This Week in Global Dev: #162: The Gates Foundation's latest AI pledge, and a look ahead to UNGA 81
Devex Podcasts

This Week in Global Dev: #162: The Gates Foundation's latest AI pledge, and a look ahead to UNGA 81

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 17, 202638 min

This week, we report on the Gates Foundation’s 2026 Goalkeepers Report, which includes a $1 billion pledge to make AI more inclusive. The funding aims to expand access across health, education, agriculture, and digital equity to directly benefit the global south. We unpack how AI can help lower-income nations tackle critical challenges while ensuring local communities remain central to the process. From the highly anticipated leadership races for the top jobs at the United Nations and World Health Organization, to a critical high-level meeting on pandemic preparedness, we discuss the major themes ahead of UNGA 81, as well as highlight the sessions we...

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My name is Rumbi Chakamba and you're listening to This Week in Global Development, posted by myself at the Salvina and David Ingswood. And I'm joined by Anna Galvall as always, Kathy King. Hi, Kathy, and how are you doing?

0:16

This is the first time that we are on the podcast together, so I'm quite excited to have you here. That's right. It's good to be here.

0:22

And how am I doing? I am drowning in work preparing for our summit at the UN General Assembly next week, But I'm excited to take a pause to talk with the two of you. Well, unfortunately, I'm going to ask you about our summit.

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