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By Seema Patel, Program Manager for Fuels, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and Peter George, Director of Enterprise Development and Investment, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves A handful of innovative companies may soon transform how low-income consumers purchase and pay for cooking fuel. By providing energy services on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis, enterprises are leveraging technology-focused business models to overcome the affordability barrier previously faced by consumers unable to afford the upfront cost of household […]

During the upcoming Rotary International Convention in Atlanta, world leaders will gather to push for continued commitment and resources to #endpolio once and for all. Once polio is eradicated, it will be the second human disease in history to be wiped from the planet (following smallpox). We are closer than ever to reaching that goal. In 1988, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) – whose partners include the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the U.S.

By Matthew Mulrennan, Director of the Ocean Initiative at XPRIZE The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14 is to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.” To achieve this, we will need to create a new blue economy with sustainable start-up companies and innovations that can scale to solve the ocean’s grand challenges. Here are 14 breakthrough innovations that are putting us on a path to healthy, valued, and understood oceans. 1.

By Sanjay Banka, Managing Director of Banka BioLoo and a Steering Committee Member for Sanitation and Water for All Sanitation facilities in many developing countries, such as India, are alarmingly poor. According to the World Health Organization, 2.4 billion people do not have basic sanitation facilities such as toilets or latrines. Of these, 946 million defecate in the open. Of the nearly 1 billion who defecate in the open, India is home to 600 million

This Pride Month, the United Nations Foundation has partnered with Gap Inc. to raise awareness and support for the United Nations’ Free & Equal campaign, which is dedicated to advancing equal rights and fair treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people around the world. LGBTI people are often among the most persecuted, marginalized, or at risk for violence and discrimination. All over the world, LGBTI people are routinely subject to discrimination simply

As these girls line up at a feeding center in Mogadishu, Somalia, people in Yemen, northeastern Nigeria, and South Sudan are also receiving food aid as millions struggle with hunger. No one should go to bed hungry, yet conflict and, in some places, factors like drought and environmental threats, have meant that 20 million people aren’t getting the food they need. Famine has been declared in parts of South Sudan and threatens Somalia, Yemen, and

Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals is happening in many forms. It is not exclusively because of those who hold positions of power – it can come from anyone, anywhere, who takes even one step toward building a more sustainable future. I saw this first-hand in Guatemala, where I was proud to see the extraordinary work of individuals striving to improve life for their families, communities, and country.  Señora Antonia Batz is one of these

This World Refugee Day, New York City native Christopher Swain will swim two miles from the Statue of Liberty to Manhattan Island in New York’s polluted Hudson River to call attention to the needs of the 65.6 million people around the world who have been forcibly displaced from home by war and persecution. Christopher is not a stranger to swimming in dirty waters. In fact, as the first person in history to swim the entire

The scale of human suffering in the world today is unprecedented. Millions of people have been forced from their homes by violence and persecution; millions more are fleeing natural disasters, drought, and famine. The map is dotted with an ever-growing number of refugee camps, tent cities, temporary settlements, and emergency shelters, all of them full of people who are enduring the worst ordeal of their lives. Today, on World Refugee Day, we bear witness to