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]

“I always say what brought me to Papua New Guinea is the tree kangaroo, and what keeps me there are the people,” said Lisa Dabek.

In what’s becoming a trend, another set of devastating natural disasters made headlines in 2013. Typhoon Haiyan enveloped the Philippines in November while the world watched online, and less publicized but just as traumatic, flash flooding in India this summer killed thousands of pilgrims making their way up Himalayan river valleys.

Twenty thousand girls under the age of 18 give birth every day, and 90 percent of these births occur within the context of marriage, according to the UN Population Fund’s latest State of the World Population report. This year’s edition, launched at the Wilson Center on October 30, focuses on adolescent pregnancy and finding ways to better protect this vulnerable group of young women.

As more organizations in the international development community commit themselves to supporting women’s empowerment, it has grown increasingly difficult to evaluate what that really entails. [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]