#education

  Burundi obstetric clinic slows maternal deaths The Burundi region of Kabezi has already met the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality by 75% from 1990 rates thanks to an emergency obstetric care clinic run by Médecins sans Frontières, and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “You do not need state-of-the-art […]

Guest post by Andy Kristian Agaba Recently, a friend recently sent forwarded to me an article he had read curious to hear what my opinion was. He wrote that after reading the article, he had mixed emotions of which I am not keenly aware as I didn’t bother to ask. After responding to him, I […]

Children of the Earth summit — 1992 and 2012 As young people weigh in with their impressions of the ongoing Rio+20 conference, this documentary series, Zero Ten Twenty, looks back on the lives of children born in 1992–the year of the groundbreaking Earth Summit. Working to include women in development recipe The United Nations is hosting […]

Israel is one of the world’s science powerhouses.  With ten Nobel Prize winners, more than 4,000 technology startups, and high-tech companies reportedly comprising 45% of Israel’s exports, Israel is undoubtedly a technology hub. Despite statistical data identifying the country’s technological superiority, Israel is faced with the threat of its scientists and startup mavens seeking educational […]

UNICEF has released their 2011 Annual Report.  The report gives a global overview of the previous year’s achievements and highlights a number of various international, regional, and national collaborations. The report highlights UNICEF’s contributions to achieving the 2015 Millennium Development Goals by providing increased assistance to children in need around the globe. The report highlights […]

I came across this quote this morning, and it summed up everything one should say on a day like Father’s Day. A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty (Author Unknown). Today, many fathers awoke to smiling children excited to give them special gifts–many handcrafted with […]

With Europe on the brink of economic meltdown, it’s easy to forget that some people never saw the good times. The 10 to 12 million strong Roma minority—often disparaged as “Gypsies”—have lived in Europe for centuries, but have been considered unwelcome intruders at best. Enslaved in Romania, forcibly settled in Hungary and Poland, Roma are […]

Good old American know-how. Yankee ingenuity. Can-do spirit. You know the phrases, you know the attitude and values they represent, it’s something deep in the core of the American character. But, is it possible that this American character trait can be lost over time? This question was prompted by two things. First, as you know, […]

The Japanese government is sending 96 Japanese English teachers to the U.S. this month to participate in a six-month training program. The teachers will take courses in English education at seven universities. They will stay with American host families and work as interns at American secondary schools. As an American teaching English in Japan, I […]

Following the eight year Presidency of Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, Brazil has come to embody both the transformation of Latin America and the rising clout of developing world. Through a combination of heterodox public policies, ‘soft’ diplomacy and the internationalization of brand Brazil, the nation has finally shed its tragic nickname of the ‘country […]

This past Tuesday marked the annual release of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Transparency International’s opportunity to name and shame all over the world. This year, as in most years, there were few surprises: the index is actually designed to favor stability over dramatic changes in order not to unduly punish countries that experience an […]

Contrary frequent assertions that the development of physical infrastructure is the key to ensuring India’s future, two important speeches last week underscore how the country’s destiny actually lies in the aggressive nurturing of its human capital potential.