"The world as a whole is getting more religious," said Professor of Politics at the University of London Eric Kaufmann, speaking at the Wilson Center for the launch of his latest book, Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? Due to their consistently higher birthrates, religious fundamentalists may reverse the tide of secularism within the next century, he said.

Janani Vivekananda of International Alert was joined by Jeffrey Stark of the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability and Cynthia Brady of USAID's Office of Conflict Management and Mitigation, to discuss the complex connections between climate change, conflict, stability, and governance.

"There needs to be ongoing flexibility and creativity in our ways of approaching health equity," said John Borrazzo of USAID at a discussion on practical strategies to improving access to health services for the world's poor and other marginalized groups, with panelists Mickey Chopra of UNICEF; Davidson Gwatkin of the Results for Development Institute and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Cesar Victoria of the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil; and Jennifer Luna of the Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP).

Rural communities in developing countries understand that high population growth rates, poor health, and environmental degradation are connected, said Population Action International's Roger-Mark De Souza. An integrated approach to development – one that combines population, health, and environment (PHE) programs – is a "cost-effective intervention that we can do very easily, that responds to community needs, that will have a huge impact that's felt within a short period of time," said De Souza, who was joined by three other experts to discuss how to improve current efforts to expand the PHE approach.