Vantage Points
Channeling Women’s Voices Through Digital Multimedia
If you gather people for an event and you show them a short film—you are able to more quickly convince them of your cause, rather than just relying on a speech or a lecture. Short films are a very effective tool to inform people about important topics. Of course, they can also go viral.
Crossing Faiths and Building Bridges
One of the innovations of the podcast is that it doesn't have to be just two people talking. We want to make sure that we have a space that is participatory, not just from a listening perspective, garnering support from different communities—but making sure that they see it as space for anyone to come and talk about the issues of the day, and utilize that format in that space.
Building Resiliency Around the World
VantagePoints shares the impactful work of thought leaders around the world who are making a social impact. We understand that many of us have started to feel frustrated, bored, and restless during these times. That’s why we have picked out three of our articles that continue to inspire us and leave us hopeful for a kinder, more positive global society.
Impact:Peace is Reducing Violence Through High Impact Peacebuilding
People think about lethality and they think about conflict zones. They don't think about countries and places with very high levels of violence that exist outside of conflict. For example, many people don't realize that Brazil and Mexico constitute two of the most lethal countries in the world. If we're going to be talking about evidence-based solutions to address violence, we have to start with knowing—where is the violence, and what's the kind of violence that we're talking about?
Beyond Mobility: Wheelchairs Enable Engagement and Quality of Life in Developing Regions
When I started coming to Belize and Guatemala 1980, I saw people with disabilities that were crawling around on the ground or stuck in bed. That kind of tore my heart out. Just prior to returning to the States from Guatemala in the summer of 1988, I saw a woman, for the second time, crawling across the Pan-American Highway.
Empowering Women Military Leaders Through Learning and Collaboration
Halifax International Security Forum is an organization that is dedicated to strengthening strategic cooperation among democracies and is recognized as the leading gathering of democratic leaders committed to global security and prosperity. Setting the security agenda each November for the coming calendar year, the Forum convenes relevant and key leaders in an unscripted, intimate atmosphere over three days in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A key issue that has emerged within the international security space over several years is advancing women leaders within the security sector...
Understanding the Business and Human Rights Agenda: A Conversation with Marti Flacks
The ever-growing global reach and impact of business enterprises has given rise to a robust debate about such actors' roles and responsibilities with regards to human rights. This debate continues today but has produced a significant number of guidelines and frameworks including the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights along with standards and regulations for various industries such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Given the rapid expansion and transformation of the business and human rights landscape, it is important to ...
Rethinking Gender and Violent Extremism
Within the field of countering violent extremism, research and interventions that do consider the role of gender in recruitment have mainly focused on women in violent extremism. However, men and boys are disproportionately recruited by and join extremist groups, and they are more likely to carry out extremist violence. With an increasing interest in shifting the narrative from countering to “preventing” violent extremism, there is a need to look deeper into the reasons why men join such groups, and to examine how their gendered identities constructed in day-to-day ...
China’s Data-Driven Philanthropy
Since China instituted the Charity Law in 2016, charitable giving in the country has continued to grow as it opened more platforms for citizens and business leaders to participate in social responsibility. The Law also emphasizes transparency, requiring charities to report all the basic information related to their operations. An advocate of data disclosure and transparency, Tao Ze, founder and president of YISHAN, shared with VantagePoints his thoughts and experience on philanthropy in China.
As a philanthropist, are there any philosophies that inform your philanthr...
Tools Against Corruption and Human Trafficking
Human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons (TIP), is a multibillion-dollar criminal industry surpassed only by drug trafficking and arms sales. The 2017 data by the International Labor Organization (ILO) revealed that there are more than 40 million victims of human trafficking worldwide. Under federal and international law, TIP is considered a crime, but there have been many challenges in enforcing this. Ambassador Luis C.deBaca (retired), a Robina Fellow of Modern Slavery at Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, ...
