Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the World Economic Forum’s “Agenda” blog. The world’s governments are meeting in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia this week to establish new global ground rules for investing in people, planet, and prosperity. The occasion is the UN’s major conference on financing for development (FFD) and a formal agreement will be published. Over coming days, pundits will parse the text and offer pronouncements on its successes and gaps. But to […]

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading infectious disease killer around the world and reversing the spread of TB is a top health priority for the United Nations. We’ve made progress against the disease: Between 1990-2013, the TB death rate declined by 45%. Yet we still have a long way to go, especially as we grapple with TB that is resistant to the drugs that have long been used to treat it. Last week, Ambassador Eric Goosby,

The world’s newest nation, South Sudan, last week marked its four-year anniversary in a state of extreme conflict. Thousands of civilians have been killed and an estimated 2 million have fled since fighting broke out in December 2013. But no matter how grave the situation, the United States and the United Nations continue their commitment to seeing South Sudan stable. Under the wise leadership of U.S. Representatives Tom Rooney (R-FL), Michael Capuano (D-MA), Michael McCaul

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of blog posts on the founding of the United Nations 70 years ago. The celebratory speeches were over. Everyone from the 50 delegations had returned home from San Francisco. The papers reported on the ongoing war against Japan and the devastating conditions in war-torn Europe. But the hard work of creating the United Nations was not over. It had barely begun. After the 50 delegations at

Editor’s Note: This blog originally appeared on the Brookings Institution’s Up Front blog. Concepts, constraints, and conquests. These three words keep popping in to my head as people ask me how things went at the United Nations’ major financing for development (FFD) conference last week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Allow me to explain why. Concepts Addis was probably the most earnest international summit I have ever attended. Most political pronouncements were muted. The event seemed

World leaders are gathering at the United Nations in September to launch a new set of global goals, which will set the world’s to-do list through 2030. What kind of world do you want to see for girls in 2030? What is your message to world leaders? How can we help girls around the world? We posed these questions and more to some of Girl Up’s Teen Advisors when they were in Washington, D.C. last

  Today is an important moment in the fight to rid the world of polio: Nigeria reached one year without a new case of wild polio. Nigeria is one of three countries where the transmission of polio has never been stopped (Afghanistan and Pakistan are the other two countries), so ending polio in Nigeria is essential to ending polio in Africa and around the world. It’s simple: Polio doesn’t respect borders. Until we stop polio

Sixty mayors from around the world gathered at the Vatican last week for a historic a two-day conference where they pledged to fight climate change and to help the poor deal with its impacts. The meeting, which focused on the role of cities in addressing the global problems of climate change, sustainable development, and human trafficking, was the first time that the Vatican brought together mayors to mobilize grassroots action and urge world leaders to