Just before leaving the Marine Corps in 2011, I wrote a brief reflection on what I’d learned. I wrote it from a dark bar while sipping a dark whiskey, probably listening to some dark music, but I can’t be sure of that last part. This gloomy setting was appropriate that day because it was, frankly, a dark time. I’d spent the previous 11 years in uniform doing work I truly loved. Would I ever be able to find that sort of...
This is our 2014 list of shocking poverty facts. For the 2015 list, click here. Halloween, schmalloween. The most shocking things in life aren’t haunted houses or ghosts that go “BOO!” – it’s what’s happening right outside your window. I asked our policy team to share the most surprising, illuminating facts they’ve come across in global development. Here’s what they said: 1. More people have access to a mobile phone than a toilet 2. Every year, developing countries are robbed of more than $1 trillion that could...
Here’s a collection of some of the best data visualizations on global literacy, mortality, birth rates and more that will help put some of the biggest issues surrounding poverty today into perspective. The good news: Extreme poverty is declining, and life expectancy and incomes on the whole are on the up and up. The bad news: We still have a lot of work to do! 1. Changes in Life Expectancies and Incomes Hans Rosling’s Gapminder project has long been one of the best data visualization tools for...
Public service announcements can be dry and ineffective - but these eight print ads, in the age of the Internet, defy those stereotypes. Here's our favorites. Just one page long, they pack a wallop and inspire viewers to take action.