If you really want to fight the patriarchy, if you want to make a difference in girls’ lives, you have to reach them when they are young, says Joyce Banda.

Joyce Banda, Malawi’s first female vice president, became Malawi’s first female president in 2012 after the sudden death of Bungu wa Mutharika in office. From day one, maternal health and girls’ education were a priority in her administration, she tells the Maternal Health Initiative’s Roger-Mark De Souza in an interview at the Wilson Center.

2017 promises to be a key year for U.S. government leadership on a variety of issues. Not least among them is global water security. Never have the challenges of global water security been so severe, and never have the opportunities for American leadership in the sector been greater.

The United Nations Population Fund’s 2016 State of the World Population report calls for investment in a very specific demographic: 10-year-old girls. At age 10, young girls are at a “pivotal” stage in their lives, the report says. They face a world of limitless possibilities, yet far too many end up thwarted in their ambitions by sexual violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, child labor, and other “systematic disadvantages.”

In Koyra Number 6, a coastal hamlet bordering the Sundarbans in southwestern Bangladesh, a group of men unload barrels of water from their trawlers – 50 drums holding 30 liters each. They announce their arrival by yelling. And word spreads. This is how this village gets their daily drinking water, from a town nine miles away.

“Made in China” products surround us, yet few consumers have anything more than a foggy idea of where in China their phones, computers, and other goods come from. Hunan Province in South Central China is not only the home of spicy food, but the world’s largest mines for non-ferrous metals used in many electronic devices. Nearly all the glass panels for Apple and Samsung smartphones are manufactured in Hunan as well. While this multibillion-dollar phone industry has been a boon for Hunan’s economy, it has also produced seriously polluted rivers and soil.

Where violent conflict displaces people and disrupts societies, maternal and child health suffers, and such instability is widespread today. According to the UN Refugee Agency, there are 65.3 million forcibly displaced people, 21.3 million refugees, and 10 million stateless people over the world. In addition, more than 65 million people who are not displaced are affected by conflict.