Global Progress in the AI Era: Why investing in evidence is key to translating AI hype into impact

As governments and funders invest in AI for development, a critical question remains: what actually delivers impact? In this episode of Global Progress in the AI Era, experts explain that funding evidence — not just innovation — will determine whether AI improves lives or reinforces existing gaps.

In this week’s edition of This Week in Global Development, we unpack the precarious state of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. Despite ongoing congressional support, a significant disconnect between allocated funds and State Department disbursements has left major implementing agencies such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention operating on less than half their usual budget. As bridge funding begins to dry up and transition plans for bilateral health deals stall, the real-world consequences are starting to emerge — from shuttered drop-in centers in Nairobi to drastic service cuts in Uganda — and are putting key populations at immediate risk.When it comes to on-the-ground implementation, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is increasingly expected to fill the vacuum left by the dismantling of USAID projects. This shift toward using the Global Fund’s infrastructure for large-scale health transitions has been fraught with technical hurdles, however, including performance issues with the fund’s wambo.org procurement platform and the looming policy implications of the expanded global gag rule. To dig into these stories, Editor Rumbi Chakamba sits down with Devex reporters Andrew Green and Jenny Lei Ravelo for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series.

In this episode of Global Progress in the AI Era, Nick Allardice explains how GiveDirectly is using AI to deliver faster, more direct aid — from anticipatory cash transfers in Bangladesh to near real-time responses in crisis zones. The conversation explores what it takes to move from theory to practice, and how AI is forcing new trade-offs around speed, targeting, and dignity in humanitarian response.

While HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths are declining globally, the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, or EECA, tells a different story. It is now home to one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics, with over 2.1 million people living with the virus. Alarmingly, about 20% are unaware of their status, and nearly half remain without treatment. Since 2010, EECA has become the only region globally where AIDS-related deaths have continued to rise, fueled by systemic challenges like stigma, restrictive laws, and the devastating impact of the war in Ukraine.In this special episode of the This Week in Global Development podcast, sponsored by Gilead Sciences and Elton John AIDS Foundation, Devex Executive Editor and Executive Vice President Kate Warren speaks with Denys Denysenko, Eastern Europe and Central Asia portfolio lead at the Elton John AIDS Foundation, to explore how RADIAN, a transformative partnership between Gilead Sciences and the Elton John AIDS Foundation, is turning the tide. Denysenko discusses the power of community-led solutions — from mobile clinics and software that bridges language barriers for refugees to cutting-edge AI tools in Kazakhstan that monitor patient health and prevent treatment interruptions. Discover how these innovative, trust-based models are reaching the most vulnerable communities and offering a roadmap for global health leaders to reverse the trend in this overlooked region.To hear more, listen to this conversation with Denysenko on This Week in Global Development.

A tale of two continents is unfolding in the global development landscape as Latin America embraces a surge of private investment while Africa grapples with severe economic aftershocks from geopolitical conflict in the Middle East. At the recent Inter-American Development Bank meetings, an atmosphere of intense optimism prevailed, fueled by the region's 63% renewable energy matrix and the attendance of over 1,600 private sector leaders. High-impact projects such as the 2,300-mile Bi-Oceanic Corridor, designed to slash trade routes to Asia by 17 days, and the Lac Minerals initiative for lithium processing, signal a robust new era of regional integration and industrial growth.In stark contrast, many African nations face a deepening crisis as volatility in the Middle East has driven fuel prices up by as much as 77% in cities such as Mogadishu. These inflationary pressures are devastating for informal workers and humanitarian efforts, with the World Food Programme facing skyrocketing insurance costs and delayed shipping routes that bypass the Red Sea. With traditional aid from the West decreasing, both regions are increasingly looking toward south-south cooperation and Gulf investments to secure their economic futures.To dig into these stories, Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with Devex reporters Jesse Chase-Lubitz and Ayenat Mersie for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series.

As AI models scale globally, social enterprises are increasingly working with frontier AI labs to test, adapt, and improve the technology in local contexts. This episode explores how those partnerships could determine whether AI reinforces existing inequalities — or helps close them.

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.Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

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. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters.

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.