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Rising global temperatures combined with rapid urbanization are driving an unprecedented surge in cooling demand, which is projected to increase fourfold in the coming decades. While cooling technologies are essential for economic development and human well-being, conventional systems are highly energy-intensive and contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, underscoring the urgent need for sustainable and… [Read More]

The Appalachian Access Project was a community-based participatory research initiative designed to address persistent inequities in HIV, sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis C, and mpox prevention and care among gay, bisexual, queer, and other men who have sex with men, as well as transgender and nonbinary persons living in Appalachia. The bilingual peer navigation and mHealth… [Read More]

UNDP Bangladesh has a long-standing partnership with a wide range of local and international suppliers that play a critical role in delivering its programmes and projects. Over recent decades, supplier markets have changed significantly due to technological advancements, growing sustainability expectations, and increasingly complex regulatory and compliance requirements, prompting UNDP to continuously modernize its procurement… [Read More]

The Environment and Social Management Framework was prepared for the “Green and Inclusive Cities in Mongolia” project under the GEF-8 Sustainable Cities Impact Program, which aims to support cities and local governments in advancing integrated urban planning and investing in nature-positive, climate-resilient, and carbon-neutral development. The program is implemented through country-level child projects, with a… [Read More]

A forest fire that broke out near Sangaygang in Thimphu on January 2, 2026, served as a stark reminder that Bhutan’s fire season has begun. While this particular blaze was contained, many others burn for days despite the courageous efforts of firefighters working with limited resources. Recent years have seen increasingly frequent and intense forest… [Read More]

The publication offers a snapshot of UNDP’s evolving blockchain practice, examining how the organization engages with blockchain technologies as part of a broader effort to support inclusive, future-ready public systems. Positioned within the context of accelerating digital transformation and changing development finance, it explains why UNDP approaches blockchain not as a stand-alone solution, but as… [Read More]

With new funding from The Coca-Cola Foundation, the International Rescue Committee is scaling up anticipatory action responses across Africa to help communities prepare for climate-driven emergencies such as floods and droughts before they occur. This investment will enable earlier interventions, strengthen local resilience, and support faster recovery in regions increasingly affected by climate shocks. Anticipatory… [Read More]

The Councils of the funds managed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), including the GEF Trust Fund, the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF), and the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), approved work programs totaling approximately USD 372 million. These funds are intended to support climate action, biodiversity conservation, pollution… [Read More]

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has announced a combined commitment of nearly US$15 million from the Johnson & Johnson Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, and Comic Relief UK to strengthen community health systems across Africa. This funding, part of the Global Fund’s Eighth Replenishment, is further amplified by matching contributions from the… [Read More]

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]