We live in an era when the pace and scope of global change – including forces such as population growth, resource scarcity, urbanization, migration, and economic development – increasingly impact all of us as individuals, from our health and security to our environment and economic well-being. This complex web of the global and local has led the Wilson Center to create an overarching initiative that combines the ongoing efforts of the Environmental Change and Security Program, China Environment Forum,  Global Health Initiative, and Comparative Urban Studies Project. This Global Resilience and Sustainability Program will integrate and build upon their already substantial contributions to the field. To stay up to date on the program’s issues and activities, follow our blog at NewSecurityBeat.org.

Environmental Change and Security Program: With global population over seven billion and projected to reach at least nine billion this century, natural resource management, human development, and international security are more interconnected than ever before. The Environmental Change and Security Program explores these connections among environmental, health, and population dynamics and their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy. ECSP works to bring together scholars, policymakers, the media, and practitioners through events, research, publications, multimedia content, and their daily blog, New Security Beat. [more]

China Environment Forum: The China Environment Forum has implemented projects, workshops, and exchanges that bring together U.S., Chinese, and other environmental policy experts to explore the most imperative environmental and sustainable development issues in China and to examine opportunities for business, governmental, and nongovernmental communities to collaboratively address these issues. Projects include work on building new U.S.-China energy and climate networks, the water-energy nexus in China, environmental governance, food safety, water management, nongovernmental organization development, environmental justice, and municipal financing for environmental infrastructure. [more]

Global Health Initiative: While many countries have made great progress towards reducing maternal mortality rates, over 500,000 women still die of pregnancy related deaths each year – 90 percent of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa and less than 1 percent in more developed regions. The Global Health Initiative is committed to improving maternal health outcomes by increasing knowledge, understanding, and communication among a range of stakeholders to help facilitate creative interventions that can be integrated into policies and programs worldwide. [more]

Comparative Urban Studies Project: Half of the world’s seven billion people currently live in cities, and the United Nations projects that the global urban population will expand to as many as five billion over the next two decades. Most of this growth will occur in unplanned and underserved city slums of the developing world. The Comparative Urban Studies Project uses a multidisciplinary and comparative framework to explore the growing significance of these urban issues. [more]