This Week in Global Development

This week, we are reporting from the Commission on the Status of Women — the world’s largest gathering on gender equality, which is taking place at the United Nations headquarters in New York. We discuss the key talking points at the conference, including what’s at stake amid a global regression in women’s rights, as well as the conversations taking place on the sidelines of the main summit.  

Staying on the topic of gender equality and the U.N., we also explore the potential merger of two agencies — UN Women and UNFPA — and explore the latest updates on the race for the next U.N. Secretary-General. 

To dig into these stories, and others, Adva Saldinger sits down with Colum Lynch and Elissa Miolene for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series.

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Too many “AI for good” pilots fail before reaching the people who need them most.

To solve this scaling crisis, Kanika Bahl, the CEO of Evidence Action, is stepping down from the helm of the organization to lead a new effort called the AI Access Initiative. Operating as an “AI-native NGO,” the initiative will bridge the gap between frontier tech labs and global development actors. 

Rather than funding endless pilots, it is focusing on scaling proven “big bets,” including clinical decision support for overstretched health systems and AI weather forecasting for smallholder farmers.

Bahl warns that the development sector must abandon “business as usual” and aim for audacious goals — including reaching half of the world’s 3.5 billion people living in poverty — to prevent a rapidly widening digital divide.

This week, we are reporting from the European Investment Bank’s annual meetings in Luxembourg to better understand the direction in which the institution is heading. We dig into the agenda as Europe continues to balance defense and development spending.

EIB President Nadia Calviño says the bank is “carrying the flag of development.” This comes as the bank pledged $1 billion for electrification in Africa, strengthened its commitment to health and gender, and launched its third Gender Action Plan.

During the conversation, we also discuss the messy USAID closeout process. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars owed to former partners and a growing threat of litigation, sources say the Trump administration is stalling settlement payments and imposing unrealistic deadlines as it starves the agency’s legacy operations.

To explore these stories and others, Senior Editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with reporters Michael Igoe and Jesse Chase-Lubitz for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series. 

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This week on Devex’s Global Progress in the AI Era podcast, we are breaking down the critical shift from simply accessing artificial intelligence to owning the infrastructure it runs on, with a specific focus on how the global south can finance AI infrastructure on its own terms. From the push for "minimum viable compute" to the deployment of micro data centers, we explore how nations are moving away from being mere sites of data extraction toward becoming sovereign architects of their own technological destinies. To dig into these stories, Devex’s Catherine Cheney is joined by Jonathan Reid, Barbados minister of innovation; Kate Kallot, founder and CEO of Amini; and Alaa Murabit, managing partner at 500 Global.

As the conversation around AI often centers on the massive "gigawatt factories" of the global north, our guests argue that the real bottleneck isn’t computing capability, but institutional capacity and the underlying financing architecture. We discuss the transition from short-term pilots to durable public infrastructure, examining how strategic investment in regulators and civil servants is just as vital as the tech itself. By focusing on a three-part financing model that secures data rights and long-term maintenance, this episode explores how countries can build systems they can actually govern — ensuring that AI moves humanity forward rather than just serving as a new frontier for extraction.

Last week, we were at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 to find out how this revolutionary technology can transform global development. From AI regulation to the push for democratized access, we’re breaking down our key takeaways from the summit and exploring how artificial intelligence can maximize impact in the sector.

On the topic of the AI Impact Summit, Bill Gates pulled out hours before delivering a keynote speech. As the ties between the billionaire philanthropist and Jeffrey Epstein continue to generate headlines, we discuss whether the scrutiny of their relationship will broaden into a larger conversation about the power structures underlying elite philanthropy.

To dig into these stories, and others, Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and Senior Editor for Special Coverage Catherine Cheney to discuss the top global development stories of the week. 

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