I woke up today to hundreds of messages about the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel. Some were calling it a victory, an unequivocal legal demand for Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza. Some were expressing disappointment that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) did not call for a ceasefire. A part of me is also sad, but there are several things that make this ruling a landmark decision, offering multiple reasons that give me hope.   First: it was a clear validation of the severity of the crisis in Gaza. You could not help but be moved by the highest court in the wo ..read more

The story of Hanukkah is one of the Jewish people fighting against a tyrannical ruler for the freedom to practice their religion. The Jews then rededicated their holy temple and witnessed a small amount of oil – meant to light the temple’s menorah for just one night – miraculously last eight nights.  On this holiday, as the Jewish people celebrate their rise against oppression, we find ourselves in the midst of another war that has already killed over 21,000 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis. I honor my Judaism by sharing eight reasons to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.  ..read more

I was really impressed by this article by the Agroecology Fund and the Global Greengrants Fund about their partnership and approach to fostering agroecology through direct support to grassroots movements and Indigenous Peoples. This is the kind of support I would love to see predominant in philanthropy because it embeds all the principles I believe in human rights, food sovereignty, and respect for biodiversity and the environment through an ecosystem approach. The efforts of these Foundations to decolonize their grant-making process and prioritize grassroots movements and Indigenous Peoples w ..read more

The recent launch of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report confirms the alarming reality of increased hunger, especially in some regions in the world, namely the Caribbean, Western Asia, and all regions of Africa, with women and people living in rural areas being the groups most affected.  This is not unexpected news given the intersecting effects of multiple crises hitting countries, but the inequality that emerges tells us that the most vulnerable people are paying the highest costs. The latest COVID-19 pandemic, the resulting economic downturn, and the Ukr ..read more

Last week, Reuters released a major investigative piece on climate finance The authors examined 10% of climate finance flows reported by developed countries to the UN, finding that: “at least $3 billion spent not on solar panels or wind farms but on coal-fired power, airports, crime-fighting or other programs that do little or nothing to ease the effects of climate change.” Some examples? A U.S. $19.5 million loan to support a developer building a Marriott hotel in Haiti: “A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the loan for the hotel counted as climate finance because the project include ..read more

One of the bigger stories of this past weekend came with the bland heading “California New Business Update” – State Farm, the biggest homeowner insurance company in California, is no longer accepting new homeowner or property insurance applications from anyone in California. The reasons? Rising construction costs, “rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market.” “Catastrophe exposure” in California is code for wildfires. A similar story could be written about Florida, where the cost of storm insurance has skyrocketed or, in some cases, is impossible to buy. And the ..read more

At a wedding I attended recently, I fell into an interesting conversation with another guest. She asked me what I ‘do’ (somehow the words ‘for work’ are always implicit in this phrase, yet rarely spoken out loud), and I shared that I fundraise for an international human rights organization. I quickly assured her that I was not wearing my fundraising hat that night (a cute sentence that one of my colleagues here taught me in order to effectively disarm people from thinking the next step would be to ask them for money). She asked about our mission, and I spoke of gender equal ..read more

The leaders of development agencies and big donors, such as the EU and the United States, gathered today to comment on the Global Report on Food Crises 2023, which is dramatically alarming. In the words of the World Bank Director during the launch: “food crises, once exceptional, are becoming the new normal.” In 2022, 258 million people in 58 countries faced high levels of acute food insecurity, with 0.38 million in catastrophe, 35 million in emergency, and 143.7 million in crisis. Economic shocks surpassed conflicts as the primary driver of the crisis. The war on Ukraine exacerbated already f ..read more

In a tearful interview in a Q’eqchi Indigenous community of Rio Zarquito in Alta Verapaz Guatemala, Florinda Noemí Xol, told Prensa Comunitario why her 25-year-old son, Byron Lopez Xol, had left to migrate to the United States and had perished along with 38 other migrants abandoned to die in a horrific detention center fire in Ciudad Juarez on March 27. It was because of the land grabbing of one of the palm oil plantations of NaturAceites, a member of the so-called Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) that supplies Unilever. I have translated part of the article below: “I am leaving,” No ..read more

I was disappointed, on multiple levels, to hear about the Biden administration’s nomination of Ajay Banga, a private equity executive with no experience in public service, to head the World Bank.  First, the U.S. should have no real right to unilaterally name the World Bank President – it does so through an archaic “gentleman’s agreement” with the EU that is transparently unfair to the Global South. It is high time for an open recruitment process that is not based on the “privilege” of being a U.S. citizen.  Second, Banga is a private equity executive with no experience in public ser ..read more