On the occasion of the world’s population reaching seven billion, the UN Foundation has put out a timely reminder with seven billion reasons calling for investment in international reproductive health, voluntary family planning to empower women, building healthier families and strengthening communities.

The Washington Post provides an insightful piece on how the data is collected, analyzed and projected.

An important Op-Ed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus in the NYTimes on sticking to the principles of the brilliant idea to provide microfinance to those in need of (economic) empowerment and criticizing those who loose sight of the intentions and focus on the potential profits.

Eighty percent of the world’s governments fail to provide adequate information for the public to hold them accountable as reported by the International Budget Partnership (IBP). Almost half of 85 countries whose budget accessibility was reviewed by the IBP are able to hide unpopular, wasteful, and corrupt spending.