Each year, an unlikely scene unfolds in Jordan. Hundreds of motorcyclists gather from across the globe to take part in the Jordan Rider Rally Weekend — an event organized by the Royal Motorcycle Club of Jordan and the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Over the course of a weekend, hundreds of motorcyclists will depart…
More than 100,000 deaths per year in Africa are linked to counterfeit medicines, either because the medicines were substandard or simply contained no active ingredients at all. Using counterfeit medicines with an insufficient dosage of active ingredients can lead to drug resistance, particularly in the case of diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. The problem…
With the signing of Colombia’s peace accord in 2016, new challenges have emerged regarding the country’s human rights agenda. The 2016 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights annual report highlighted an increasing concern regarding the killings and attacks on Colombian human rights defenders and other social leaders. According to the Colombian NGO Somos Defensores, in…
Water security is a global problem with political, social, economic, and technological obstacles. Although there are significant challenges, new advances in the use of renewable power to support wastewater treatment open the door to affordable and flexible solutions that can help alleviate water scarcity. Wastewater treatment and reuse is not only critical to improving public…
A well-established energy system aids all sectors, from commerce, technology, and communications, to health, education, agriculture and infrastructure. Conversely, a dearth of reliable energy constrains human and economic development. While 222 million people have gained access to electricity in recent years, one in five — or 1.1 billion people worldwide — still lack access. Many…
It is early November and I glance at my phone to check the daily forecast. It is a balmy 79 degrees Fahrenheit in Washington, D.C. — unusually warm so late in the year, but noticeably more commonplace in recent years. According to data gathered by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2016 was the…
This post originally appeared on the SEEP Network‘s blog. Discussing failure is difficult because it implies that someone didn’t do their job well. Too often, the discussion stops there. Yet, the complexity of our work means that forces beyond our control often influence the outcomes of our programs, making it worth finding a way to discuss…
This post originally appeared on Climatelinks. Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide every year (over 90 percent of these deaths occur in Africa) and diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old. Large investments in health have led to significant declines in both diseases; however, emerging evidence suggests that climate…
In 1947 and again in 2005, the Gallup Poll asked Americans what they thought was the greatest invention ever made. In both cases, Americans overwhelmingly chose electricity. Yet across the world more than 1 billion people, largely in rural areas, still lack access to electricity’s transformative potential. 600 million of those people reside in Africa.…
Husaini Abdullahi, a farmer in the Abaya Dagwaji community of Jigawa, Nigeria, just took his first step towards an aflatoxin-safe future. His three-hectare farm is dedicated to groundnut intercropped with maize, both of which are highly susceptible to aflatoxin contamination. Aware of the dangers of aflatoxin, Husaini is now taking the measures to ensuring a…
Decades of work to disrupt cycles of violence in developing countries has resulted in some promising, replicable approaches. Yet, to get to a “best-fit” approach within a particular country, we know that we cannot simply cut and paste strategies and tools from one context to the next. Considering this, what can market research conducted by…
Think we’ve made progress in maternal and newborn health (MNH) in the past 30 years? You’re right: Maternal mortality has dropped from 550,000 deaths due to pregnancy-related causes a year to 303,000, and newborn mortality from 4.4 million to 2.7 million newborns each year. But if you think that still sounds like a lot of…