Flying at 39,000 feet on my return home from Haiti, I finally had a few moments to think about what I saw and heard over the past few days in the country. Certainly I was struck by what has changed on the surface in the three years since my last visit to Haiti: the near-absence of 2010 earthquake rubble from the streets and the movement of hundreds of thousands of Haitians from temporary shelter to […]

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” – Fred Rogers “I need to work for my country,” said Linda Harding, a community health nurse in Sierra Leone, who is helping with the response to the Ebola outbreak in her country. As the disease continues to take a heavy toll in

Next month in Lima, Peru, negotiators from around the world will gather for the next round of United Nations climate talks. That will be an important moment on the journey to Paris in 2015, when all countries have pledged to reach a new global agreement on climate change. But in many ways, the key moment of this important year occurred in Copenhagen last week, when scientists and national governments agreed on a report summarizing the

Yesterday, Family Planning 2020 launched Partnership in Progress, a report on global efforts to fulfill the ambitious goal set at the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning: deliver life-saving contraception to an additional 120 million women and girls living in the world’s poorest countries by the year 2020. When women are able to decide for themselves whether and when to have children, everyone benefits: Women are healthier, more prosperous, and have greater opportunities to pursue education and

We are exactly four weeks away from #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving. What I love about #GivingTuesday is the incredible sense of community the day inspires – a community of giving reflecting a community of people who know that a simple donation can make a world of difference. On December 2, Shot@Life supporters will be gathering in communities across the country to call on their friends and family to stand up for childhood and

By Jordie Hannum, Executive Director of the Better World Campaign  With Election Day behind us, a group of newly elected Members of Congress will begin their preparations to take office on January 3, 2015. Before they start, we’d like to make sure they’re aware of the American public’s overwhelming support for the United Nations. This new Congress will face some complex global challenges like Ebola, terrorism, and climate change. These threats, plus many others, will be

The energy access gap Energy access remains a significant challenge for many developing countries. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) over 1.2 billion people today don’t have electricity. A billion more have power only intermittently. Lack of access to electricity limits critical aspects of education, health care and income generation. Reaching universal energy access by 2030, one of three global objectives within the UN Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative, will be challenging, but is

By Zoe Fox and Lauren Bohn Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and is rarely mentioned in the news. In the country that’s roughly the size of Pennsylvania, three-quarters of the population live below the poverty line. Less than 25% of girls finish primary school – even though it’s free. Among those, just 13% will enroll in secondary school. And only 5% of them will finish. We visited Malawi last year

Today is World Pneumonia Day and the United Nations and partners are rallying to raise awareness and to step up global efforts against this deadly disease. Here are two important points to know about the fight to protect children against pneumonia: 1. Pneumonia is a leading cause of death for children under 5. According to research recently published in The Lancet, pneumonia accounted for more than 900,000 deaths of children under 5 in 2013, the second leading