The latest estimates are that a staggering 3 billion people or more cannot afford a healthy diet. In sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia, this is the case for 57 percent of the population – though no region, including North America and Europe, is spared.

The development sector replicates many of the very injustices it claims to work against, reproducing these historical power dynamics and stripping agency from the very people it claims to support. How can international organisations truly work towards equality when they underpay local staff, continue to think of development as unidirectional, and don’t allow for a true shift in power towards local leaders who most fully understand the needs of their own communities?

By Carey Averbook & Leny Olivera

Climate change is about much more than climate change. Its impacts and driving factors intersect with a whole range of social, economic, political and cultural issues. Women, especially in the global South, are often particularly exposed to poverty, discrimination, lack of access to resources, exclusion from power and exposure to many forms of violence. When climate change impacts hit, the burdens women bear likewise increase disproportionately.

The risks to refugee education do not stop with COVID-19. Attacks on schools are a grim and growing reality. The report also elaborates on Africa’s Sahel region where violence has forced the closure of more than 2,500 schools affecting the education of 350,000 students.