State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Millennium Villages Project4

  • Eliminating Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in the Mbola Millennium Village

    I recently returned from a trip to the Mbola Millennium Village cluster in Tanzania to evaluate the progress of the project’s HIV/AIDS services for pregnant women. Since its beginning in 2006, the Millennium Villages project (MVP) has improved access to general medical services in the cluster, including the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT)…

  • Monitoring and Evaluation is Hard*

    A primary component of the Millennium Villages Project education strategy is to improve the quality of education. But are MVP interventions such as school feeding programs, classroom construction, and teacher training truly having an impact on student performance? On Wednesday I attended a planning meeting for an evaluation designed to measure just that. The standardized…

  • A Week with the Sauri, Kenya Education Team

    Originally posted at karibusauri.wordpress.com My first week’s rotation at the Sauri Millennium Village was with the education sector. In three short days I observed MVP sponsored computer labs, school feeding program kitchens, gender separated latrines, a monitoring and evaluation planning meeting, rainwater harvesting, school livestock; the list goes on. The education team is constantly on the…

  • Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Foundation Renews Support of Ethiopia Water, Educational Initiatives

    The Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Foundation renewed its commitment to water and educational initiatives in Ethiopia with a $354,050 gift.  The foundation’s continued support will benefit the last phase of the Water Capture System in Koraro, Ethiopia, fellowships in Earth Institute Masters programs and Millennium Villages project interns. Students whose internships were supported by…

  • Matt Berg, ICT Director for Millennium Villages Project, Named TIME’s 100 Most Influential

    NEW YORK, April 29–TIME named Matt Berg, ICT director for the Millennium Villages Project and Earth Institute researcher, to the 2010 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Berg has been instrumental in bringing mobile phone based services, computer access and connectivity to some of the most…

  • UNAIDS, Millennium Villages Work to Eliminate Mother-Child HIV Transmission in Africa

    With scale-up to national level, 16,000 infections could be averted

  • The Earth Institute and Merck & Co., Inc./The Merck Company Foundation Collaborate To Strengthen Health Services In Rural Africa

    NEW YORK, June 22 — With the financial support and collaboration of The Merck Company Foundation, the Earth Institute at Columbia University is launching an ambitious initiative to strengthen community health services for over 400,000 people in ten African countries under the Millennium Villages project. The initiative will advance the development of a professional cadre…

  • JM Eagle and Earth Institute Bring Cleaner, Safer Water to Thousands in Rural Senegal

    Rural villagers in one of the poorest and driest parts of Senegal are turning on their taps for the first time and seeing water flow freely from the ground into their containers. JM Eagle, the world’s largest plastic pipe manufacturer, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University announced on January 14 the official completion of…

  • Rare Stamps Auctioned for $1.6 million for Projects in Africa by PIMCO’s Bill Gross

    posted: June 18, 2008 NEW YORK, June 19 —Proceeds from the sale of a rare collection of Scandinavian stamps were donated in order to expand development projects in Africa that will reach more than a half million people. Bill Gross, one of the world’s most successful money managers, who has also made a name for…

  • Eliminating Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in the Mbola Millennium Village

    I recently returned from a trip to the Mbola Millennium Village cluster in Tanzania to evaluate the progress of the project’s HIV/AIDS services for pregnant women. Since its beginning in 2006, the Millennium Villages project (MVP) has improved access to general medical services in the cluster, including the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT)…

  • Monitoring and Evaluation is Hard*

    A primary component of the Millennium Villages Project education strategy is to improve the quality of education. But are MVP interventions such as school feeding programs, classroom construction, and teacher training truly having an impact on student performance? On Wednesday I attended a planning meeting for an evaluation designed to measure just that. The standardized…

  • A Week with the Sauri, Kenya Education Team

    Originally posted at karibusauri.wordpress.com My first week’s rotation at the Sauri Millennium Village was with the education sector. In three short days I observed MVP sponsored computer labs, school feeding program kitchens, gender separated latrines, a monitoring and evaluation planning meeting, rainwater harvesting, school livestock; the list goes on. The education team is constantly on the…

  • Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Foundation Renews Support of Ethiopia Water, Educational Initiatives

    The Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Foundation renewed its commitment to water and educational initiatives in Ethiopia with a $354,050 gift.  The foundation’s continued support will benefit the last phase of the Water Capture System in Koraro, Ethiopia, fellowships in Earth Institute Masters programs and Millennium Villages project interns. Students whose internships were supported by…

  • Matt Berg, ICT Director for Millennium Villages Project, Named TIME’s 100 Most Influential

    NEW YORK, April 29–TIME named Matt Berg, ICT director for the Millennium Villages Project and Earth Institute researcher, to the 2010 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Berg has been instrumental in bringing mobile phone based services, computer access and connectivity to some of the most…

  • UNAIDS, Millennium Villages Work to Eliminate Mother-Child HIV Transmission in Africa

    With scale-up to national level, 16,000 infections could be averted

  • The Earth Institute and Merck & Co., Inc./The Merck Company Foundation Collaborate To Strengthen Health Services In Rural Africa

    NEW YORK, June 22 — With the financial support and collaboration of The Merck Company Foundation, the Earth Institute at Columbia University is launching an ambitious initiative to strengthen community health services for over 400,000 people in ten African countries under the Millennium Villages project. The initiative will advance the development of a professional cadre…

  • JM Eagle and Earth Institute Bring Cleaner, Safer Water to Thousands in Rural Senegal

    Rural villagers in one of the poorest and driest parts of Senegal are turning on their taps for the first time and seeing water flow freely from the ground into their containers. JM Eagle, the world’s largest plastic pipe manufacturer, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University announced on January 14 the official completion of…

  • Rare Stamps Auctioned for $1.6 million for Projects in Africa by PIMCO’s Bill Gross

    posted: June 18, 2008 NEW YORK, June 19 —Proceeds from the sale of a rare collection of Scandinavian stamps were donated in order to expand development projects in Africa that will reach more than a half million people. Bill Gross, one of the world’s most successful money managers, who has also made a name for…