Life stops when the electricity goes out, and that’s not just how it feels.

The International Energy Agency says electricity consumption and GDP growth have historically gone hand in hand, particularly in emerging and developing economies.

India and Southeast Asia are a clear example. Electricity use per person has risen rapidly over the past few decades, alongside a boom in economic development. In sub-Saharan Africa, electricity use per person has been essentially stagnant for more than 30 years. In 2023, electricity consumption per person in Africa was half that of India and 70% lower than Southeast Asia.

The World Bank calls electricity “the bedrock of jobs, opportunity, and economic growth.”

And yet, more than 560 million people across sub-Saharan Africa still live without electricity.

So what does it take to build economies when the power isn’t there?

That was the challenge behind Power Africa, a U.S. government initiative established in 2013 and terminated in 2025 following the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID.

Leah speaks with Mark Carrato, one of the former coordinators of Power Africa, who spent more than 25 years working across climate, energy, and economic development. During his time as coordinator of Power Africa, he helped lead a partnership of governments, development banks, international donors, and hundreds of private-sector companies working to expand electricity access across the continent.

Mark saw his work as more than megawatts or power plants. It was about understanding the ecosystem around them, figuring out where development dollars could have the greatest impact, and asking what it takes to make development last.

Later, as USAID’s mission director in Brazil, Mark brought the same systems-oriented thinking to protecting the Amazon. Today, he leads emerging markets work at SecondMuse, an innovation firm that builds economies to benefit people and the planet.

In this episode, Mark takes us inside Power Africa, talks about what markets have to do with development, and makes the case for thinking differently about where and how we invest in progress. We also talk about what he hopes that approach can look like in the future, and why predictability matters in markets.

Guest: Mark Carrato leads SecondMuse's work in emerging markets and brings more than 25 years of experience in climate, energy, and economic development. Before joining SecondMuse, he held senior roles at USAID, serving as USAID director for Brazil and among the former coordinators of Power Africa, the U.S. government partnership created to expand energy access across sub-Saharan Africa.

Topics: Power Africa, market-based development, USAID’s dismantling, the Amazon, systems change.

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Can demography — the study of how populations grow, move, and change — offer a window into a country’s future?

That’s what Leah talks about with Dr. Apoorva Jadhav, former USAID senior demographer and statistician, in this episode of Global Development Interrupted. Apoorva explains how USAID was rethinking the way it invested in development through the lens of demography — looking at population data and trends to understand where countries were headed and how to invest more strategically. That work came to an abrupt end when the agency was dismantled.

The conversation gets into what’s at stake when the data infrastructure behind development begins to erode. USAID invested in the long-term systems, standards, and expertise that allowed the U.S. and other countries and organizations to make smarter investments and address real problems. Without that foundation, what happens to the quality of the data and the decisions built on it?

Because behind every data point is a person — and, as Apoorva puts it, “there is a pulse.”

Guest: Dr. Apoorva Jadhav, former Senior Demographer and Statistician, USAID Office of Population and Reproductive Health; author of Demography Matters on Substack

Topics: Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, HIV and disability data, child marriage, global migration policy, the dismantling of USAID, the future of development data

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Democracy is never finished. No country has gotten it perfect—not even here at home.

In this episode of Global Development Interrupted, Leah talks with Amy Hamelin, a former USAID Democracy Officer who spent her career working across South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on her experiences in countries where democracy has been hard won and often tested, Amy shares what she learned about the people, communities, and institutions that keep it alive.

Their conversation explores what democratic resilience looks like in practice: the importance of strong institutions, the role ordinary citizens play in sustaining democracy, and what we can learn from countries navigating democratic challenges—including lessons that matter here at home.

Because democracy isn’t something we build once and then move on from. It is a work in progress, sustained by people who show up and institutions worth showing up for.

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Guest: Amy Hamelin, former USAID Foreign Service OfficerTopics: Democracy, democratic resilience, institutions, civic participation, USAID, international development, South Asia, Kenya, South Sudan

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For 16 years, Sara Sullivan helped USAID tell its story around the world. She never imagined she’d have to explain it to Americans.

When the agency was dismantled in early 2025, she watched misinformation spread through the Republican and evangelical communities she grew up in. Rather than argue with strangers online, she started recording videos for the people she knew—sharing what she had seen firsthand across three continents and 16 years in global development. That’s how Average American was born.

In this episode, Sara reflects on why USAID never built public understanding at home, the human cost of the stop-work order, and why she believes foreign assistance must tell its story differently if it ever returns. She also explains why she compares USAID to a government mission trip—and yes, she once starred in a Pakistani sitcom.

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When Jen Erie published her memoir, she expected her global development colleagues to connect with it. She didn’t expect older white men to message her saying they saw their own lives in hers.

Jen Erie grew up the daughter of Haitian immigrants in Queens, New York. She went on to spend more than a decade as a USAID Foreign Service Officer — leading health programs across the Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Thailand.

In this episode, Jen reflects on what that work actually looked like on the ground, the identity crisis that came with losing it, and what she discovered about herself — and others — when she finally told her story.

The result was a book, and a realization: this conversation reaches far beyond global development. At its core, it’s about shared humanity — how much more we have in common than we think, and what it looks like to turn grief into something others can learn from.

Want to learn more from Jen and pick up her book, The World Is My Bones? Visit her at www.jennifererie.com

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A scholarship program training the next generation of democratic leaders was named “Diversity and Inclusion” specifically to hide it from a military dictatorship. On day nine of the Trump presidency, that name got it canceled.

Matt Pietz spent a decade in Myanmar for USAID working on democracy and education projects. His last project gave 450 of the country’s most promising young people four-year scholarships — because a dictatorship that had spent decades keeping its population uneducated knew exactly what an educated citizen could do. One semester in, the White House called and said cancel it. No questions, no review, no interest in where the money actually went.

In this episode, Matt breaks down what the work really was, who it served, and why Myanmar’s instability is America’s problem too — where the absence of rule of law has produced the world’s top supplier of heroin and meth, a haven for online scam centers, and a power vacuum that China is filling fast.

This is what democracy promotion looks like from the inside. And what it looks like when it’s dismantled from the outside.

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Keisha Effiom sat at her dining room table in Rwanda, read the email about USAID’s final mission, and started writing. The result is a memoir — and this conversation.

Keisha, former USAID Mission Director for Rwanda and Burundi, joins Global Development Interrupted to trace her journey from Howard University graduate to one of USAID’s top leaders and what she chose to do when it all came crashing down. She talks candidly about the human cost of USAID’s closure, why dismissing public servants with “just get over it” is not only wrong but cruel, and how she led her team through crisis without letting her heart go hard.

She also shares the story behind her memoir, I Said My Peace With Peace: Inside USAID’s Final Days — a firsthand account of servant leadership when everything is falling apart.

Whether you work in global development, care about U.S. foreign policy, or are leading people through uncertainty, this episode is for you.

Want to learn more from Keisha and pick up her book, I Said My Piece with Peace? Visit her at keishaeffiom.com

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