This Week in Global Development

As London Climate Action Week gets into full swing, we break down the key talking points from the conference so far. With the city in the midst of a scorching heat wave, the discussion of climate change feels even more urgent than usual. We explore the transactional landscape that developing nations face, where much-needed capital is increasingly tied to the private sector.Beyond the balance sheets, one of the current tensions is the collision between green ambitions and economic survival. From the push for rapid electrification to the rollout of Europe’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, African nations are being forced to thread a near-impossible needle: industrializing their economies while navigating low-carbon mandates.Complicating matters is a growing communications crisis within the sector itself. To secure funding and dodge political blowback, many NGOs are camouflaging their climate work under the banners of health, food, or energy security. However, driving the climate conversation underground risks leaving the communities most vulnerable to extreme weather out of the spotlight when they need it most.To bring you the latest from London Climate Action Week, Devex Business Editor David Ainsworth sits down with global development reporters Ayenat Mersie and Jesse Chase-Lubitz for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series. Sign up to the Devex Newswire and our other newsletters:https://www.devex.com/account/newsletters

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.

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.