Devex

Devex is a social enterprise and media platform for the global development community. Devex aims to connect and inform development, health, humanitarian, and sustainability professionals through news, business intelligence, and funding & career opportunities in international development.^[1] A for-profit membership organization, Devex employs more than 100 staff members in four locations, including its Washington, D.C. headquarters and offices in Barcelona and Manila.^[2]

The organization’s web site serves as a clearing-house of business and recruiting information that allows interested parties to come together in service of thousands of foreign assistance projects worldwide. Devex has over 800,000 registered members within the international development community - including development organizations, donor agencies, suppliers and aid workers - the company claims more than 1 million active users.^[3]

Devex’s President and Editor-in-Chief, Raj Kumar, began the organization in 2000 as a student project at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Kumar’s goal was to lower the administrative costs of donor agencies so they could devote a greater share of resources to foreign-assistance projects themselves.^[4] “With $200 billion in foreign aid each year,” Kumar said in 2008, “a few percentage points of efficiency gains is like adding another Gates Foundation to the world.”^[5]

Services

Devex uses content-sharing and social-networking tools to dramatically reduce the time and expense which international development professionals have typically had to devote to recruiting and information-gathering.^[6] The features offered on devex.com include a searchable database of over 700,000 professionals and a company directory listing more than 12,000 development companies.

Devex also provides its members with information about projects being funded by over 350 bilateral and multilateral donor agencies.^[7] Its real-time intelligence on the development sector prompted the Washington Post to compare Devex to Bloomberg L.P.’s financial information service.^[8] At any given time, the site provides details on as many as 35,000 active projects in the developing world. Devex members receive several types of reports on these activities including:

• Tender Reports consolidate specific procurement notices from over 150 donor agencies, which are posted on devex.com within 24 hours of their initial publication.
• Project Reports provide information on opportunities presented as part of funding for specific aid projects or programs.
• Early Intelligence Reports use interviews with agency representatives, government officials and other inside sources to provide Devex’s Executive Members with project information that has not yet been publicly released.
• Business Insight Articles
• Country Pipeline Strategy Reports

Recent history

Devex expanded its media arm in 2008, hiring dozens of reporters and employing freelancers worldwide. Devex produces a daily newswire which covers global development news, emerging trends and issues within the development sector, as well as commentary and analysis from leading voices in global development.

In 2008, Devex launched the Devex Forum, an annual two-day conference that brings together the world’s largest international organizations, including government donor agencies, NGOs, and international corporations to exchange expertise, including case studies and best practices. The forums are held annually in East Asia, East Africa and Washington, DC.

In 2013, USAID and Devex launched Devex Impact, a collaborative effort that brings together USAID’s leadership and expertise in building public-private partnerships for development with Devex’s unique capabilities and reach as the world’s largest development network that connects over 500,000 professionals and thousands of donors, companies, and NGOs.^[9] Devex Impact provides the latest partnership information, news and tools available to companies, donors, recipient governments, implementers, NGOs, and professionals working at the intersection of business and global development.6

News coverage

Devex’s placement as the media platform for the development community gives its reporters regular access to key development events and exclusive annual meetings with development leaders and influencers. At the 2013 European Development Days in Brussels, Devex spoke to Winne Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, about the shifting development landscape.

Devex also regularly covers the Clinton Global Initiative, or CGI, annual meeting that convenes global leaders to discuss solutions for global development challenges. In 2014, former President Bill Clinton spoke to Devex about the future of cross-sector development collaboration and partnership ahead of the CGI meeting in New York.

At the height of Ebola response, Devex associate editor Richard Jones travelled to Guinea with the European Commissioner for International Cooperation Neven Mimica to report on European efforts to combat the epidemic. During the 2015 World Bank/International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim sat down with Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar for an exclusive interview about the controversial World Bank reforms and the future of the Bank.

In May 2015, Asian Development Bank President Takehiko Nakao spoke exclusively to Devex about the merger between the Asian Development Bank and the Ordinary Capital Resources.

Partnerships and initiatives

In addition to news coverage and its membership products and services, Devex partners frequently with donors, foundations, companies, and NGOs to create online campaigns on various global development topics. In lead up to International Women’s Day 2014, Devex’s She Builds campaign launched a viral online dialogue about the power of women around the world. Devex has also partnered with global development leaders to create global conversations on Land Matters, Feeding Development, Youth Will, Rio+Solutions, and Busannovate, which was named a “Top Ten Global Development Communications Story” by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Past campaigns have included contributions from Mohammed Yunus, Rajiv Shah, Justine Greening, Bill Drayton, Ashley Judd and more.

In 2014, Devex partnered with Chevron to launch the 40 under 40 series highlighting leaders who are making an impact on the development agenda and contributing to development results. The series featured a diverse list of leaders, from development agencies and government to corporations and NGOs in Washington, DC, Manila and London.

References