Accurate measurements of wealth are useful for developing more targeted and effective poverty reduction programs. Unfortunately, such metrics are few and far between, as data on economic livelihoods tends to be expensive to obtain, and once collected, is often unreliable.

Although separated by a thousand miles, the women of the Malaysian state of Sarawak and the Filipino island of Mindoro are united by a major struggle: climate change. As rainfall patterns grow increasingly unpredictable, natural disasters become more frequent, and drought ravages once-arable land, women are on the frontlines in both communities.

The first baby conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF) was born in 1978 and revolutionized alternative family building strategies. As IVF has become more widely available in the years since, the focus of many families who cannot conceive or carry a baby to term – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are 6.7 million such women in the United States alone – has shifted from adoption to surrogacy. However, this endeavor remains very expensive; prohibitively so for many. Commercial surrogacy can cost up to $70,000 in the United States, except in the seven states where it is illegal. Yet if couples are willing to outsource to another country, surrogacy can cost much less.

When wildfires become unstoppable, consuming forests, farmlands, communities, and anything else in their path, how will those affected cope? When typhoons slam coastal populations, dumping over a foot of rain in a single event, who will be there to help mop up? When seas rise up, drowning centuries-old communities, where will the displaced go?

Women make up between 40 to 50 percent of the artisanal mining workforce in Africa compared to a world average of 30 percent, says Southern Voices Network Scholar Maame Esi Eshun in an interview with Wilson Center NOW. But despite the number of women in the sector, they are often relegated to the periphery when it comes to decision-making and leadership, undermining peacebuilding efforts in these areas.

In the mountains of northern Afghanistan, between Pakistan and China, a region that has historically rejected the Taliban has become the group’s second-largest source of revenue. The twisting tale of Kuran wa Munjan reveals the challenges of extracting precious minerals in unstable and fragile states.

I remember the first time I made the four-day trek into the heart of Bolivia’s Carrasco National Park (CNP) 12 years ago like it was yesterday. I knew it would be a challenge to help communities agree on the boundaries of the protected area, given the high level of tension between indigenous communities, illegal migrant farmers, and park authorities over land rights, but I was unprepared for just how intense our first meeting would be.

Near the corner of Broadwick and Lexington in London’s Soho neighborhood, a single spot on the ground has influenced more than 150 years of urban development. It’s the location of a water pump that in 1854 physician John Snow pinpointed as the source of contamination leading to a widespread outbreak of cholera in the neighborhood that killed more than 600 people.