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This Week in Global Development

This Week in Global Development

By: Devex | Global Development
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Dive into the week's most critical global development news with the This Week in Global Development podcast.

In each episode, hosts Adva Saldinger, David Ainsworth, and Rumbi Chakamba break down major headlines and invite members of the Devex newsroom to share their expert analysis.

Get up-to-date on news regarding foreign aid, humanitarian crises, the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, finance, philanthropy, climate, food systems, global health, and stay informed on the latest trends and policy changes shaping global development.

Episodes are published every Friday and can also be watched on YouTube.

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Episodes
  • US aid leadership changes and a controversial UN merger

    US aid leadership changes and a controversial UN merger
    Jul 2 2026
    This week we discuss Jeremy Lewin’s departure from the U.S. State Department’s foreign aid bureau to the White House. His transition to the National Security Council ends a controversial leadership marked by the retreat of the U.S. from its long-held role as the world’s leading bilateral donor. He is expected to be replaced by Andrew Veprek, who has pushed immigration and refugee restrictions at the State Department.

    As the United Nations continues to face budgetary constraints, we also analyze the potential merger of two major U.N. development agencies: the U.N. Development Programme, or UNDP, and UNOPS. While Secretary-General António Guterres sees this ambitious development reform as a way to overcome a yawning funding gap, UNDP chief Alexander De Croo and UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva have butted heads over their vastly different visions for the future.

    During the conversation we also discuss our key takeaways from the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, including a new initiative that is designed to tackle debt, trade, climate finance, and multilateral reform to help reset the terms of global cooperation.
    To dig into these stories and others, Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger sits down with U.N. correspondent Colum Lynch and reporter Jesse Chase-Lubitz for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series.

    How can climate and nature investments move from ambition to action?

    In the sponsored segment of the episode, recorded live at Devex Impact House during London Climate Action Week, Kate Warren, Executive Editor and Executive Vice President at Devex, speaks with Waqas Batley, Senior Director, Conservation and Climate Finance Policy at The Nature Conservancy.

    Together, they explore how policy advocacy can help countries develop the plans, financial roadmaps, and regulatory systems needed to attract investment in nature and climate. The conversation looks at why nature should be understood as economic infrastructure, what finance ministries can do to send clearer signals to investors, and how approaches such as country platforms can help turn national climate and biodiversity priorities into investable pipelines.

    Sign up to Devex Invested:
    https://www.devex.com/newsletters/invested
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    34 mins
  • Special Episode: Live from Hamburg: Can governments still invest in the future?

    Special Episode: Live from Hamburg: Can governments still invest in the future?
    Jul 1 2026
    This special two-part edition of This Week in Global Development comes to you from the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, where leaders from across development, government, business and civil society gather to debate the big questions facing the global economy — from climate and debt to security, trade, and the future of international cooperation.

    In part one, Devex Global Development Reporter Ayenat Mersie speaks with Achim Steiner, chair of the Hamburg Sustainability Conference and former administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, to explore a question at the heart of today’s geopolitical moment: Are governments preparing for the wrong kinds of threats?

    As defense budgets climb around the world, Steiner tells Ayenat that countries risk neglecting the investments that actually make societies more secure, from climate resilience and affordable clean energy to digital infrastructure. He also explains why sustainability should be seen not as a sacrifice, but as an opportunity to strengthen economies, lower costs, and build resilience.

    In part two, Ayenat speaks with Sierra Leone Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, who talks about “the politics of painful choices” — the difficult trade-offs governments face when debt burdens, aid cuts, and external shocks leave little room for long-term investment. He reflects on balancing immediate needs with climate action, why he believes countries need new tools to absorb global shocks, and what sustainability looks like from the perspective of a government under severe fiscal pressure.
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Special edition: The blueprint for better lung cancer screening

    Special edition: The blueprint for better lung cancer screening
    Jun 30 2026
    In this special edition of the This Week in Global Development podcast, produced in partnership with the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, Devex co-founder and Executive Vice President Alan Robbins sits down with three architects of Kentucky’s transformation in fighting high lung cancer rates: Dr. Jamie Studts, Dr. Jennifer Redmond Knight, and Dr. Timothy Mullett — the team behind the Kentucky LEADS Collaborative and the QUILS™ system.

    After a decade of data, the results are clear: earlier diagnoses are being seen in Kentucky, and current efforts are seeking a similar impact in Mississippi and Nevada. But the real story is how these results were achieved. Rather than imposing top-down protocols, QUILS™ works by equipping local community programs with data-informed tools, continuous feedback, and practice support — helping local clinics serve as trusted access points for lung cancer screening in their communities.

    The conversation tackles the hardest part of scaling any screening program: human behavior. Lung cancer carries a unique stigma rooted in decades of anti-smoking messaging, and that stigma remains a powerful barrier, discouraging eligible patients from coming forward. The QUILS™ response is to replace shame and fear with empathy and hope, building person-centered care directly into clinical workflows so the burden does not fall on patients alone.

    For global health leaders, the implications are clear: The barriers Kentucky faced — rural isolation, underresourced systems, cultural mistrust — are not unique to one region. They exist everywhere. And the infrastructure built to overcome them may be exactly what the world needs.

    Visit Strengthening Care Systems — a series raising awareness of the scale of the global lung cancer burden and the systems-level changes required to address it: https://pages.devex.com/strengtheningcaresystems.html
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    31 mins
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