challenges. We discuss the key topics at the summit, including how the private sector can be effectively engaged in social impact and making financial instruments accessible for smaller businesses.

We are also looking ahead to the World Health Summit, which will center around the theme “From Crisis to Resilience: Innovating for Health.” From hearing from candidates for the WHO director-general role to the growing intersection of health and security, we highlight the key conversations and innovations we will be tracking at the conference.

Devex will also be at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings next week, where AI will be on the agenda, as well as how these financial institutions are responding to rising global fertilizer and energy prices.

To dig into these stories and others, Devex Senior Editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with reporters Adva Saldinger and Andrew Green for the latest edition of our weekly podcast series.

Request an invite to attend Devex Impact House @ The World Bank/IMF annual meetings here:
https://pages.devex.com/world-bank-imf-annual-meetings-2026.html

Across the global development landscape, artificial intelligence promises to redefine how health, education, and social protection services are delivered. However, moving past small-scale piloting to deliver measurable, population-level impact amid tightening budgets is rarely a pure tech challenge — it is an organizational and human one.

In this special edition episode of the This Week in Global Development podcast, sponsored by Boston Consulting Group, Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar sits down with Renee Laverdiere, managing director and partner at BCG. Together, they unpack why pacesetting organizations follow the 10-20-70 rule — 10% and 20% of AI value coming from data and algorithms, and the remaining 70% from people, process, and change management — how leadership can overcome workforce scaling bottlenecks, and how to structure vendor partnerships that build lasting internal capability rather than permanent dependency.

The fundamental question of how development and growth are financed is undergoing a profound transformation. Over the course of a series of original essays and op-eds, The Next Frontier – a Devex series in partnership with the Children's Investment Fund Foundation – has mapped a rapidly changing, pluralistic financing ecosystem shaped by philanthropy, private capital, and domestic resources.

To truly synthesize the perspectives spotlighted in series content, this conversation with Kate Hampton, CIFF CEO, Angeline (Angie) Murimirwa, CEO of CAMFED, and Dr. Sam Mugume Koojo, Assistant commissioner in the Macroeconomic Policy Department, Ministry of Finance, Planning, and Economic Development of Uganda serves as a retrospective. Together, the series authors look back at that collective body of work to evaluate how all parts of the development ecosystem can transition toward true shared responsibility and country-led paths to growth.

The United States is set to implement one of the biggest overhauls of its global health assistance in decades. The new strategy will reshape how billions of dollars flow to 35 countries, shifting greater responsibility onto their governments through bilateral agreements that encapsulate the Trump administration’s America First Global Health Strategy.

In this episode, we discuss what we know of the ins and outs of these health deals, what they mean for the wider foreign aid architecture, and why their known components are already proving controversial despite being largely shrouded in secrecy.

The conversation then turns to our event with Howard G. Buffett, who criticized the West’s approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He urged greater support for Ukraine, while also calling out philanthropic organizations to step up. At our event, Howard also offered a closer look at Warren Buffett’s philanthropic strategy, revealing how his father’s charitable trust could deploy up to $23 billion annually as it works to spend down his fortune by 2034.

To dig into these stories, David Ainsworth sits down with Anna Gawel and Andrew Green for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series.

When most of us think of pensions, we think of a tool that provides retirement security. But what if pensions could achieve different goals beyond old-age poverty?

In this segment of This Week in Global Development, sponsored by Coller Pensions Institute, David Pinkus, the institute’s executive director, challenges us to think about pensions differently. Speaking to Kate Warren, executive editor and executive vice president at Devex, Pinkus points to their new SDG report to explain how, under the right conditions, well-designed pension systems can significantly contribute to the broader development agenda.

To read the new report, The Contribution of Well-Designed Pension Systems toProgressing the Sustainable Development Goals, visit:
collerpensionsinstitute.org/our-research/whitepapers