Women and girls in India, like many places in the world, are often not taught about their bodies or menstruation. And it’s not only the female half of the population lacking in menstruation knowledge. …

Announcing the 10 winners of the USAID Biodiversity Photo Contest — This year’s theme for International Day for Biological Diversity is “From Agreement to Action: Build Back Biodiversity.” As the name suggests, this year’s celebration on May 22 marks the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity —…

How USAID is advancing renewable energy in Tajikistan — Almazbek Bakirov is from the remote district of Murghob of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO), Tajikistan, a district located 3,650 meters above sea level with harsh and extreme winters. The distance from his district to the nearest major city, Khorog, the capital of GBAO, is 315 kilometers (nearly 200 miles). “I…

The country is recruiting new teachers and USAID is working to get them into classrooms — According to UNICEF, African countries are facing the world’s worst teacher shortage. The continent needs 17 million additional teachers to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030. To meet this demand, many countries often recruit unqualified and untrained teachers who in some cases can make up 20% to 25%…

With USAID’s support, future clinicians get an early start to careers in health care — When it comes to studying health sciences in Liberia, women are severely underrepresented compared to men. Over the last five years, approximately two men have enrolled for every one woman at the University of Liberia College of Health Sciences — Liberia’s only medical school. Fewer women in the health sciences…

Local government administrations bring essential services to underrepresented communities in Tanzania — Underrepresentation Pharmacist Patrick Nwesiga pauses, takes a step back, and gazes in satisfaction as he and his colleague Erick Emmanuel stock the shelves of the Bunazi Health Center Pharmacy with new medicine and medical equipment. Bunazi, a bustling town situated a mere 20 kilometers south of the border with Uganda, is…

Celebrating 10 years of seasonal malaria chemoprevention — No child should die of a mosquito bite. Yet, children under the age of 5 and living in sub-Saharan Africa are at increased risk of dying from malaria, a deadly disease which is transmitted by mosquitoes. To protect communities from malaria, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), led by USAID…

How strategies applied for COVID-19 vaccination in India can improve routine immunization coverage — Mosli Diggal is an older woman from the tribal area of the remote Phulbani District in Odisha, India. Like many people at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mosli and her family had limited knowledge about COVID-19 and how to protect themselves from it. “People in my community believed that…

A Q&A with Amazon and USAID on working to close the gender gap in climate finance — While climate change is an enormous challenge for all people globally, women and girls bear a disproportionate burden of its impacts. By one authoritative estimate, just 3% of financing for climate solutions goes to women-led businesses. By sidelining half the population in climate finance decision making, we perpetuate deeply entrenched…