Global Solution Networks Blog
Recent articles and research reports
Low Carbon Cities: a $17 trillion Opportunity
Using carbon-reducing strategies like improving public transport, increasing building efficiency, and waste management in cities could produce savings of nearly US$17 trillion by 2050 according to a new report by the New Climate Economy. With actions such as...
Europe’s Refugee Crisis—GSNs Help Address a Global Concern
Last week, the shocking image of a young boy drowned with 12 others while trying to escape the Syrian conflict brought attention to the European refugee crisis in brutal fashion. This incident follows a series of horrifying incidents in Europe. Reports of refugees...
Crisis Health Workers Daunted by Lack of Career Path
By Valentina Jovanovski Health workers in Kenya’s refugee camps would be more likely to stick with their jobs if they were offered more training and the possibility of academic qualifications, according to a study. Healthcare assistants who are from the refugee...
Natural Disaster or Man-made Catastrophe? Ten Years After Katrina
Late August 2005, ten years shy of the New Orleans levee system’s expected year of completion, Hurricane Katrina triggered a cascade of events that became a massive disaster across New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast. Katrina didn’t actually hit the city...
Youth Employment in Africa Under the Microscope
International Youth Day, August 12th, was a day to recognize the importance of youth worldwide. The day is particularly significant in Africa, where almost 200 million people are between the ages of 15 and 24. The population is younger than anywhere else on the...
#elegram—Every Day is Elephant Day
Today is "World Elephant Day," a day that celebrates the special beauty of the big animals, but also underlines the issues of poaching and trafficking of these remarkable animals and other wildlife being victimized by the illegal wildlife and ivory trade. It is meant...
Global Ebola Response Found Inadequate
An independent report commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) on their efforts against the West African Ebola Outbreak has concluded that the global health emergency response apparatus is severely lacking. The chair of the report, former Oxfam chief...
Unlocking the Potential for Long-term Development Progress
Nonprofits looking to build capacities for innovative technical approaches to development face funding hurdles. Overcoming them requires more from the private sector than just funding. The promise of harnessing today’s innovation to chart a course for development to...
Data: The Key to Ending Extreme Poverty?
Stakeholders from governments,...
Global Connections—Mental Health Innovation Network
Over 450 million people are estimated to be suffering from mental illness globally—three quarters of whom live in the developing world—making mental health issues one of the the leading causes of disability on the planet. Yet mental illness remains steeped in stigma...
Calling for a Climate Solution—C40 Cities Awards coincide with COP21
C40 Cities continues its annual program to recognize leadership and best practices with an awards competition designed to draw attention to outstanding city-oriented actions that have achieved success in the challenging environmental context. The awards ceremony for...
Cecil and the Plight of Lions
As social media explodes with #CeciltheLion postings, and the Internet descends on the man who killed the magnificent animal, WildCRU.org (the organization monitoring the tracking collar that recorded the movements and behaviors of the popular lion) has moved past the...
From MDGs to SDGs: How Much the World Has Changed Since 2000
This infographic was originally published July 6, 2015, on MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth. See the original.
GSNs at Work—Avaaz: Elephants to Asylum, Oceans to Oak Flat
Several times a week...
Obama will address Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kenya this Weekend
The 2015 Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) will be held in Nairobi this weekend. The sixth annual gathering of entrepreneurs at all stages of business development, the African location helps to underscore the fact that five of the world’s 10 fastest growing...
100,000 Youth Employed—Leading Companies Collaborate on a New Initiative
Top US companies have joined together to launch "100,000 Opportunities," a program that plans to hire and train 100,000 "opportunity" youth—16-24 year olds who face systemic barriers to jobs and education—with training programs and full and part-time employment. The...
Megacity drought: Sao Paulo withers after dry ‘wet season’
The large-scale problems that Global Solution Networks are working to address around the world often spill into several or all of the issue categories that GSN has identified. The disaster that is slowly unfolding in Brazil is an example of just such a situation; an...
Positive Peace Correlates with Progress (or, We Can’t All Move to Iceland)
The recent Global Peace Index for 2015 recently released by the Institute for Economics and Peace has identified Iceland as the most peaceful country in the world, followed by Denmark and Austria. Global Peace Index Results Map Ranking 162 nations around the globe...