“50 years ago, 20 million young people protested about the damage to our Earth. Over the past 5 decades, a lot has happened. Our ozone layer is healing, renewable energy is booming worldwide, environmental awareness has never been higher. But some risks are even more acute than before,” said Denis Hayes, coordinator of the first Earth Day and founder of Earth Day Network, in a video message at a recent Wilson Center event commemorating the 50th Earth Day. 

Haitian migrants to the Dominican Republic are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking, yet antitrafficking initiatives tend to overlook them. The paradox plagues much antitrafficking research and policymaking. The same factors that make people vulnerable to trafficking—race, class, gender, immigration status—also exclude them from initiatives to protect them.

In the case of Haitian migrants, being black, poor, and mostly men with an irregular immigration status means they are more likely to be viewed as smuggled persons (and therefore as criminals) rather than as trafficked persons (and therefore as victims). Correcting this problem requires a focus on human security rather than on state security. And a greater appreciation of the structural causes of vulnerability to human trafficking is needed.

Despite the fact that more than half of the professional health workforce are nurses and 90 percent of nurses and midwives are women, a strong gender bias still impacts women nurse’s decision-making power in the health sector. In this month’s most read article, Peter Johnson, a male nurse and midwife, challenges men both in and outside of the profession to do better in elevating the voices of women nurses and midwives and ensuring they have a seat at the table when decisions are made.

It helps to think of collaboration as a skill to develop, rather than a value to impart, said Francesca Gino, Professor and Unit Head of Negotiation, Organization and Markets at Harvard Business School, at a recent Wilson Center virtual event on the importance of cross-sectoral collaboration. Many organizations make collaboration one of their values, she said. However, this has no substantial effect. “It could be a first step, but on its own it doesn’t create a culture where all of a sudden people are collaborating effectively,” Gino said.

The global coronavirus pandemic, now in its third month, is precipitating a financial crisis for water utilities in low- and middle-income countries as many of these service providers face drastic cuts in revenue and rising costs to respond to the public health emergency.