A team of women — cocooned in thick, powder-blue Kevlar vests and clear protective face shields — fan out across the rugged, tawny mountains of Afghanistan’s Bamyan province. They sweep heavy metal detectors over the rocky soil. Kneeling, they painstakingly scrape sharp tools through the loose dirt. These brave women are defying their culture’s rigid gender norms, part of Afghanistan’s first all-female demining team. As they rid their communities of deadly, undetonated explosives — the […]

Communities everywhere continue to experience record-breaking climate impacts — from deadly wildfires to devastating storms. These effects will only worsen without greater climate action. Luckily, the world has a plan to act on the science: the Paris Agreement. Nearly four years ago, 195 countries adopted the Paris Agreement, a historic, global action plan to tackle climate change. The agreement gives the world a framework for avoiding dangerous impacts of climate change by “limiting global warming

  Cover cropping is a vital step towards building soil organic matter and reducing emissions. On our farm last year, we grew a shorter season of soybean and harvested earlier. Then, we drilled in oats as a cover crop. With sun and a little bit of rain, the oats sprouted up and they started breathing in carbon and taking it back down into the ground, which pulls additional carbon into the ground than what is

How much can change in a generation? Nearly ten thousand advocates for health and rights asked this question when they gathered recently in Nairobi, Kenya. They were reflecting on a landmark moment in Cairo 25 years ago, the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). What we learned was that people remain as committed as ever – maybe more so, because of the political challenges we face in this area around the world. Co-convened

Editor’s note: This post was updated December 1st, 2019. As the world celebrates the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg and 15 other children are taking the treaty to the fight against climate change. At the launch of the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly, these 16 young people – hailing from 12 different countries — filed a landmark legal complaint against five

“Polio, guinea worm and malaria are all symptoms of a deeper sickness. Which is why ultimately, our fight is not against a single disease. Our fight is against inequality.” Those were the words of World Health Organization Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhenom Ghebreysus at the recent Reaching the Last Mile Forum in Abu Dhabi where leaders and global health funders gathered to ensure no one is left behind in global efforts to eradicate diseases that strain

“Climate emergency” is the 2019 word of the year, according to the Oxford English dictionary —  and rightfully so. Over the last year, rising emissions and record-breaking events — from hurricanes in the Atlantic to wildfires in Australia — have been met with rising outrage from millions of young people and activists. But how did leaders respond to the growing weight of evidence and demands for change? And are we on track to keep the

2019 marked a milestone year in the ambitious global effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Four years after all countries agreed to the framework, the United Nations hosted the first high-level check-in on progress. Government leaders came together to take stock, reinvigorate commitments, and determine the path forward. The gathering elevated and connected actors working on issues across the SDGs. New partnerships were formed, and important initiatives launched. Yet despite the first four

In January 2019, five million women in India formed a 385-mile-long human protest, ensuring the year started with demands for gender equality squarely at the forefront. The year continued with global demands for equal pay, reproductive rights, representation in government, and much more. But while we saw some progress in 2019, it’s clear we need many more than five million people to demand equality and even more loudly. As we enter a new decade, we