At the UN, a New Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Is Adopted by 122 Nations

While migrants arriving in Europe wait for asylum, they have few opportunities. Liberi Nantes is a non-profit in Rome that aims to build relationships between migrants and Italians through organized recreational activities.

American humanitarian aid and programs by the United Nations have proved beneficial to equip Middle Eastern refugees with resources for self-settlement outside of camps. The self-settlement model has empowered refugees to become more productive members of society when they return home.

Since 2003, the Dublin Protocol has stopped migrants from traveling through Europe to auspicious countries before claiming asylum. However, many migrants travel by sea—which is more perilous and has led to high rates of death. Germany is the first country European country to break from the Dublin Protocol by letting in Syrian refugees.

Tuft University is training global organizations a new approach to create long lasting change. The process teaches locals to identify positive deviance in their community and design a way to spread the behavior, with only local ideas and administration.

Refugee camps typically look like a prison with squalid conditions and barbed wire tops. By contrast, the Kilis refugee camp in Turkey is orderly, secure, and clean; has schools for children; has grocery stores, and is powered with electricity. The camp is not run by the United Nations, but rather it is Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency that oversees every detail and pours billions of dollars into maintaining it every year.

America is the world’s main supplier of food aid to impoverished countries; however, food aid has the problems of long-distance transportation, the cost of the transportation and storage, and the navigation through dangerous zones. Different programs around the world are experimenting with alternative forms of aid, including vouchers and cash for work.

World Concern, a Seattle-based Christian humanitarian group, provides people around the world with vouchers they can use in select markets, rather than the traditional emergency food aid of rice and other grains. In Dhobley, Somalia, the solution of vouchers quickens the process of receiving the food and contributes to the local economy.

With the creation of oral rehydration solution, diarrhea can be treated by inexpensive, homemade remedies. O.R.S. has undeniably helped Bangladesh make big strides in improving child health in recent decades thanks to thoughtful, systemic implementation, and it is now distributed by UNICEF in more than 60 countries.

Israel experienced extreme drought a few years ago and its water supply was very low. National campaigns to install desalination plants have helped Israel turnaround its inadequate water supply into a surplus. The water scientists who have helped make this surplus see an opportunity for water diplomacy and the de-politicization of water in the Middle East so that more of it can be shared with other geographies.

The gang-driven violence in Honduras has caused thousands to migrate to the United States. In the last three years, with emergency international aid from the United States, Honduras has experienced a 62 percent drop in homicides and has witnessed a decrease in the number of migrants entering the United States. The aid has gone toward community improvement projects and outreach centers, such as providing items for soccer games and other activities that dissuade gangsters from fighting each other. It also has supported more effective prosecution of homicides.