Regional and local governments are demonstrating new forms of cooperation and policy influence that can guide the future of international relations and multilateralism.

Global health experts, scientists, and governments must come together urgently to create a neutral and trusted digital system that can revolutionise how data is gathered and used during health crises.

In the context of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s World Refugee Day was an occasion to stress that the health of a global community is indivisible — the health of refugees impacts the health of individuals worldwide.

With the COVID-19 pandemic setting back Sustainable Development Goal progress even further, now is the time for intense focus on the world’s most chronic water, sanitation, and hygiene problems.

Although Chinese investment in Africa has helped spark economic growth and improve social outcomes across the continent, new research reveals that Chinese projects often seem to go hand in hand with civil protests.

To combat climate change, we need to value and measure our collective well-being, the sustainability of our actions, and the ability of our production to contribute to a cycle rather than an endless output of carbon.

Water scarcity issues have been vexing experts for decades, but the experiences in many countries clearly suggest an urgent paradigm shift of water management and use is needed to ensure global taps don’t run dry sooner than we expect.

A new study indicates that people in urban areas, on average, have the smallest carbon footprints, while those living in the suburbs have the highest.

The year 2020 continued a decade-long trend of increasing climate change-induced food insecurity and human displacement, highlighting the necessity to modernise human mobility policies and platforms for cooperation.

As COVID-19 vaccination programmes scale up globally, policymakers need to incorporate three realistic assumptions into their immunization plans: delays are inevitable, inequality will increase, and vaccine procurement could be a proxy for geopolitics.

Current data on the interlinkages between water, climate change, conflict, and migration can help inform policymaking to improve the well-being of migrants and populations in vulnerable settings.

To tackle the water quality data gap, extensive government water monitoring networks could shift to additionally gather project data through citizen-led monitoring activities.

If governments do not embrace unconventional water resources, achieving SDG 6 will be as difficult as getting water from a stone — and the consequences for water-scarce regions will be dire.

World Water Day 2018 is a reminder that global water security will not be achieved through business-as-usual approaches, and will depend on efforts to use and expand nature-based solutions.

The potential to achieve Sustainable Development Goal water targets will depend on a hybrid of technologies that improve water measurements and data underpinning indicators of progress.

For decades, China has successfully implemented afforestation programmes to counter desertification. But, while planting more trees will reduce erosion, it is also worsening China’s water crisis.

The Sendai Framework, while falling short of expectations on many fronts, took some important steps towards integrating lessons from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Experiences from Fukushima show that providing channels for public participation and dialogue is a crucial first step towards ensuring a sustainable recovery for communities impacted by complex disasters.

Knowing how key resilience is following a disaster, small-scale fishers of Japan’s Tohoku region offer support to Chile’s artisanal fishers impacted by a recent tsunami.

The Ministry of the Environment of Japan and UNU collaborate to produce a video documentary about the decontamination efforts in areas affected by radiation from the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Documentary filmmaker Kaori Brand reflects on the experience of producing this 30-minute video on the recovery efforts of the fishing communities hit by the March 2011 tsunami.

The resilience demonstrated by communities in Japan’s Tohoku region may be one of the best modern-day lessons on what the rest of the world can do to prepare for disasters and the consequences of climate change.