What was supposed to be a fun group trip quickly became something no one had planned for.
As Joseph Nguthiru and his group set out across Lake Naivasha in Kenya, their boat slowed to a halt, trapped in thick mats of water hyacinth that had covered the water’s surface. The invasive plant had spread rapidly across the lake’s surface, disrupting boat movement, threatening fish populations, and putting local livelihoods at risk.
Water hyacinth is one of the world’s fastest-growing aquatic plants. When left unchecked, it blocks sunlight, reduces oxygen...
News
Security spending across OECD countries has become increasingly one-dimensional. In response to great-power rivalry and acute conflicts - from Ukraine and Gaza to Sudan - governments have sharply expanded military budgets while scaling back the very investments that help prevent crises from emerging in the first place.
Our new report, The Security Paradox, shows that heavily prioritizing defense spending while underfunding development and diplomacy is not only insufficient, but it also actively undermines long-term security.
Using the established 3D framework—Defense, Development, and...
Breaking stigma is essential to expanding access to health care — and that’s exactly what our Futuremaker, Taonga Banda, is doing in Lusaka, Zambia.
With support from the Global Fund, Taonga founded Pink Girls, a community-led program that empowers and educates adolescent girls and young women living with HIV/AIDS. In Zambia, adolescent girls and young women represent a disproportionate share of new HIV infections, making stigma reduction, education, and youth-centered health services critical to ending the epidemic.
Born HIV-positive herself, Taonga...
Every child deserves a safe place to grow, learn, and simply be a child — a belief that drives Nokuthula Heath’s work at Zoë-Life in Durban, South Africa.
Through Zoë-Life’s community-led health model, Nokuthula supports children living with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) while also addressing childhood trauma. By combining health care, psychosocial support, and education, Zoë-Life helps children and families navigate complex health challenges with dignity and care.
Founded in Durban, Zoë-Life is a powerful example of how local leadership can...
The 7th AU–EU Summit delivered welcome language on fairer finance, stronger health systems and youth engagement, but stopped short of concrete commitments. Key gaps remain on youth mobility and global health funding. As leaders move to draft the implementation plan, ONE will keep pushing to turn these promises into real action for young people.
For millions of people worldwide, access to essential medicines and healthcare can make the between life and death, and between a life constrained by illness or one filled with possibility. When communities are protected from infectious diseases, people can work, children can go to school, and economies can thrive.
Over the past two decades, the world has made remarkable progress in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria – progress largely made possible by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,...
Books are a great way to learn more about cultures, identities, and much more. That’s why we want to help you add a few more to your summer reading list.
For Africa Day this year, we asked our ONE Champions and staff about what books resonated with them when it came to resilience, innovation, leadership, and African identity. Their recommendations did not disappoint — here are 7 books to read by African authors to learn more about African identity, culture,...
Vaccine are one of humanity’s greatest achievements, but their distribution is not equal.
In Africa, 98.9% of the continent’s vaccine supply is produced outside of the continent. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed this weakness: During the COVID-19 pandemic, this became a big issue as rich countries monopolized vaccines. Wealthy nations monopolized doses, African countries were left waiting, and vulnerable.
In 2021, the African Union and Africa CDC set a bold goal to prevent this from happening again. They set out to produce...
In moments of crisis, the stories we tell matter. The right story has the power to shape a movement, disrupt a crisis, provide comfort, community, inspiration.
The wrong story can fuel chaos, thwart justice and progress, and cause irreparable human suffering – even loss of life.
At ONE, we consider ourselves to be “factivists,” driven not by partisan ideology but by facts and data – and a desire to use those facts and data to ensure that everyone, every...
In 2005, Nelson Mandela delivered a speech in the center of London and called on a new generation to be great. He had three clear demands – to make trade fair, cancel unpayable debt, and increase and improve the quality of aid. He called on all of us to act for justice. His call inspired millions of people to become active citizens, who in turn pushed their governments to deliver bold policies that have had a lasting impact for hundreds...