The World Bank is about 18 months into its efforts to reform the institution in response to shareholder demands and changing global needs. From stretching its existing funding to attracting more private capital, the bank has laid a laundry list of proposals on the table.

So what has been accomplished thus far and what more is needed? That’s what we tackle in the first episode of a special edition podcast during this year’s World Bank and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings, which take place in Washington D.C. this week. The bank has a new capital adequacy framework to get more out of its own money, a new mission statement making climate change part of its core ambition, and of course a new leader in Ajay Banga.

Listen in to hear Devex Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger in conversation with Clemence Landers, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, Kevin Gallagher, director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, Stephanie von Friedeburg, managing director of banking and capital markets advisory at Citi, and Rep. French Hill, a Republican from Arkansas, who is vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

Last week, USAID unveiled its latest $5 billion global health supply contract, part of its NextGen suite of contracts. Worth $17 billion in total, it’s the largest suite of foreign aid contracts ever issued, to be delivered over the course of 10 years. But despite all the talk around localization, it’s highly likely the contracts will end up going to the usual industry players.

“Most of the low- or middle-income countries, they can do without those USAID-funded contractors coming to do things for them,” said Olusoji Adeyi, president of Resilient Health Systems and a staunch advocate for the decolonization of the sector. 

The previous iteration of USAID’s global health supply contract, worth $9.5 billion and delivered solely through Chemonics, failed to live up to expectations after running into multiple delays and performance problems. “USAID has refused to learn, and they are throwing $17 billion of taxpayer money after a failed business model,” said Adeyi.

Listen to the latest episode of This Week in Global Development to hear Adeyi discuss this topic and the other big stories from the week with Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar and Managing Editor Anna Gawel.

Vitala Global Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works with girls and women to develop digital solutions for stigmatized sexual and reproductive health issues, including abortions.
Last week, Aya Contigo, its digital companion for abortion and contraception support that launched in Venezuela and has since expanded to the United States, was a winner of South by Southwest’s Innovation Showcase.

Dr. Roopan Gill, co-founder and CEO of Vitala Global Foundation, was in Austin, Texas, to talk about the role technology can play in providing more accessible reproductive health resources, especially amidst growing restrictions on reproductive rights.

“It's not just an app providing passive information,” she said. “We're really trying to see how it acts as a glue, as an ecosystem integrator, especially in this day and age where we have so much complexity around abortion access.”

Gill spoke with Devex for Devex @ SXSW, a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast.

The episode also featured Jarone Lee, co-founder of Health Tech Without Borders, a nonprofit organization working on digital health solutions, including telemedicine and chatbots, in the context of humanitarian disasters.

Listen to the podcast to hear how these two doctors turned social entrepreneurs are leveraging technology to improve health care access in some of the most challenging settings to deliver care. 

There’s no question that artificial intelligence will have a massive impact on the future of food systems, but it remains to be seen whether it will address or perpetuate inequities.

“I think the question is, how's it going to be used in our food system in a way that actually promotes all of the objectives that we want?” said Roy Steiner, senior vice president for the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. “Technology tends to be a fairly neutral tool. It multiplies whatever is underneath it. So if we have a completely inequitable system, it will multiply the inequity.”
 
Steiner spoke with Devex on the sidelines of South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, where conversations focused on the ways technology will transform every aspect of society, including the way the world grows, produces, distributes, supplies, and consumes food.
The current food system is detrimental environmentally, socially, and nutritionally, Steiner said, adding that he’s hopeful that technological advancements can help the world transition to a more regenerative and equitable system.

Listen to the episode to hear more about the future of food systems on Devex @ SXSW, a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast.

The podcast also features Paul Newnham, executive director of the SDG2 Advocacy Hub, which coordinates global advocacy in support of food system transformation, and Joke Aerts, open chain lead at Tony’s Chocolonely, a company on a mission to end modern slavery and illegal child labor in cocoa.

The world needs new approaches, not just more funding, as it faces a financing gap of an estimated $4 trillion annually to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs.

“We’re either going to find this money somewhere under the cushions … or we’re going to make it cheaper,” said Hala Hanna, executive director of Solve, an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that launches open calls and backs innovators working to solve global problems. “So we really believe that innovation and finding new voices and new ideas is one key part of doing that.” 

Devex spoke with Hanna at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. She drew on some of the same themes as Najada Kumbuli, head of investments at the Visa Foundation, and Nazanin Ash, CEO of Welcome.US.

Each of them discussed the ways their organizations leverage innovation, technology, and investment to support new solutions for the SDGs that won’t come from traditional models. 
Listen to the episode to hear more on their strategies to build a more equitable future on Devex @SXSW, a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast.

It’s no surprise that Anne Marie Burgoyne, managing director of Emerson Collective, had a long line of people forming to meet with her following her session at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas Wednesday. Burgoyne leads philanthropy for this social change organization started by Laurene Powell Jobs. 

Devex's Kate Warren spoke with Burgoyne about Emerson Collective’s unique approach, its growing work on climate through the Waverley Street Foundation, and how Emerson Collective looks at the role of artificial intelligence in social change. 

Listen to the episode to hear more from Burgoyne on Devex @ SXSW, a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast.