This December, world leaders are gathering in Paris for a landmark United Nations convening to complete a new global climate agreement – an extraordinary opportunity for the international community to rise to meet the threat of climate change. To achieve a world where everyone lives with dignity and opportunity – a vision leaders embraced in the global goals for sustainable development – we must take strong action on climate change. Everyone has a role to […]

On Saturday, October 24, we will celebrate World Polio Day, and there is so much to celebrate.  The past five years in particular have been an exciting time for the polio community with tremendous success and progress toward eradication.  Here are five top memorable moments from the past five years. 1. February 2012: India was removed from the endemic list. Just years prior, India was home to nearly half the global polio cases and considered

As Americans begin to consider the candidates for 2016, they have already made a clear decision about how the right leader will approach the world. A new poll conducted by a bipartisan research team and released today by the Better World Campaign finds that registered voters favor a foreign policy approach that embraces a partnership model. More than 8 in 10 – 82% – of Americans agree that to achieve our foreign policy goals, it

Technology has long been hailed as a democratizing force in the world; it enables people across the globe to relate to one another on a level that could have never been imagined just a few decades ago. We live in a hyper-connected, globalized world – a world that has so much potential to breed the next generation of big ideas. But there are issues that we must overcome to bring these ideas to life, and

Tomorrow the United Nations officially celebrates 70 years of promoting peace and progress around the world. It’s a special moment for people everywhere to show their support for the vital work of the UN and to rally around the new global goals for sustainable development. Join the worldwide celebration by sharing a photo of the UN’s critical efforts for #UN70. You can also view images of iconic landmarks around the world that are being lit blue

Editor’s Note: This post is the final post in a series on the founding of the United Nations 70 years ago. You can read the previous post here. I’ve really enjoyed writing this series of blog posts on the founding of the United Nations over the past four months. The research has taken me down unexpected paths from New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s little-known past as the head of a UN refugee agency to the

Yesterday, the United Nations Foundation joined an event hosted by the Obama Administration on increasing access to off-grid clean energy technologies. It may seem a wonky topic, but it has enormous global human impact. Energy does so much more than turn on lights and power machines – it transforms lives. Children can study at night; small business owners can keep their stores open longer, increasing their incomes; women don’t have to deliver their babies in

On October 24, the world came together to commemorate the United Nations’ 70th anniversary in a big way – by lighting more than 350 buildings, landmarks, and monuments across 85 different countries in the UN’s color of blue. Some of the world’s most famous landmarks – including the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Empire State Building in New York, the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy,

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the Energy Access Practitioner Network website. We spoke with Thomas Duveau, Head of Business Development at Mobisol, to discuss the company’s work in combining solar energy with payment plans via mobile phone, comprehensive customer service, and innovative remote monitoring technology. Interview edited for length. Can you tell us a little about Mobisol and its history? When was it created, and why? The founder of Mobisol, Thomas Gottschalk, traveled the world in