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Eight months after the historic Paris Agreement on climate change was finalized, international activities to address this looming danger no longer command the media’s attention – even as the world has experienced 14 consecutive months of record heat, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. On July 14, the temperature reached an unprecedented 85° F – not in New York or Texas, but on the North Slope of Alaska, on the shores of the […]

The world undeniably faces many big and serious challenges. But there is also reason to believe that a better world is possible – especially if we come together with the United Nations and partners around the world to act for change. As an often-used quote says, “It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.” Here are four news stories from July to provide hope that we can make progress on global challenges and together

Over the last two weeks, our sister organization the Better World Campaign partnered with the ONE Campaign and CARE to host Global Oval – a pair of foreign policy summits during the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention. The goal of these events was to bring international development and foreign affairs to the forefront of the convention conversations – and we succeeded! The summits engaged two former governors, eleven Members of Congress, military leaders and

After 14 people in Florida were infected with local transmission of the Zika virus in Florida, the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a travel warning near downtown Miami for pregnant women and their partners. This comes as athletes and spectators descend on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, one of the epicenters of the Zika outbreak, for the 2016 Summer Olympics. With so much discussion and concerns over the Zika virus, we

It took everything I had to avoid bursting in tears yesterday during a visit to a UNICEF children’s center in Kinshasa, the Democratic Republic of Congo. But tears wouldn’t have helped the situation. When I walked into the small group of low-slung buildings down a dirt alley strewn with garbage, Dorcas and Christian-vie grabbed my hand. They immediately called me Pa Pierre; they were starved for attention. But why wouldn’t they be? Dorcas, Christian-vie, and 30 other

The World Food Programme (WFP) issued a news update today that caught my eye because of three words: cranes, drones, and food. I don’t often see these words near each other, but in this case, each of these nouns played an important role in getting life-saving aid to Syrians stranded at the border with Jordan.  According to WFP, more than 75,000 people – mostly children, women, and the elderly – who are seeking to escape

“Climate change presents the single biggest threat to development, and its widespread, unprecedented effects disproportionately burden the poorest and most vulnerable.” These stark words appeared in a recent United Nations report that assesses the world’s current standing and areas that need attention to spur future progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. The Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted last year by 193 world leaders, are a comprehensive and connected set of global goals to address

Every athlete competing in the Olympics this week followed a different road to Rio. But after a journey like no other, Yiech Pur Biel is making history as he runs for Olympic gold. As a child, Yiech fled civil war in South Sudan and traveled thousands of miles to the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya, one of the largest refugee settlements in the world. Playing sports there helped him rediscover a sense of belonging