They lie about 150 miles apart in the vast brushlands of northern Nigeria, but the towns of Chibok and Dapchi have a tragic bond: both have been targets of large-scale kidnappings of schoolgirls by the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.

Around the world, gender bias is attracting renewed attention. Through protest marches and viral social-media campaigns, women everywhere are demanding an end to sexual harassment, abuse, femicide, and inequality.

For decades, the Western world put its faith in a well-defined and broadly accepted economic paradigm with applications at both the national and global levels.

Three months ago, I argued that rising stock markets around the world were a consequence of improving economic conditions, not a sign of “irrational exuberance.

After decades of serving as the backbone of a rules-based global order, the United States, under President Donald Trump, is touting an “America First” agenda that extols narrow economic nationalism and distrust of international institutions and agreements.

About a decade ago, at a meeting of South African mayors convened by Lindiwe Hendricks, South Africa’s then-minister of water and environmental affairs, we predicted that an unprecedented water crisis would hit one of the country’s main cities within 15 years, unless water-management practices were improved significantly. That prediction has now come true, with Cape Town facing a shutdown of its piped water network.

When you look at your phone or tablet, what do you see? Pixels? Pictures? Digital distraction? I see data.

In low- and middle-income countries, insufficient access to medical care undermines health outcomes and disadvantages entire generations.

The poor don’t often decide elections in the advanced world, and yet they are being wooed heavily in Italy’s current electoral campaign.

In mid-2017, when a cholera outbreak in Somalia threatened to overwhelm local hospitals, health experts feared the worst.

When leaders from across the Euro-Atlantic region meet at the Munich Security Conference this week, the “win-lose” framework defining relations between Western countries and Russia will be entering its fifth year.

In 2014, the World Health Organization reported that drug resistance – especially resistance to antibiotics – is a growing threat to human health, food security, and “the achievements of modern medicine.”

Human nutrition is of increasing importance to science. Of course, centuries of scientific research have been devoted to ensuring that enough food is produced for growing populations.

In the early 1990s, at the dawn of the Internet era, an explosion in academic productivity seemed to be around the corner.

Urbanization has many advantages. By bringing people together physically, cities inspire innovation and fuel opportunity. They bring workers closer to jobs and facilitate the diffusion of arts and culture. But the benefits of urban life are often accompanied by costs.

The financial-services industry has been undergoing a revolution. But the driving force is not overhyped blockchain applications such as Bitcoin. It is a revolution built on artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things.

In public debates around the world, women’s empowerment is increasingly being recognized as a top priority.

In the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, the damage wrought by his administration’s foreign policy fell well short of what had been feared.

As global economic growth picks up practically everywhere, oil producers are becoming increasingly hopeful that the recent impressive price recovery will continue. But, if those hopes are to be fulfilled, not only will producers have to control what they can (by maintaining production discipline); what lies beyond their control (output from shale and the value of the dollar) will also have to work in their favor.

Every year, the World Economic Forum publishes a Global Risks Report, which distills the views of experts and policymakers from around the world. This year, cybersecurity is high on the list of global concerns, as well it should be. In 2017, the world witnessed a continued escalation in cyber attacks and security breaches that affected all parts of society. There is no reason to believe 2018 will be different.

The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev recently described 2017 as a year of recovery from the economic crisis for his country (President.az, January 10).

In the field of human development, the year that just ended was better than many predicted it would be. A decade after the Great Recession began, economic recovery continued in 2017, and progress was made on issues like poverty, education, and global warming.

The Global Partnership for Education, a worthy and capable initiative to promote education in 65 low-income countries, is having what the jargon of development assistance calls a “replenishment round,” meaning that it is asking donor governments to refill its coffers.

With climate change accelerating and its effects exacerbating other geopolitical and development crises, the role of environmental protection in preserving and improving human wellbeing has become starkly apparent.

Two years after the death of her husband, Valeria, a 67-year-old grandmother in San José, Costa Rica, lives alone.