State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Millennium Development Goals7

  • Practice and Persevere: Neonatal Survival Workshops Aim to Reduce Infant Mortality in Ghana

    Practice and Persevere: Neonatal Survival Workshops Aim to Reduce Infant Mortality in Ghana

    With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit in New York on 20-22 September 2010 to accelerate progress towards the MDGs, aimed at slashing poverty, hunger, disease, maternal and child deaths and other…

  • Restoring Sight: My Work With the Himalayan Cataract Project in Ethiopia

    Restoring Sight: My Work With the Himalayan Cataract Project in Ethiopia

    A guest blog from Dr. Matt Oliva, an MD with the Himalayan Cataract Project. Blindness exerts an incredible toll in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, in terms of both human suffering and adverse economic impact. Due to environmental conditions, malnutrition and vitamin deficiency, ocular infections, trauma and lack of access to care, some of the…

  • Reusable, Homemade Feminine Pads: A Simple Intervention to Help Keep Girls in School

    Reusable, Homemade Feminine Pads: A Simple Intervention to Help Keep Girls in School

    In many areas of sub-Saharan Africa, gender parity tends to decline at higher levels of schooling. While girls’ enrollment and completion rates for primary school are typically high, these rates decrease with secondary and tertiary education. Girls may discontinue their studies to devote more time to household chores, to earn extra income by engaging in…

  • Notes from a Gender Needs Assessment: Kisumu’s Greatest Resource

    Notes from a Gender Needs Assessment: Kisumu’s Greatest Resource

    The following is a guest blog, authored by Sarah Jaffe, an MCI researcher who is carrying out a Gender Needs Assessment for Kisumu, Kenya.   My mobile buzzed in my pocket, and I shifted the crate of Fanta my seatmate had rested on my lap to one side. It was my colleague, Ben: “Madame Grace is…

  • Preventing Malaria in the Millennium Villages

    Preventing Malaria in the Millennium Villages

    I work at the Malaria Program of the Earth Institute’s Center for Global Health and Economic Development. The bulk of our work takes place at the Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia, which supports national malaria control programs in ten African countries and contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Ethiopia.…

  • New Initiative to Fast-Track Development in Dry Areas of East Africa

    Ministers from six countries in the region endorse project targeting pastoralist communities

  • Fostering 21st Century Learning in sub-Saharan Africa

    The following is a guest blog, authored by Jim Teicher, Executive Director, CyberSmart! Africa. Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this blog do not represent the opinion of the Millennium Cities Initiative, the Earth Institute at Columbia University or any of its professional consultants. How can every school in Africa deliver a 21st-century…

  • Saving Lives One Birth at a Time: Ghanaian Pediatricians Become Master Trainers in the AAP’s Helping Babies Breathe Curriculum

    Every year, 10 million babies require help to breathe immediately after birth. Stimulating breathing by drying and rubbing the newborn and suctioning the baby’s mouth may be all that is needed to save a life. Although such life-saving care is readily available in the United States, in many poorer countries, it may be a distant reality…

  • Columbia Planning Seminar on Accra, Ghana, Sparks Ideas to Further the City’s Development

    Accra, Ghana, MCI’s newest Millennium City, presents a unique set of challenges in its quest to attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. With a population of well over three million, Accra has had to deal with public sector challenges typical of many urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa, including finding solutions to the many pressing…

  • Practice and Persevere: Neonatal Survival Workshops Aim to Reduce Infant Mortality in Ghana

    Practice and Persevere: Neonatal Survival Workshops Aim to Reduce Infant Mortality in Ghana

    With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has called on world leaders to attend a summit in New York on 20-22 September 2010 to accelerate progress towards the MDGs, aimed at slashing poverty, hunger, disease, maternal and child deaths and other…

  • Restoring Sight: My Work With the Himalayan Cataract Project in Ethiopia

    Restoring Sight: My Work With the Himalayan Cataract Project in Ethiopia

    A guest blog from Dr. Matt Oliva, an MD with the Himalayan Cataract Project. Blindness exerts an incredible toll in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, in terms of both human suffering and adverse economic impact. Due to environmental conditions, malnutrition and vitamin deficiency, ocular infections, trauma and lack of access to care, some of the…

  • Reusable, Homemade Feminine Pads: A Simple Intervention to Help Keep Girls in School

    Reusable, Homemade Feminine Pads: A Simple Intervention to Help Keep Girls in School

    In many areas of sub-Saharan Africa, gender parity tends to decline at higher levels of schooling. While girls’ enrollment and completion rates for primary school are typically high, these rates decrease with secondary and tertiary education. Girls may discontinue their studies to devote more time to household chores, to earn extra income by engaging in…

  • Notes from a Gender Needs Assessment: Kisumu’s Greatest Resource

    Notes from a Gender Needs Assessment: Kisumu’s Greatest Resource

    The following is a guest blog, authored by Sarah Jaffe, an MCI researcher who is carrying out a Gender Needs Assessment for Kisumu, Kenya.   My mobile buzzed in my pocket, and I shifted the crate of Fanta my seatmate had rested on my lap to one side. It was my colleague, Ben: “Madame Grace is…

  • Preventing Malaria in the Millennium Villages

    Preventing Malaria in the Millennium Villages

    I work at the Malaria Program of the Earth Institute’s Center for Global Health and Economic Development. The bulk of our work takes place at the Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia, which supports national malaria control programs in ten African countries and contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Ethiopia.…

  • New Initiative to Fast-Track Development in Dry Areas of East Africa

    Ministers from six countries in the region endorse project targeting pastoralist communities

  • Fostering 21st Century Learning in sub-Saharan Africa

    The following is a guest blog, authored by Jim Teicher, Executive Director, CyberSmart! Africa. Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this blog do not represent the opinion of the Millennium Cities Initiative, the Earth Institute at Columbia University or any of its professional consultants. How can every school in Africa deliver a 21st-century…

  • Saving Lives One Birth at a Time: Ghanaian Pediatricians Become Master Trainers in the AAP’s Helping Babies Breathe Curriculum

    Every year, 10 million babies require help to breathe immediately after birth. Stimulating breathing by drying and rubbing the newborn and suctioning the baby’s mouth may be all that is needed to save a life. Although such life-saving care is readily available in the United States, in many poorer countries, it may be a distant reality…

  • Columbia Planning Seminar on Accra, Ghana, Sparks Ideas to Further the City’s Development

    Accra, Ghana, MCI’s newest Millennium City, presents a unique set of challenges in its quest to attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. With a population of well over three million, Accra has had to deal with public sector challenges typical of many urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa, including finding solutions to the many pressing…