Every September, diplomacy gets a major moment: The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which brings together world leaders to discuss urgent global issues and create shared plans of action to tackle them. You may be asking yourself, Why does this matter to me? Here’s why: Global problems cross borders and affect all of us. Global problems require global solutions. At the UN General Assembly, leaders from around the world will discuss the challenges that impact […]

For decades, Ethiopia has opened its borders to refugees from neighboring countries. But like so many host nations, the country has restricted opportunities for refugees to obtain employment, education, health care, and financial services—until now. As of January 2019, after extensive consultation with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and bold leadership from the country’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the government passed landmark legislation allowing refugees freedom of movement, fuller access to schools and hospitals, more

A new report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from leading experts has a clear message: The status quo is not enough to achieve the SDGs by 2030. All is not lost though. The report also outlines recommendations for how we can transform our approach to achieve the SDGs and create a more sustainable, just world for all. To be sure, remarkable progress has been achieved in recent decades. Extreme poverty is at the lowest

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria challenged the world with an ambitious ask this year: Step up the fight against the world’s top three deadliest diseases by collectively committing to provide at least $14 billion needed to get back on track to achieve the targets for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria under Sustainable Development Goal 3: Health and well-being for all by 2030. And governments and private sector companies are answering the

No poverty. Zero hunger. Gender equality. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a global roadmap for a better future for people and planet, but achieving such ambitious aims will require each and every one of us to go beyond the status quo. Thankfully, there are entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers of all kinds turning local action into scalable progress. At this month’s UN General Assembly in New York, 10 extraordinary solution makers from across the globe

For nearly a year, Claire Melamed lived in an invisible place. It was a tiny village in Mozambique that didn’t exist on any maps. No one knew how many people lived there, who was born there, or who died there. This information didn’t exist in any official records. This experience taught Claire about the power of data — and why basic statistics about a particular community are more than mere numbers. “The numbers that society

“The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you.” Greta Thunberg’s grave warning at the United Nations Climate Action Summit will certainly not be forgotten, but how will world leaders’ response be remembered? On September 23, UN Secretary-General António Guterres convened leaders from government, business, and civil society at the UN Headquarters in New York City to boost momentum in the

Leaving No One Behind Throughout the week of the UN General Assembly, global health leaders called for leaving no one behind on the journey to achieving UHC. In order for health for all to actually be universal, it is critical to keep the most marginalized populations, including those in poor and conflict settings, at the center of programs and policies. Gender equity in particular plays a large role in ensuring we can achieve SDG 3.