The same factors that make human trafficking victims vulnerable to trafficking can also exclude them from the very initiatives meant to protect them. In the case of the Dominican Republic, Haitian migrants—black, poor, and mostly men with an irregular immigration status—are more often viewed as criminals than victims of trafficking. In our top post this month, Jean-Pierre Murray explores the case of Haitian migrants, the risks they face, and why they’ve been overlooked.

The Maternal Health Initiative (MHI) grabbed the second and third top spots this month. In the second most read article, Zara Ahmed illustrates the devastating impacts COVID-19 could have on adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health and rights. The third top post features, “The Unseen Side of Pregnancy: Non-Communicable Diseases and Maternal Health,” a new report from MHI that explores factors contributing to the rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases, their effect on women of reproductive age, and potential solutions to address this growing problem.

Our fourth and fifth most read posts ask us to rethink how to understand, respond to, and plan for future changes. Scenario planning has come to popularity as a way to characterize and communicate the uncertainty around COVID-19. Steven Gale outlines two development-focused scenarios the pandemic has created and considers whether current interest in scenario planning for development will outlive COVID-19. Sharing insights from her new book, Shannon O’Lear writes about how environmental geopolitics, as a perspective, disrupts mainstream understandings of environment-related risk and security.

1. Haitian Migrants: Hidden Faces of Human Trafficking in the Dominican Republic by Jean-Pierre Murray
2. COVID-19 Could Have Devastating Effects on Adolescents’ Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights by Zara Ahmed
3. The Unseen Side of Pregnancy: Non-Communicable Diseases and Maternal Health (New Report) by Sarah Barnes, Deekshita Ramanarayanan & Nazra Amin
4. COVID-19 Reignites Interest in Scenario Planning for Development … But Will It Last? by Steven Gale
5. How Environmental Geopolitics Expands Our Understanding of Risk and Security by Shannon O’Lear