Conflict and War

Traveling to the Middle East? Use Yamsafer, the Orbitz of the region, created by talented youth and funded by enthusiastic investors. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pal_pics/5580956082/sizes/m/in/photostream/"> Ridvan Schiessl (flickr)</a>

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Hungry for work, West Bank programmers score tech investment

The small but burgeoning Palestinian IT sector cannot keep up with

Waiting to cross an Israeli checkpoint can take hours, if you can cross at all. Photo:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8253950@N02/512467749/"> Michael Loadenthal (Flickr)</a>

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Youth Skills

The solution to Palestine's border problem? Exporting bits and bytes

This article was republished by The Christian Science Monitor

NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof faces criticism that his coverage of war, poverty and violence is detrimental for Africa. Photo:Henry McInnes/Sunday Mail for Mercy Corps

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Twitter debate questions media’s impact on Africa’s prosperity

Youth protest unemployment. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpazkual/7363953310/"> jpazkual (Flickr)</a>.

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Want to calm protests and raise GDP? Make starting a business easier.

As youth unemployment drives a global protest movement, part of the problem is that the costs of starting a business impacts economic growth.

Social services provided by aid agencies at refugee camps just outside the Myanmar border should not be ended too swiftly, or returning populations won't be ready to access new opportunities that may await them. Photo: Jacqueline M. Koch for Mercy Corps

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Reform in Myanmar brings growth but needs caution

Reforms and investment are opening new doors and promising growth for Myanmar. But what’s exciting for some Burmese and the West brings a downside for many refugees.

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Tinker, tailor, programmer: Entrepreneurship is subverting gender in Afghanistan

In southern Afghanistan, the promise of a well-paid urban career is luring women to keyboards and men to needlework.

A new mapping tool ties climate change to humanitarian issues including conflict and displacement in countries like Somalia. Photo: <a href="http://www.mercycorps.org/topics/displacement">Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps</a>

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Maps to the rescue: New tool shows climate-driven clashes across Africa

The U.S. military is targeting an unorthodox foe in the battle for political stability in Africa: climate change.

Failure to adapt to global climate change led to unrest across the Arab World. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/6argoo3a/6253592631/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Saleem-Homsi (Flickr)</a>

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How climate change puts the heat on governments

Incompetent, unjust governance by some of the Middle East’s worst despots brewed a recipe for disaster before the Arab Spring, but it took climate change to turn up the heat.

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Investing in women in the world's most dangerous place to be female

<a href="http://www.mercycorps.org/photoessay/landownershipyieldsstrongerhealthiercommunities">View the full Guatemala photo essay. By Jamie Grant for Mercy Corps.</a>

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More than an argument, land conflicts stall economic growth

As battles over land rights increase and intensify, development stalls.

Our love affair with morning coffee -- an unexpected weapon in the war on drugs. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/angela7/2228825069/"> Angela7dreams (Flickr)</a>

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Bolivia's new drug crop of choice: caffeine

As the war on drugs continues to appear futile, the drug that supplants coca’s stranglehold over Bolivian farmers might turn out to be ... coffee.

Since formal banks and wire transfer companies (like the one above) don't exist in Somalia, they rely on hawalas to transfer funds. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilywebber/4140550254/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Emily Webber (flickr)</a>

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How a banking law to fight terrorism could backfire in Somalia

Though they send more than $100 million home each year, the United States' largest population of Somali immigrants can no longer send a dime.

Deals between African governments and foriegn companies are pushing small farmers off their land. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gatesfoundation/5791348682/in/photostream">The Gates Foundation (Flickr)</a>

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Invest in farmers - not land grabs

In the race to buy up African land, small farmers may be the biggest losers.

Tunisia becomes the first country of the Arab Spring to hold a general election. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/piaser/5359879369/">Photo: Gwenaël Piaser (Flickr)</a>

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In Tunisia, voting on the future of the Arab Spring

While the world's eyes are fixed on violence in Egypt and Libya, the Arab Spring’s most importa

Anger over food prices helped lead to Muammar el-Gadhafi's assassination Thursday. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/home_of_chaos/3632276546/in/photostream/">Thierry Ehrmann (flickr)</a>

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Did global warming kill Gadhafi?

Muammar el-Gadhafi gave Libya's people plenty of reasons to hate him. But it may have taken climate change to do him in.

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