This year’s World Water Day is taking on a broader theme than years past: sustainable development. The theme makes sense as two major international processes – the drafting of the Sustainable Development Goals to replace the Millennium Development Goals, and the most anticipated UN Climate Summit in years – are taking place in 2015. Decisions made over the next nine months will play a huge role in relationships between nations and global development priorities going forward.

For two villages in southern Malawi, climate change and contraception have become intertwined. So much so, that long-held cultural assumptions are starting to change.

Hans Rosling has always been an innovator when it comes to bringing big ideas to big audiences. The Norwegian doctor, statistician, and co-founder of the Gapminder Foundation has become known – to the kind of people who watch TED Talks anyway – for lively presentations aimed at demystifying common ideas about global development and demography. On Gapminder.org, he literally stands chest-high in water appealing for your donation to help him “cross the river of myths.”

With intense drought in Sao Paulo and California, devastating floods in Malawi, and escalating water-energy confrontations in many developing countries, it is no wonder water is making headlines. It’s also gained the attention of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which lists water crises as the world’s number one risk in its recently released Global Risk Assessment.

March 8 marked International Women’s Day, which celebrates the economic, political, and social achievements of women in the past and present, while simultaneously calling for greater equality in the future. While many of the day’s discussions focused on economic and social issues, the right to reproductive health is also a crucial element in realizing full equality.

To encourage a new generation of urban policymakers and promote early career research, the Wilson Center’s Urban Sustainability Laboratory is teaming with USAID, the International Housing Coalition, World Bank, and Cities Alliance to sponsor the 6th Annual Urban Poverty Paper Competition for students enrolled in a Master’s or PhD program working on topics relating to urban poverty in the developing world.