"... assisting emerging countries meet their development goals..." vs "... assisting emerging countries in meeting their development goals..."
Her role included assisting emerging countries meet their development goals through active engagement with senior level representation from both the public and private sectors.
Her role included assisting emerging countries in meeting their development goals through active engagement with senior level representation from both the public and private sectors.
Her role included assisting emerging countries to meet their development goals through active engagement with senior level representation from both the public and private sectors.
The first sentence does not sound natural to me. I decided to rewrite it (the second and the third). Which of the above sentences are correct?
Solution 1:
Assist cannot simply be substituted for help, which is why the first doesn't work. Help can license the omission of the particle to in the following infinitive verb. Both the following sentences are correct and exactly equivalent.
Her role included helping emerging countries meet their development goals
Her role included helping emerging countries to meet their development goals
Assist does not license the omission of to, so your sentence 3 is correct, using to meet.
However, sentences (2) and (3) are different constructions; in meeting and to meet are both correct, and mean the same thing, just phrased differently.