Author: Larkin Smith

SEATTLE — U.N. Women has launched Buy from Women, an innovative digital platform to promote agricultural finance for Rwandan women. This mobile initiative empowers rural women with the requisite information for equitable market access. Agriculture is the foundation of the Rwandan economy, employing close to 80 percent of the population. Although women constitute an overwhelming portion of the agricultural labor, they own less land and have less access to seeds than men. Rwanda is committed to female empowerment and equality, yet traditional gender roles, lower literacy rates and limitations on resource possession hinder women’s economic development. To improve women’s economic…

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar — Stony Brook University has launched a fully autonomous drone to collect biomedical samples in the rural district of Ifanadiana, Madagascar. While this is the first drone of its kind, the medical usage of drones has the potential to transform healthcare in Madagascar by expediting diagnosis and treatment. With avenues of baobab trees, massive limestone formations and dense tropical rainforests, Madagascar’s unique landscape is incomparable. The remote villages of the island nation, however, suffer from extreme poverty and insufficient access to basic healthcare and sanitation. More than 75 percent of Madagascar’s population lives in poverty. Acute malnutrition and…

SEATTLE — Around the world, hundreds of millions of children are not reaching their developmental potential. Investment in early childhood education, protection and nutrition will help children grow, succeed and contribute to their future communities. In lower to middle-income countries, 249 million children under five are at a high risk of poor development. Based on data collected by The Lancet in 2010, children in Sub-Saharan Africa face the largest threat, with a risk of 66 percent. With these numbers, the critical importance of international intervention to benefit children neurologically, increase national economic productivity and help to reduce the cycle of…

SEATTLE — Most people are moved by the plight of those who are suffering; most are hesitant to help. This uncertainty around charity is the product of different ethical priorities, a loss of hope and a lack of concrete proof that their money actually makes a difference. The magnitude of the world’s most pressing problems seems unresolvable, creating apathy around the action. Some charities only give an infinitesimal fraction of their donations to those they promise to help. Effective altruism promises a solution. Through careful reasoning and evidence-based decision-making, this philosophy aims to do the best with the resources provided…

SEATTLE — Cholera is not caused by poor sanitation alone. Recent research reveals that complex environmental factors can also intensify the severity and breadth of the disease. With this understanding, researchers conclude that climate change can increase the incidence of cholera. In order to address this reality, they have developed tools to help mitigate an outbreak before it even begins. Cholera is a waterborne disease, caused by a single-celled bacterium called vibrio cholerae. It is native to rivers, estuaries and coastlines, and is most prevalent around the Bay of Bengal, Africa and coastal Latin America. If contaminated water or food…

SEATTLE — The misuse of antibiotics has the potential to reset the clock on decades of medical progress. The antimicrobial resistance crisis has spread worldwide, requiring urgent action from international authorities. Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is an unintended consequence of the usage of antibiotics, antivirals and antifungals. Put simply, AMR is a resistance developed in the microorganisms that cause disease, making the standard medications for that disease ineffective. Exemplifying natural selection, the resistant microorganisms replicate themselves and transfer the drug-resistant genes horizontally to the other microorganisms, increasing the abundance of the resistant strain of the species. There is a direct…

SEATTLE — The U.N. 2030 Sustainable Development Goals are unachievable without corporate involvement. The private sector can uniquely leverage nonprofit partnerships and investment in order to achieve sustainable development. The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, or SDG’s, aim to create an inclusive, prosperous and sustainable world, emphasizing peace, growth, conservation and equality. After deliberation from a diverse set of stakeholders, 17 goals were drafted in 2015 to follow and enhance the Millennium Development Goals of the U.N. Millennium Declaration in 2000. The global business community is one of the major stakeholders in the agenda, as the realization of the Sustainable Development…

NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenya has become the first country in the world to introduce child-friendly drugs to fight tuberculosis (TB). These drugs — launched with the non-profit TB Alliance — will revolutionize the treatment of tuberculosis in Kenya and dramatically improve survival rates. “Each year, 1 million children get sick with TB, and 140,000 needlessly die,” according to the TB Alliance website. These numbers are far too high for a disease that is both preventable and treatable at a fairly low-cost. In most regions of the world today, tuberculosis treatment for children is inexact and unpleasant. Parents and healthcare workers…

DODOMA, Tanzania — Tanzania has successfully met the WHO target of 80 percent coverage of voluntary medical male circumcision. This incredible success in HIV prevention in Tanzania was accomplished through clinical, community and technological collaboration. Voluntary medical male circumcision – also known as VMMC – is a safe, cheap and effective means of heterosexual HIV prevention. While the procedure sometimes suffers from a lack of public acceptance, it has been proven to reduce female-to-male transmission of HIV up to 60 percent. UNAIDS and WHO chose 14 countries in Southern and Eastern Africa to implement a rapid, large-scale HIV prevention initiative,…

SEATTLE—The benefits of vaccination are evident, yet clinics around the world are still met with patient skepticism. Creative new health strategies—grounded in a realistic understanding of human decision-making and behavioral economics—have the potential to increase global vaccination rates. Vaccination is safe and cheap, making it one of the most efficient methods to reduce mortality rates, increase labor productivity and help developing nations out of poverty. Immunization has already achieved widespread success (especially for children), increasing vaccination rates from 5 percent to 75 percent since 1974. While this progress is impressive, more work is necessary to prevent and to eradicate diseases that…