The United Nations needs a shorter, stronger game plan for humanity

2014-02-14 FORT LAUDERDALE – At the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos last month, leading participants called for a rapid shift to cleaner energy to tackle climate change. There is something unsettling about the global power elite jetting into an exclusive Swiss ski resort and telling the rest of the world to stop using fossil fuels. (...) 

When a child is born, a clock starts ticking. Scientists have shown that half of a child’s intelligence potential is developed by the age of four. Early development makes a huge difference to life-long wellbeing.

It is little surprise that distinguished economists who studied responses to Haitian challenges have focused attention on powerful investments that target children in infancy and in the womb.

In rich countries, the biggest killers are strokes, heart attacks and cancer, accounting for more than two-thirds of all deaths. But for the poorer world, people often assume that infectious diseases like diarrhea, tuberculosis, Aids, malaria, measles and tetanus are the biggest killers. That is no longer true. While they are still substantial threats, broader availability of medication and vaccines along with higher living standards has caused such communicable diseases to drop dramatically to below 9 million deaths each year.