A Green Homes Revolution is Happening around the World: Terri Wills, World Green Building Council
When we think of green buildings, we often picture towering office buildings with green walls and state-of-the-art technologies – such as the iconic Empire State Building retrofit or the EDGE office building in Amsterdam – with shiny LEED or BREEAM plaques at reception, boasting of their environment…
Brexit Explained: All You Need To Know About the UK Referendum
On June 23, 2016, British voters will decide whether they want to leave the European Union, a possibility widely referred to as “Brexit.” Polls indicate that the result of the referendum is wide open, with the Remain camp and the Leave camp neckandneck in recent public opinion polls…
Why Do Terrorists Commit Terrorism?
AFTER a terrorist attack like the one in Florida on Sunday, one of the first questions people always ask is: Why? Why would someone take the lives of innocent civilians who are total strangers? That is a question to which I have long sought an answer. But my search has led me instead to another ques…
It happens on the pavement: Putting cities at the center of countering violent extremism
In March alone, at least nine cities across three continents were hit by terrorist attacks. Municipalities—from megacities to tertiary cities—continue to bear the brunt of such attacks: in the short term, they provide first response and take essential security measures; in the longer term, they suff…
The World Could End AIDS if It Tried
The world has made so much progress in reducing the spread of AIDS and treating people with H.I.V. that the epidemic has receded from the public spotlight. Yet by any measure the disease remains a major threat — 1.1 million people died last year from AIDS-related causes, and 2.1 million people were …
Rethinking Robin Hood
International development aid is based on the Robin Hood principle: take from the rich and give to the poor. National development agencies, multilateral organizations, and NGOs currently transfer more than $135 billion a year from rich countries to poor countries with this idea in mind. A more forma…
The distance to school is not only about the distance you walk
In a recent major survey undertaken by the Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, low academic self-esteem was the second most frequently expressed reason for dropping out of school among marginalized girls, after poverty-related issues. Girls lack the confidence to engage …
Unaccompanied child refugees: ‘These children aren’t seen as children’
Human smugglers increasingly combine smuggling with exploitation and their victims are often children,” says Federica Toscano. “At chaotic border situations, it happens that smugglers deliberately separate refugee children from their parents to exploit them.’’ “We also hear that families at the bord…
Peace After Paris: Addressing Climate, Conflict, and Development
2015 was a historic year for international commitments to sustainable development, climate change action, and new kinds of peacebuilding. For governments and policymakers, now comes the difficult task of living up to those commitments. Security concerns, like ISIS and a revanchist Russia, tend to do…
Climate change and ‘smart seeds’ in Africa
Southern Africa is undergoing the worst drought in more than three decades. More than 30 million people in South Africa, Malawi, and my home country Zimbabwe are facing hunger. While this year’s drought is largely attributed to the El Nino effect, rains have been increasingly erratic over the past t…