Don’t “Empower” Women To Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Do This Instead Penelope Chester September 19, 2017While the political activities at the United Nations take center-stage during this General Assembly week in New York, a little farther uptown from the UN headquarters, Columbia University is hosting the International Conference on Sustainable Development for i...
Can A Better Way to Measure Conflict-Related Deaths Help Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals? Joanne Lu September 13, 2017The UN General Assembly kicked off its 72nd session this week, and its new president, Miroslav Lajčák of Slovakia, has already indicated that preventing deadly conflicts will be one of his top priorities. The theme for this year, he announced on Tuesday, will ...
How Can the International Community Do Hurricane Response Better? Mark Leon Goldberg September 8, 2017With Houston still reeling from Hurricane Harvey, Irma causing massive havoc in the Caribbean, and more storms on the way, I thought it would be timely and interesting to speak with my guest today, Maria IvanovaMaria Ivanova is an academic who straddle...
The UN called for a “War on Plastic” and Kenya just went nuclear John Light August 29, 2017In February 2017, the UN Environment Program called for a “war on ocean plastic” — a crackdown on things like bottles, plastic bags, and non-reusable packaging that pollute marine ecosystems, rivers and beaches.Kenya has heeded the call to arms.Sta...
Countries are Getting Rid of their “Marry the Rapist” Laws Coby Jones August 23, 2017Lebanon recently became the latest Arab state to repeal laws on the books that allowed rapists to escape punishment...if they married their victims.Lebanon follows Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia which have all repealed similar laws in the past few year...
Everything you know about Sweatshops is Wrong Mark Leon Goldberg July 27, 2017Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher or get the app to listen later. Chris Blattman is a development economist who routinely conducts experiments to test ideas related to reducing poverty and improving the well being of people living in poorer countries. His ...
Here’s how much it will cost to give everyone healthcare, everywhere in the world Mark Leon Goldberg July 18, 2017With all eyes focused on the healthcare debate in the United States, the World Health Organization yesterday released a report quantifying how much it would cost to deliver quality healthcare to everyone in the world who currently does not have access to it. ...
A New Report Shows How Close the World is to Totally Eradicating Extreme Poverty Mark Leon Goldberg July 17, 2017The United Nations released a key report today showing how far the world still needs to go to reach its goal of totally eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. The report finds that as of 2013--the most recent date for which quality data is available -- about 767...
The Bad News? The World Will Begin Running Out of Water By 2050. The Good News? It’s Not 2050 Yet Alanna Shaikh, MPH June 16, 2017On June 6th, US Secretary General Antonio Guterres addressed the UN Security Council meeting on Maintenance of International Peace and Security. He warned the group that by 2050, we won’t have enough fresh water for the people who need it. Demand for water wil...
