Civil society organizations dedicated to building peace in Israel, Palestine, and elsewhere in the Middle East are crucial to countering extremist ideology and providing emergency assistance to vulnerable communities. Unfortunately, many institutional donors have been reluctant to enter this field. "While some step up with humanitarian aid in response to the latest crisis, those critical funds aren’t enough," says Perry Cammack, peace-building program director for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Breaking the cycle of violence, repression, and extremism "will require efforts by Palestinian and Israeli nonprofit groups committed to building a just and durable peace...they need our support, especially now when the prospects for peace feel most distant," adds Cammack. (Read more...)

More than half of the global population, 4.5 billion people, lives in urban areas. The transition to green, equitable, smart, and sustainable cities is urgently needed to deliver on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and limit global warming to 1.5°C. The Global Forum on Human Settlements will hold its 18th annual session (GFHS 2023) on December 3 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates during COP28, the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference, to discuss “Green, Fair and Smart Urban Transformation: Synergistically Accelerating 1.5°C Goal and SDGs.” The event, which is being organized in collaboration with WANGO, is expected to produce the Dubai Declaration on that theme. (Read more...)

Heidi Kühn, founder of Roots of Peace, has been awarded the 2023 World Food Prize for her work to replace mines with vines in post-conflict regions over more than 25 years. The nonprofit, a WANGO Peace and Security Award recipient, was founded in 1997 to replace the remnants of war with farmland. The organization also trains farmers in modern agricultural practices, from planting and harvesting to marketing through international exports. The prize was formally presented to Kühn during the 2023 International Borlaug Dialogue, whose theme "Harnessing Change" focused on the role of innovation, adaptation, and diversification to improve the resilience of food systems, recover from shocks, and sustainably nourish all people. (Read more...)

The “Mapping Nonprofit Spending on Climate Change” report by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy estimates U.S.-based nonprofits spend between $7.8 billion and $9.2 billion annually addressing climate change. Of that spending, approximately 49 percent went to climate mitigation efforts and 14 percent went to adaptation, with 34 percent not clearly specified. The report, which was based on survey data from 130 organizations focused partly or entirely on the environment or climate change, also reveals that 53.7 percent of climate change spending by respondents was used for efforts in the U.S. and Canada, while 22 percent focused on climate issues in other parts of the world. (Read more...)

Transformational shifts rooted in science would urgently reverse the course and accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a recent UN report by an independent group of scientists says. In addition to offering practical solutions to turbocharge the SDGs, the “Global Sustainable Development Report 2023,” shows new evidence that there are more synergies than trade-offs between the SDGs, especially when investments are made in poverty reduction, health, education, gender equality, water and sanitation, clean energy and partnerships. It also notes that interventions in certain areas by different societal actors, such as sustainable food systems, human well-being, or energy decarbonization with universal access, can have systemic effects. (Read more...)