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The great salary drop of 2025, and a list of out-of-favor jargon.
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March 29, 2026
There were a lot of people with questions for the U.S. State Department this week, and not a lot of answers.
One of those asking questions was Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic senator from Maryland, who wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week, asking what had happened to the cadre of young people who were supposed to be hired into the department after completing a fellowship several years ago. In a letter also signed by 21 other Democratic senators, Van Hollen said the department had failed to onboard a group of more than 50 young people who completed Pickering and Rangel fellowships at the government’s expense — individuals the department appears legally obliged to hire, each of whose training has already cost the U.S. government over $100,000. Meanwhile, NOTUS — a newsroom focused on the U.S. political system — is suing the government over its failure to produce information requested 16 months ago from USAID. The State Department has also kept its silence on reports that it’s transferred $1 billion from emergency aid to the controversial new Board of Peace — a pet project of President Donald Trump established to deliver a peace plan for Gaza, which has been widely criticized by the aid community. The State Department also pulled $200 million from peacekeeping operations and $50 million from international organizations and programs to hand to the Board of Peace, according to reports from Semafor. Devex wrote to the State Department asking why it hadn’t responded to these requests. But unfortunately, we did not receive a response. Best regards, David Ainsworth Business Editor |
Bits and pieces
A roundup of the week’s best globaldev tips, quotes, and tidbits
Falling salaries. We’ve got a new special report out on salaries in development last year, which shows, perhaps unsurprisingly, that for publicly advertised roles with a listed salary, the average wage fell by around $10,000. Want to know more about who was paid what and where? We’ve got you covered in an exclusive report included with your Devex Pro membership.
A Bridget too far. There’s a new sheriff in town at Lean In, an initiative — part of the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation — which recently launched a push to combat child marriage. Lean In, the brainchild of tech billionaire Sheryl Sandberg, has appointed Bridget Griswold, a 25-year-old former Meta employee, as its new leader. It’s a move that appears to have been controversial in some quarters: The Wall Street Journal reports that the foundation has shed around a quarter of its staff, some of them over the appointment. AI AI ooh. Some interesting news from tech company OpenAI: It has pledged to spend at least $1 billion this year on its philanthropic foundation. The foundation will focus significant resources on the fields of education, employment, and global health, including data on high-burden and high-mortality diseases. Along with the funding, there’s also an announcement of several new high-profile individuals who’ll lead the work, including a new job title for No. 3 of Devex’s Power 50 list, Anna Makanju. Jargon-free. We’re hearing more and more of the unpopular opinion that the development sector is bad at communicating. In fact, it’s in danger of becoming a popular opinion. The gist of the argument is that we’ve been captured by jargon — that instead of speaking in plain English, the sector has become accustomed to using a kind of technical language that looks impressive to institutional donors and foundations, but risks looking “woke” and distant to service users and supporters. So it’s fascinating to see the executive coordinator of UN Volunteers announce an alphabetized list of “discouraged” words and phrases that the agency will no longer be using, including “narrative.” I guess that means the “Hamilton” sing-along is canceled. This list raises two questions — first, can this really be done? And second, why only 23 letters? Can we help UNV out and find bits of jargon beginning with O, Q, and X that they can do away with? Operationality can surely go, for a start. Reaching the summit. Kenyan President William Ruto has postponed an extraordinary summit on African health products manufacturing, originally set for the second quarter of this year in Nairobi. The event is now scheduled for December — still in Nairobi — to ensure it garners the visibility it deserves, Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya told my colleague Sara Jerving. The gathering was announced during the AU summit in February, giving the Kenyan presidency only a few months to organize the summit for Q2. Trustee fall. An interesting note from the Financial Times here, which reports that the World Economic Forum — of Davos fame — is planning to cut back on its number of board members. As the FT notes, WEF has gone through a bit of a tumultuous year, losing founder Klaus Schwab amid accusations of financial misconduct and toxic workplace behavior, and CEO Børge Brende over links to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Now, before finalizing its new leadership, it’s making cuts at the top. Right now, WEF has 28 people on its board, which is — and this is a technical term — really quite a lot. “Before we move into a contest on future leadership for both the chair and chief executive roles, we need to do some housekeeping,” one board member told the FT. “We need to understand the benefit of such a large board of trustees. I am not sure there is one.” Mission closer-to-accomplished. Finally, some good news for the Mission 300 project, a joint initiative of the World Bank and the African Development Bank that aims to connect 300 million people to electricity in Africa by 2030. At the Powering Africa Summit in Washington, D.C., The Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet announced that they have committed more than $100 million to date to support the project — a significant boost on previous spending levels. |
Moving on
An update on our industry's job moves
Abebe Aemro Selassie will join the Blavatnik School of Government as a visiting fellow of practice and as a principal adviser with the Economic Policy Network, which is part of the Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford. Abebe joins Blavatnik and EPN following 32 years at the International Monetary Fund, where he most recently served as director of the African department.
Anne-Laure Duval-Cassidy has been appointed deputy chief of staff at the World Food Programme, moving to the organization’s Rome headquarters after a decade working with WFP in the field. Arielle Giegerich has joined the International Rescue Committee as director of advocacy. Giegerich was a former USAID staffer who had spent most of her career since 2007 with the agency. Salah Goss has been appointed to the Skoll Foundation as its first chief program officer. Goss previously spent more than a decade with the Mastercard Foundation as head of social impact. It’s the latest of a series of changes at Skoll, including a new CEO and a new headquarters, which has involved moving its staff from the West Coast to Washington, D.C., where Goss will be based. Anup Jagwani is stepping into the role of farming and agribusiness director at the World Bank, following an internal merger of business units. Jagwani has spent 28 years with the bank, most recently working in climate finance. Ari Johnson has announced that he is stepping down as the CEO of Muso, an INGO working in health care systems, after 20 years with the organization. Muso is currently searching for a replacement. Colin McIff has joined the Global Alliance for Surgical, Obstetric, Trauma and Anesthesia Care, known as The G4 Alliance, as its new executive director. He most recently served as deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, retiring from federal service after 27 years in June 2025. Clare Spurrell has joined the WHO Foundation as director of communications, following a career break of just over a year. Spurrell was previously head of strategy and communications at CARE in Geneva, where she had worked for seven years. |
Up next
Upcoming Devex events to look out for
Devex has a busy week of events for our Pro and Career members. Here’s what we’ve got on the agenda.
Life After USAID: How Former Staff Are Navigating Their Next Career Moves. The layoffs at USAID reshaped career paths across the global development sector. One year later, many professionals are still navigating an uncertain job market while trying to determine what comes next. In this event, two former USAID staffers share how they successfully steered through that transition. March 30. Seeds and Systems: Tracking Food Security After U.S. Aid Cuts. In 2025, U.S. foreign aid cuts disrupted food systems around the world, affecting everything from agricultural production and market access to nutrition programs and emergency food distribution. Our team at The Aid Report has been tracking the impacts, and you’re invited to learn more about our latest findings. March 31. China’s Development Moment: Pro Briefing with Huiyao ‘Henry’ Wang. As the global north withdraws from aid, who will fill the gap? Will it be China? Join us for a rare conversation with one of China’s top policy thinkers on the future of development. April 1. The Future of the World Food Programme. As hunger crises mount, the World Food Programme is facing a major funding crunch, forcing it to ration scarce resources. What are the on-the-ground repercussions of the challenges that WFP is confronting, and how can the agency work to address them? We explore these questions and more. April 2. |
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