News & stories

October 31, 2024, marks World Cities Day, a day to reflect on the challenges and opportunities facing urban areas, where more than half of the world’s population now lives.

Energy for lighting, cooking, income generation, or to keep cool in rising temperatures is vital and becoming more so. Lack of energy access is increasingly concentrated among people living in extreme poverty (those on less than $2.15 per day), putting them most at risk of being left behind.

I recently had the chance to visit Burkina Faso, and it felt like a return to familiar ground. Coming from a town in Ghana, just 100 miles away from the border, the journey had a special significance.

Rural women are the backbone of their communities, working the land, caring for families, and playing a crucial role in ensuring food security and protecting biodiversity.

Practical Action, supported by the International Potato Center (CIP), has been working hard to improve food security and promote sustainable farming practices in Kassala State and the Blue Nile Region of Sudan.

In rural Nepal, where traditional gender roles prevail, we are helping women challenge entrenched stereotypes by enabling them to take on their household’s financial responsibilities, thanks to funding by Jersey Overseas Aid.

The impacts of heatwaves are severe and touch every aspect of society, but it's critical to recognise that these effects are not evenly distributed. Social determinants such as gender can influence how people experience and respond to extreme heat. This disproportionately impacts the economically disadvantaged reiterating exiting inequalities and perpetuates the poverty cycle.

Over 100 million people are displaced by conflict, environmental disasters, and other crises in the world. More than 90% of them lack access to sufficient energy, which is critical for survival, safety, and economic resilience. As this figure grows, it presents a significant challenge, both for host countries and the international community.

Over the past decade, two fundamental desires have shaped my worldview: the need to be understood and the drive to understand others. These concepts have come into sharper focus over the last three years as the global conversation on climate change—an issue close to my heart—has taken a new direction, focusing on localisation, decentralisation, and ownership.