Diane Cole

Forget about the conventional wisdom that female genital mutilation, or FGM, rarely takes place outside of Africa and the Middle East. Recalibrate that to 30 countries on several continents, according to a new statistical analysis by UNICEF that calculates that at least 200 million females today have undergone some ...

Just last month, polio experts were wondering if the tipping point for bringing an end to the crippling disease was near, with cases having further declined in the only two remaining countries not yet free of the infection, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

But earlier this week, a suicide bomber's ...

Amid the flap over pageant host Steve Harvey's initially announcing the wrong winner of Sunday's Miss Universe contest (it was Miss Philippines, not Miss Colombia), relatively few viewers may have paid attention to the eye-popping national costume worn by Iroshka Lindaly Elvir as Miss Honduras.

Those who did may ...

Are you a wise global giver? Take our quiz and see how much you do (and don't) know.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

And the winner for most charitable nation in the world is ... Myanmar. Coming in second: the United States.

If you're scratching your head, one reason may be that the ranking confounds the common perception "that generosity and wealth are connected to one another," says Adam Pickering. He's the international ...

Last spring, with the Ebola outbreak under control, students in Sierra Leone returned to school after a months-long hiatus. But absent from the classrooms were several thousand adolescent girls. A law that went into effect in April bars "visibly pregnant" students from school.

The consequences of this new law have ...

When you read about a bride and groom who are 15 and almost 40, or a just-married ten-year-old, most likely you assume you're reading about some place far away on another continent, where child marriages — defined as unions where one party is younger than 18 — are deeply embedded ...

How did you spend your summer vacation?

If you're studying global affairs, international policy, intercultural studies or public health in the developing world, summer vacation often means fieldwork far from campus dorms (and familiar comforts).

We asked three graduate students in international studies programs to tell us how they spent ...

How cool is Queen Silvia of Sweden?

Back in 1976, superstar band ABBA congratulated her on her marriage to Swedish King Carl Gustaf with a performance of their hit song Dancing Queen on Swedish TV.

In the 1990s, she took up a cause many found too disturbing for anyone, much ...

How do you get the word out to 7 billion people to step up and support the United Nations-sponsored goals of ending extreme poverty, fighting climate change and promoting equality?

If you're acclaimed filmwriter-director and activist Richard Curtis — as famous for hit movies like Love Actually and Notting Hill ...

This month, three new cases of polio, all caused by a strain derived from the vaccine itself, have struck two children in Ukraine and an infant in Mali, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed. Both countries had previously been polio-free, which leads to questions about how and why these ...

When former President Jimmy Carter spoke at the American Museum of Natural History in New York this past January, the 90-year-old's bright blue eyes seemed to grow even more intensely blue, as he stood tall and spoke with the crisp command of a much younger man.

The occasion was the ...

Call it the little school desk that can.

At 57 pounds, the desk in question is light enough for two students to carry and move around the classroom. At $35 per student, it's affordable enough for many school districts to buy in bulk. And oh yes, tests have shown it ...

Two South African artists have come together on an off-Broadway stage in New York City: One is the world-famous playwright Athol Fugard, known for his dramas critical of the cruelties of apartheid. The other is the little-known artist Nukain Mabuza, who carved out an outlet for his creative vision despite ...

A thousand people have already signed up to go to Nepal on the website for All Hands – a U.S. group that sends volunteers to help out after a disaster. Indeed, people around the world are eager to assist on the ground.

But will your presence hinder more than ...

If you're thinking about making a donation to help Nepal in the wake of the devastating earthquake, now is the time to act.

Immediate aid is essential, says Center for Global Development fellow Vijaya Ramachandran, who has drawn her conclusions from looking at the earthquake in Haiti and other ...

At first glance, it's a typical scene: Two teenage girls lean their heads together engrossed in conversation as they munch on tuna salad on a bagel and fries.

But listen to Memory Banda, 18, from Malawi and 16-year old Achie (whose last name is not provided because of her age) ...

This month, women's rights are in the headlines, as a U.N. conference looks at efforts to bring about gender equality.

So men are the forgotten sex.

Only not entirely. A new UCLA report, which looks at "inequalities in legal rights for women and girls around the world" includes ...

When Emelin was 13, she asked the mayor of her rural Guatemalan town to find ways to help girls stay in school and get better health care. He laughed out loud. "You are wasting my time; you should go home," he told Emelin and her friend Elba, who had come ...

How do you cut the school dropout rate for girls in a remote pocket of Uganda?

And how do you create jobs for village women?

The answer to both questions: sanitary pads.

The story begins in 2009, when 26-year-old Sophia Klumpp and her husband-to-be Paul Grinvalds – she's from the ...