It's a crisis that has spiraled out of control with more than 65 million people now called refugees around the globe. As hundreds of young socially conscious innovators from around the globe meet in the Silicon Valley this week with investors seeking to back their projects at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES), one unique organisation is seeking to tackle the unfolding disaster by reframing the entire way those fleeing their countries because of war or persecution are treated.

The planet is facing a bevy of “wicked” problems, which threaten global destabilization. Issues such as climate change, food and water, biodiversity preservation, and pandemic disease cut across disciplines and borders and affect people at all levels of society. This new threat set requires cooperation between countries, but such challenges cannot be resolved by the same type of diplomacy that characterized the 20th century.

Texas leaders from a wide range of economic sectors, including a few from Dallas, but mostly from the Houston and Austin areas, came together Thursday to form the Engage Cuba Texas State Council under the Cuban advocacy group Engage Cuba, seeking to end the embargo placed on the sovereign state in 1960. [...] On a personal level, Smith is just as interested in the humanitarian aspect of helping Cuba as the economic aspect.

Three political parties and two independents running in the Australian federal elections set out their human rights priorities in response to a Human Rights Watch questionnaire, Human Rights Watch said today. The parties gave their positions on a range of domestic and foreign policy human rights issues, including whistleblower protection and offshore asylum policy, in advance of polls on July 2, 2016.

Businesses have been warned that in order to thrive in a low-carbon future they must first "navigate a mosaic of global realities", that has seen water scarcity hit a variety of regions and threaten to destabilise infrastructure [...] that is the warning from the third annual Earth Security Index (ESI 2016) – released on behalf of the Earth Security Group - The report warns that businesses must align themselves to societal priorities in the countries that they operate as part of a new “business diplomacy for sustainable development”.

Missoula has a head start. Thanks in large part to the initiative of several young mothers who started an organization called Soft Landing, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is re-establishing an office in Missoula that will serve up to 100 incoming refugees from Syria and elsewhere in the year ahead. The IRC is an officially sanctioned Voluntary Agency (VOLAG) under U.S. refugee policy. 

The state's Turkish International Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) has launched a rural development program for one of Namibia’s most important ethnic groups, the San people, an official statement said Saturday. The San, also known as the Basarwa or Khwe, have deep roots in Namibia going back some 20,000 years.

Skipping over community input seems to be common practice for class projects during my experience taking courses about Global Health at the UW. But while some may think that no one would be harmed with hypothetical school projects, this practice could have long term effects. Students can’t develop the practical skills of creating partnerships with the local communities where they someday will work.