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As the dust of excitement around recent big events like the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, the signing of the climate change agreement, and the just concluded Women Deliver conference settles a little and we get down to the hard work of making all these exciting goals achievable, I am brought back to the centrality of one particular activity that was very popular a decade and two ago, but now risks becoming just one more thing […]

Nearly one year ago, I had the opportunity to march in the San Francisco Pride Parade just after the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic ruling affirming a constitutional right to equal marriage for same-sex couples across the United States, which happened at the same time that the United Nations was celebrating the signing of the UN Charter 70 years earlier in San Francisco. It was a unique moment in my personal and professional life, as I celebrated marriage equality

From May 23-28, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened the 69th World Health Assembly, an annual gathering of ministers of health from 194 countries and experts to assess the state of health around the world and to agree on major priorities for the year. In six days, delegates agreed on 76 agenda items that will lead to a healthier, more prosperous world.   With the adoption last year of two major global agreements – the Sustainable

Editor’s Note: This post was co-written by Data2X’s Emily Courey Pryor and Rebecca Furst-Nichols “Data, once the domain of geeks, is being put at the center of women’s rights,” writes Belinda Goldsmith in a recent article about the 2016 Women Deliver conference. Indeed, the attendees of both Women Deliver and the World Humanitarian Summit will attest that the subject of data received prime placement during these gatherings of development and humanitarian aid workers. This increased

The 69th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva demonstrated once again the central role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in global health. Whether one focuses on WHO’s global action plan on antimicrobial resistance or the international response to health emergencies like the Ebola and Zika viruses, there were countless venues for official and unofficial decisions and discussions on every health issue under the sun. One of the unique benefits of discussions during the annual Assembly that

My first encounter with the ocean was on the Jersey Shore when I was 3 years old and I got knocked over by a wave. It wasn’t frightening; it was more exhilarating than anything else. Life in the ocean captured my imagination and has held it ever since. When my family moved to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico became my backyard, I spent hours just searching through the giant piles of seaweed that washed ashore, picking

Bold. Unconventional. Generous. This is how Bill Gates has described Ted Turner, the United Nations Foundation’s Founder and Chairman, who was honored yesterday with the Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for Philanthropy. This award could not be more deserved. Ted is a big thinker and has long understood that in our increasingly connected world, filled with “problems without passports,” we need planetary philanthropy. Ted’s commitment to global problem-solving led him to create the UN Foundation in 1998

While the world is closer than ever to eradicating polio, a final push of funding is needed to get over the finish line. Why should donors and advocates support this cause? Polio is a devastating disease that can paralyze and even kill children. In 1988, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) – a partnership led by national governments, with five core partners, including the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,