Women-led and women’s rights organizations are on the frontlines of today’s humanitarian crises—but many are at risk of disappearing. As global needs rise due to conflict, climate change, and displacement, deep cuts to foreign aid are threatening organizations that provide life-saving services for women and girls. In March 2025, UN …
During November–December 2015, as part of the 2015 cholera outbreak response in Iraq, the Iraqi Ministry of Health targeted ≈255,000 displaced persons >1 year of age with 2 doses of oral cholera vaccine (OCV). All persons who received vaccines were living in selected refugee camps, internally displaced persons camps, and …
ATHI RIVER, Kenya (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Recently married with a one-year-old child, Joan Moraa Mbogo dreams of escaping Kenya's noisy, dirty, crime-ridden capital and buying a home close to her mother's newly-built apartment overlooking the Lukenya Hills. Machakos County, which starts 20 kms (12 miles) south-east of Nairobi, is …
The Adani Mining Pty Ltd is confident of commencing construction of the Carmichael mine by mid-2017, which will be Australia's largest coal mine, despite growing concerns and protests from environmental and indigenous groups that it will jeopardise the Great Barrier Reef and Aboriginal heritage. There were protests in Melbourne and …
Water diplomacy will play an increasingly important role in preventing, mitigating and resolving a growing number of water-related conflicts around the world. However, the theory and practice of cooperation over shared waters and the implementation of multi-track water diplomacy are not sufficiently developed. Concepts and approaches such as multi-level water …
The Multi-track Water Diplomacy Framework specifies and tests a conceptual and analytical water diplomacy framework that identifies the key factors that affect water cooperation. Knowledge of these key determinants of cooperation not only contributes to the existing body of academic knowledge, but can also help to bolster cooperation over shared …
This new report by Bread For The World explains how fragility stands in the way of ending hunger and extreme poverty. Many of the fragile nations are especially affected by climate change, so climate-resilient agricultural development is important. By 2030, two-thirds of the world’s poor will be living in fragile …
The recent dust storm in the Middle East (Sepember 2015) was publicized in the media as a sign of an impending 'Dust Bowl.' Its severity, demonstrated by extreme aerosol optical depth in the atmosphere in the 99th percentile compared to historical data, was attributed to the ongoing regional conflict. However, …
Understanding the conflict potential of drought is critical for dealing effectively with the societal implications of climate change. Using new georeferenced ethnicity and conflict data for Asia and Africa since 1989, we present an actor-oriented analysis of growing-season drought and conflict involvement among ethnic groups. Results from naive models common …
Climate-driven water variability is a natural phenomenon observed across river basins, but predicted to increase due to climate change. Environmental change of this kind may aggravate political tensions, especially in regions that are not equipped with an appropriate institutional apparatus. This paper argues that attempts to assess the ability of …
Armed conflict and communal or ethnic violence have continued to cause massive displacement in India. The country is in need of amending its policies in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles for protecting internally displaced persons. The reliability of the existing data on IDPs and lack of a national …
Over the past ten years, both our understanding and awareness of the links between climate change and security have increased tremendously. Today the UN, the EU, the G7 and an increasing number of states have classified climate change as a threat to global and/or national security. However, the links between …
The peacefulness of the lush green fields of paddy and maize lining the road to Vemulaghat village in Telangana, India belies the anger of villagers protesting against the southern state's plans to acquire about 21,000 acres of land for a reservoir. The Komuravelli Mallanna Sagar reservoir will irrigate 1.2 million …
International land deals, often for giant agriculture projects, now cover an area the size of Germany and a growing share are getting up and running, fuelling fears that local residents will be displaced, the anti-poverty group Oxfam said on Monday. More than 1,500 large-scale land deals have been signed in …
Freshwater appropriation can have vast impacts, depending on management and scale of water use. Since 2000, foreign investors have contracted an area the size of the United Kingdom in Africa, leading to increased pressure on water resources. Here we couple site-specific water demand for the crops planted there to the …
OXFORD, ENGLAND – The planet could pass a key target on world temperature rise in about a decade, prompting accelerating loss of glaciers, steep declines in water availability, worsening land conflicts and deepening poverty, scientists said this week. Last December, 195 nations agreed to try to hold world temperature rise …
The report is an authoritative source of knowledge about the numbers and distribution of African elephant populations across their 37 range states in sub-Saharan Africa. It presents more than 275 new or updated estimates for individual elephant populations across Africa, with over 180 of these arising from systematic surveys. The …
BUKALEBA FOREST RESERVE, Uganda (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Deep within a pine and eucalyptus forest on the shores of Lake Victoria in southern Uganda, a parcel of land is pitting a Norwegian timber company against more than 10,000 villagers who say its "green" project is costing their homes and livelihood. …
The advent of the Sustainable Development Goal era, in the context of new threats and instabilities to peoples worldwide, offers an ambitious agenda for revitalizing political commitments to human well-being—for future generations as well as our own. The High-level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth provides a special opportunity …
The health sector is a key economic sector and a job generator. The aggregate size of the world’s health sector is over US$ 5.8 trillion per year. Across the OECD countries, employment in health and social work grew by 48% between 2000 and 2014, while jobs in industry and agriculture …
Africa’s positive economic growth over the past two decades has shown resilience in the wake of the international crisis of 2008. However, this positive performance has not yet translated its economic gains into meaningful social development. Rising incomes have often gone hand in hand with rising inequality – undermining the …