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The United Nations, along with the Philippine government and other humanitarian organizations, has mounted a massive and immediate response to provide emergency relief, including food, clean water, sanitation, and shelter, to the regions severely affected by the typhoon

Sometimes the things that bring the greatest benefits to our lives are also the most underappreciated. Example: toilets. Can you imagine your life without one?

Worldwide, 2.5 billion people don?t have access to basic sanitation like toilets and latrines. As UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, a leading advocate for clean water and sanitation, points out, ?More people have cell phones than toilets in today’s world.?

At age five, Kakenya was engaged to a boy from her neighborhood, and she considered herself lucky. Her new fianc?e was around her age, and most girls in her community met their husbands ? much older men ? on their wedding day.

When the sun sets tonight around the world, more than 400 maternity clinics that long labored in darkness will have light. Reliable, robust, and easy to use ?Solar Suitcases? will provide light and power for midwives and doctors to deliver babies, conduct c/sections, treat pregnancy complications, and care for newborn babies in 25 countries. For many mothers and babies, that light may mean life.

Last month, I spent 10 days zigzagging across India, stopping in six cities on an unforgettable journey to visit the sites of several projects that the mHealth Alliance supports through our Innovation Working Group catalytic grant program.

Through this program, which is supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, we provide funding and technical assistance for mobile health (mHealth) projects that aim to improve maternal and child health in low- and middle-income countries. This trip gave us the chance to see some of their work in action.

This week, thousands of researchers, development experts, policymakers, and others are gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to discuss one of the most important global issues: family planning.

Around the world, more than 220 million women want, but don’t have access to, modern contraception – which means they aren’t able to decide the timing and spacing of their families. Denying them this basic human right has far-reaching effects for themselves, their families, their communities, and their countries.

November 12th is World Pneumonia Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness about this disease. Here are 7 reasons why you should care (and take action).

Following the devastating destruction by Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) that hit the Philippines on November 8, the United Nations, the Government of the Philippines, and other humanitarian organizations are mounting a massive coordinated humanitarian response to provide families with immediate lifesaving aid.

The U.S. made history yesterday – but not in a way that’ll make you proud.

For the first time ever, we lost our vote in a United Nations organization for failing to pay our dues. And the agency we just walked away from is none other than the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), whose programs are clearly and directly in the interests of Americans.