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A massive fire broke out at around 3:00 AM on 20 January 2026 in Camp 16, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, home to thousands of Rohingya refugees. The blaze destroyed 335 homes completely and damaged hundreds more, affecting over 2,000 people. Families whose homes were destroyed were forced to relocate to relatives or friends, losing all their… [Read More]

In the 1970s, Venezuela stood as the wealthiest nation in South America, driven by vast oil reserves and a thriving middle class. For small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), it once appeared to be a land of limitless opportunity for expansion and exports. Decades later, the Venezuela economic crisis has become one of the strongest warnings… [Read More]

How to prepare for the next disaster is a question many small business owners confront only after experiencing a crisis. For others, the daily challenge of keeping their businesses afloat leaves little time to plan for what lies ahead. Yet as natural disasters and economic shocks grow more frequent, the cost of not preparing is… [Read More]

Proparco has announced its investment as an anchor investor at the first close of the Horizon Capital Catalyst Fund, a reconstruction-focused equity vehicle launched by Horizon Capital, a leading private equity firm operating in Ukraine and Moldova. In just six months since fundraising began at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome last July, the Fund… [Read More]

GEF Capital is actively advancing private climate change solutions in Brazil through its Latin America platform, GEF Latam, with a strong focus on both mitigation and adaptation. Operating from São Paulo, the fund is led by Anibal Wadih, founder and Managing Director, who brings more than 25 years of experience in sustainable and climate-focused investing…. [Read More]

The IDH Farmfit Fund was launched to address a long-standing but deceptively simple question: can finance that includes smallholders be both impactful and commercially viable? Finding an answer required moving beyond conventional investment approaches and testing a new model in practice. The IDH Farmfit Fund is a EUR 100 million closed-end blended finance vehicle that… [Read More]

The generation, analysis, and use of high-quality data are fundamental to effective public health programmes and evidence-based decision-making. As countries move away from siloed disease-specific approaches, they face the growing challenge of managing, integrating, and interpreting multiple data sets. Interoperability across health information systems has therefore become essential to achieving better health outcomes. At the… [Read More]

Ahead of the first session of the Conference Preparatory Committee and the Working Group for negotiations on a Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity, organizations have called on all states to ensure broad, inclusive participation, particularly for persons with disabilities and their representatives. They emphasize that the rights and protection of… [Read More]

Uganda’s electoral commission has officially declared President Yoweri Museveni the winner of the January 15 elections, securing his seventh term in office with 71 percent of the vote. The lead-up to the elections was marked by widespread human rights abuses. Security forces reportedly beat and arrested hundreds of people at opposition rallies, used teargas indiscriminately,… [Read More]

On January 19, a court in Makhachkala, the capital of Russia’s Dagestan region, sentenced women’s rights defender and journalist Svetlana Anokhina to five years in prison for allegedly spreading “fake news” about the Russian armed forces. The sentence was handed down in absentia, as Anokhina left Russia in 2021 after a police raid targeted her… [Read More]

In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the sudden withdrawal of the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group from the city of Uvira on January 17, 2026, has left civilians at grave risk from abusive Wazalendo militias, Human Rights Watch reported. After capturing the city on December 10, 2025, M23 forces had harassed, threatened, and assaulted residents, prompting… [Read More]

The Gates Foundation plans to spend $9 billion in 2026 as part of its long-term strategy to gradually wind down operations and permanently close by 2045. Alongside this increased payout, the foundation intends to reduce its workforce by around 500 staff members over the next five years. The move marks the conclusion of a four-year… [Read More]

The Azim Premji Foundation has announced plans to develop a 1,000-bed charitable super-speciality transplant hospital on a 10-acre site within the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases campus in Bengaluru. The Karnataka government has agreed to lease the land to the Foundation for 99 years, formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding with the State’s Medical… [Read More]

The LANL Foundation, New Mexico’s largest foundation exclusively focused on education, has announced its 2026 legislative priorities aimed at strengthening public education, expanding workforce pathways, and supporting students and families across northern New Mexico. These priorities emphasize evidence-based approaches to improve education systems, reflect community needs, build on past policy successes, and contribute to a… [Read More]

Colgate-Palmolive has announced a new multi-year collaboration with the WHO Foundation to advance global oral health, addressing one of the most prevalent yet overlooked noncommunicable diseases affecting 3.7 billion people worldwide. This four-year funding commitment will support the expansion of oral health education, integration of oral health into national health systems, and increased awareness of… [Read More]

The Sahel, a semi-arid region spanning from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, has emerged as a hotspot for global terrorism due to frequent armed group attacks and resulting civilian fatalities. This situation is fueled by a combination of factors, including weak state structures, illicit economies, limited government presence in rural areas, and resource… [Read More]

Climate finance plays a pivotal role in transforming Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) into concrete decarbonization outcomes. The Mitigation Action Facility’s latest report, From grants to guarantees: how the Mitigation Action Facility’s financial mechanisms transform NDC ambition into climate action, demonstrates how tailored financial instruments—from catalytic grants to risk-reducing guarantees—are mobilizing private capital and accelerating climate… [Read More]

In Nigeria, resilience is a way of life, with people constantly adapting and pushing forward despite significant challenges. Livelihood struggles are often less about effort and ambition and more about the absence of opportunity, resources, or timely support. Sometimes, a single intervention can transform hardship into a story of renewed hope, entrepreneurship, and resilience. In… [Read More]

Citi Foundation has committed $200,000 to support humanitarian relief for communities affected by severe flooding across Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. The announcement on January 21 highlights the foundation’s partnership with Save the Children to deliver urgent assistance to children and families impacted by the floods. In Vietnam, prolonged monsoon rains… [Read More]

Tanzania’s leadership in promoting Kiswahili on the global stage was prominently celebrated at the Diplomatic Party held on 15 January 2026 in Dodoma, hosted by President H.E. Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan. The high-level event brought together senior government officials and members of the diplomatic corps to acknowledge Tanzania’s ongoing efforts in elevating Kiswahili as a… [Read More]

UNESCO has expressed deep concern over the rising use of internet shutdowns by governments to manage political crises, condemning any actions that prevent citizens from accessing information through online tools. The organization emphasizes that the internet is essential for citizens to exercise their democratic rights, particularly during times of crisis, and calls on governments to… [Read More]

Malawi is facing a catastrophic collapse of healthcare services one year after the US government cut foreign aid in January 2025, reversing a decade of progress against HIV/AIDS. The funding reductions have led to severe cuts in HIV treatment programs, an increase in unplanned pregnancies, and a resurgence of stigma and discrimination against vulnerable populations…. [Read More]

Governor Wes Moore has proposed a $73.7 million allocation in the Fiscal Year 2027 budget to fund 252 projects through six state revitalization programs administered by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. These investments target county and municipal governments, community development organizations, and other local partners to support projects that advance revitalization goals… [Read More]