It’s said that practice makes perfect, and that saying couldn’t be truer than for health care workers trying to save newborn lives in low-income settings. Without frequent retraining and refresher workshops, such skills deteriorate over time. The need for these workshops is especially strong in Ethiopia, where the infant mortality rate is 77.12 deaths per 1,000 babies, placing it among the worst worldwide.
by Kaci Fowler Originally from Germany, Philipp Petermann comes to the Earth Institute through an exchange program between Columbia University and the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, or Sciences Po, a public research and higher education institution in Paris, France. In May, Philipp will graduate with a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science [...]
The Earth Institute has begun implementing an innovative project throughout the South Department of Haiti, and has added a new partner to this critical work, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The work includes the Côte Sud Initiative, covering all communes within the South Department, and the recent launch of the first Millennium Village in the Western Hemisphere in the Port-à-Piment watershed.
Water is essential to human well-being and economic development. Today, however, water stress caused by inadequate farming practices, demographic pressure and pollution is creating unprecedented problems. Nowhere is this more visible than in the rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa. As the world celebrates World Water Day on the 22nd of March to draw attention to these issues, lessons learned from the Millennium Villages Project can provide a way forward. The project’s success in improving both water and food security are just some of the practical, science-based solutions that rural communities all over the world can use to extract themselves from poverty.
The Earth Institute welcomed Prime Minister Garry Conille of Haiti on Dec. 2 for a day of policy discussions and a seminar with the students of the Master’s in Public Affairs Development Practice program at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.
The Earth Institute’s annual donor report for fiscal year 2011 is now available in an interactive digital format. We remain committed to finding extraordinary support to unprecedented global challenges, many of which are outlined in this report. We have highlighted some of our innovative projects in research, policy, and education, as well as the partnerships that are helping to support them.
One-hundred twenty light bulbs were switched on in Ruhiira for the first time last year, using the innovative Shared Solar system installed by the Millennium Villages Project (MVP). The impact on villagers’ lives has already been tremendous.
It’s mid-morning in the Tiby Millennium Village in Mali. Rokia, a community health worker, sits with a young mother in a spare courtyard of the household. Gently she asks the key questions.
Dr. Paul Pronyk, Director of Monitoring and Evaluation for the Millennium Villages Project (joined by Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the MVP and Dr. Prabhjot Singh, Director of System Design of the MVP) As the Director of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Centre for Global Health and Economic Development at The Earth Institute, I [...]
“The Millennium Villages Project, and Professor Sachs individually, had a huge effect in enabling Kenya to pursue a policy of mass distribution of bed nets and the shift to community-based treatment of malaria. The Millennium Villages Project informed our government about the efficacy of such policy breakthroughs. Professor Sachs’s advocacy inside Kenya, with the Global [...]
State of the Planet is a forum for discussion on varying viewpoints. The opinions expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Earth Institute or Columbia University.
