Oxfam GB gets back on track. Plus, a scoop on new funding for tropical forests. A storied INGO tries to turn the page on a series of scandals.

Also in today’s edition: Who’s helping Nepal in the wake of deadly flash flooding, and East Africa braces for its own possible coming deluge.
+ As aid budgets shrink, impact investing offers a way to direct private capital toward social and environmental challenges. Join us tomorrow, Sept. 2, for a Devex Pro Briefing that explores the fundamentals of impact investing, including the key players, emerging trends, and where impact capital fits. This briefing provides a practical guide on when and how NGOs and social enterprises can access this capital and become investment-ready.

Quelling the implosion

Oxfam GB’s leadership clash that started last year got downright nasty. Former CEO Halima Begum accused the charity of “brutally” dismissing and stigmatizing her and the former board chair of making her feel “humiliatingly infantilized.” The charity hit back, saying an independent review found “substantive and very serious concerns” about Begum’s conduct, decision-making, and leadership style.

The search for new money is reshaping impact investing
With governments pulling back from development finance, impact investors are eyeing new markets and models — but the capital gap remains far beyond what private money can cover.
When aid plummeted last year, the development landscape started looking everywhere for funds: Europe, Asia, the Gulf, philanthropies, and impact investing. But no individual donor or industry looked able to fill the gap left by the drastic cuts.
“When USAID was disintegrated there was a lot of conversation among impact investors and particularly foundations, those that work in development finance,” Fran Seegull, president of U.S. Impact Investing Alliance, told Devex. “The sheer magnitude of the withdrawal, there would be no way, unless they were highly coordinated vehicles at scale, to really plug the gap.”
That’s still the case. As of the end of 2024, a Global Impact Investing Network survey of 368 investors showed that $448.2 billion out of a total of $13.1 trillion across all investment strategies was allocated to impact investing — just 3%.