In Kenya, primary and secondary school students take courses called Life Skills Education. So do students in Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, and Swaziland. South Sudan adds “peace-building” to the subject title. Lesotho, Madagascar, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia are more direct. These countries add the word “sexuality” to the course name.

A country can achieve sustainable peace and security only if women are included, said Monde Muyangwa, Director of the Wilson Center’s Africa Program at a recent Wilson Center event on the role of women in promoting peace and security in Africa. “And I would argue that part of the challenges that we face on the African continent, the insecurity that we face in parts of the African continent,” she said, “is precisely because not all segments of society are included.”

The 1951 Refugee Convention spells out refugee rights, including the right to freedom of movement. Yet 68 years later, 15.9 million people are trapped in prolonged exile, living as refugees for anywhere from 5 to 47 years and counting. The unprecedented duration of protracted refugee situations (PRS) and the increasing scale of forced migration demand a comprehensive response beyond humanitarian assistance.  

“We are all convinced that educational entertainment is the way to go now,” said Anselme Muzalia Wimye, Program Quality Director at Search for Common Ground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He spoke at a recent event hosted by the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program, Maternal Health Initiative, and The Population Institute. The panel discussed the power of educational entertainment (EE), in particular serial dramas, to precipitate positive behavioral change and public health outcomes in Africa. 

In parts of the tropics, exposure to extreme temperature or rainfall in early life is associated with fewer years of schooling in later childhood. This finding comes from my new article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with coauthor Clark Gray. As climate change leads to increasingly severe heat waves, floods, droughts, and hurricanes, it is important to understand how extreme weather impacts kids’ education in different parts of the world. This will help decisionmakers develop solutions to keep children in school in a world of increasing climate variability.

More than 17 years ago, I came to the United States as part of a refugee group known as the “Lost Boys” of Sudan. In 1987, civil war separated me from my parents for almost 10 years. After 13 years of living in limbo in refugee camps, I was given the opportunity to settle in Tucson, Arizona, where I quickly integrated myself into the American society as a productive citizen. My story demonstrates the resilience paradox: Exposure to prior hardships helps us become more resilient.