Live from UNGA with David Beasley
Sep 24, 2026 ·
1h 8m 53s
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Description
In a live episode of the https://www.devex.com/focus/theory_of_change recorded at the Devex Impact House in New York on the sidelines of the https://www.devex.com/focus/unga, David Beasley, the former https://www.devex.com/organizations/world-food-programme-wfp-44564 executive director and...
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In a live episode of the Theory of Change podcast recorded at the Devex Impact House in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, David Beasley, the former World Food Programme executive director and former governor of South Carolina, laid out his playbook for navigating today’s increasingly hostile political climate — while leaving the door at least somewhat open for his own return to the political arena.
Beasley — who led the U.N.’s food security agency when it won the Nobel Peace Prize — shared his journey from working in South Carolina tobacco fields to negotiating with the Taliban to feed starving children to battling with billionaire Elon Musk on Twitter.
He described the culture shock of a United Nations outsider confronted with bureaucracy and jargon, and offered his diagnosis for why the development sector keeps getting its pitch wrong.
Beasley offered a bleak assessment of current humanitarian aid cuts, calling the domestic political environment “horrific” and warning that Western nations are actively undermining their own geopolitical stability.
“America is great because America is good, and if we ever cease to be good, we cease to be great. And right now, we're not being good,” he said.
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Beasley — who led the U.N.’s food security agency when it won the Nobel Peace Prize — shared his journey from working in South Carolina tobacco fields to negotiating with the Taliban to feed starving children to battling with billionaire Elon Musk on Twitter.
He described the culture shock of a United Nations outsider confronted with bureaucracy and jargon, and offered his diagnosis for why the development sector keeps getting its pitch wrong.
Beasley offered a bleak assessment of current humanitarian aid cuts, calling the domestic political environment “horrific” and warning that Western nations are actively undermining their own geopolitical stability.
“America is great because America is good, and if we ever cease to be good, we cease to be great. And right now, we're not being good,” he said.
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