Elissa Miolene

After the 81st U.N. General Assembly, the fate of a proposed merger between UN Women and UNFPA remains unclear, with advocates split between cautious relief and continued vigilance over the plan's future.

The State Department is reportedly weighing whether to end funding for the 40-year-old famine monitor just as a "Super El Niño" threatens to push tens of millions more people into acute hunger.

Also in this edition: France proposes a 43% cut to its development budget, a look inside the MacArthur Foundation, and why philanthropy moves so slowly.

CARE, Save the Children, and Prosper Global hope that the Impact Alliance will pool procurement, scale proven interventions, and improve community feedback.

While not yet finalized, the agreements would send nearly 130,000 tons of food aid through Action Against Hunger, Catholic Relief Services, UNICEF, and the World Food Programme.

At Devex Impact House, representatives from ARC and the Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Insurance Facility said prearranged insurance delivers funds within days of a disaster and should be built into development projects from the start.

Norwegian People's Aid and DanChurchAid are rejecting State Department money rather than comply with an expansive anti-abortion policy, costing jobs and de-mining programs across the world.

Ahead of the U.N. Water Conference in Abu Dhabi in December, representatives from the United Arab Emirates, the World Bank, and civil society say the answer is a mix of public, multilateral, and private money.

Also in this edition: What to know about the State Department's new faith-based awards, and two organizations that rejected U.S. funding instead of pocketing it.

The State Department has yet to release the five-year Global Food Security Strategy, leaving $720 million in funding and a gutted Feed the Future without a clear guide.