"When a child has to bend forwards to write on the ground, or perhaps balance an unstable book on their lap, their handwriting, both in terms of legibility and speed is severely affected."

The Rockefeller Foundation details some of the projects it supports to kick-start farm productivity

The world is at a critical point in the fight against AIDS.  After more than 30 years and 30 million lives lost to a preventable and treatable disease, scientific advancements have given us the ability to bring about the beginning of the end of AIDS.

I’ll start with the good news: less children are contracting HIV now than they were two years ago. This is due to country commitment, ownership and mobilization, political leaders breaking the conspiracy of silence and advocating for what’s best, the strategic engagement of women living with HIV and the best science.

Gender inequality is HIV’s best friend. Fortunately, the converse is also true – gender equality is HIV’s nemesis. And by fighting HIV through advancement of gender equality, we reap all kinds of additional benefits.

Thirty-four million people are living with HIV. Each year, approximately 1.4 million mothers with HIV become pregnant and deliver babies. With access to testing and treatment, mother to child transmission of HIV is almost entirely preventable.

Following three decades of progress in the fight against AIDS, a sense of optimism is taking hold across the international development community, rooted in a number of landmark scientific and field-based studies suggesting that bold, strategic investments can turn the tide against the disease.

Over the past decade, the world has made huge progress against HIV. According to the latest data released by UNAIDS, the global rate of new HIV infections has fallen dramatically with the greatest reductions in Africa. This includes declines of 73 percent in Malawi, 71 percent in Botswana, 50 percent in Zambia, and 41 percent in South Africa and Swaziland.