2014 promises to be a superlative year – and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Complex, “super” disasters like Super Typhoon Haiyan are becoming more frequent, more systemic, and more destructive. Global trends, from population dynamics to food, water, and energy scarcities, threaten to further complicate the playing field. But by finally getting serious about resilience – the much discussed buzzword of 2013 – we might reduce our vulnerability, restore our communities, and build back better, rather than just picking up the pieces.

Sudan’s pastoralists gained infamy during the conflict in Darfur last decade, when outsiders described the violence as a result of competition between climate-stressed, semi-nomadic herders and sedentary farmers. But Sudan’s pastoralists may not be as fragile as previously thought and could even hold the key to survival for similar groups in Africa, said a panel of experts at the Wilson Center on November 13. [Video Below]

Following a surge in global food prices in 2008 and again in 2011, policymakers and scholars have paid increased attention to the intersection of food security and political volatility. [Video Below]

The past three years – and more pointedly the past 12 months – have laid witness to monumental, if not heartbreaking, incidents of gender-based violence. The gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in New Delhi last December; the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl left for dead in a pit latrine in Western Kenya last June; the mass sexual assault of women in Tahrir Square during the 2011 revolution in Egypt and since; all were high profile atrocities that ignited outrage around the world.

When Cyclone Haruna swept across Madagascar last February, Blue Ventures, a marine conservation and community health organization, found themselves in a surprising new role. “We went from development, to aid, and back to development, in an integrated way we never expected,” said Medical Director Vik Mohan in an interview at the Wilson Center.

The original version of this article, by Laura Robson and Caroline Savitzky, appeared on Blue Ventures’ Beyond Conservation blog.

The excitement was palpable as we gathered with almost 200 of the world’s finest population-health-environment (PHE) practitioners, researchers, and advocates in Addis Ababa for the International PHE Conference earlier last month! With all of us working on integrated projects encompassing family planning, community health, sustainable livelihoods, and environmental initiatives, there were many ideas and progress updates to be shared.