With the youth population in Africa projected to double to 1 billion by 2050, America’s military and development professionals have increasingly recognized that engaging youth is critical to peace and prosperity. The United States has a remarkable legacy of leveraging its development and diplomacy programs to drive economic growth and mitigate the conditions that make communities vulnerable to recruitment by extremist groups.

Representing more than 30,000 Veterans for Smart Power across the country, nearly 50 top leaders of the USGLC’s growing veteran’s initiative came together on Capitol Hill earlier this month as part of an ongoing effort to elevate U.S. diplomatic and development programs alongside a strong defense. From Vietnam veterans to active guard and reserve members, this diverse group of men and women spent a day speaking with lawmakers and sharing personal stories of their time in uniform to highlight how our national security is strengthened by our civilian-led tools.

As world leaders gather in New York for the 74th United Nations General Assembly, many made the trek down the street for the 2019 Concordia Summit, where they joined philanthropists, CEOs, and thought leaders from around the world. Amid talk of the Sustainable Development Goals and mounting global crises, USGLC’s President and CEO Liz Schrayer was there to moderate the panel “Building Economic Prosperity by Creating Shared Value.” How can a business tackle global problems and address the SDGs, while also creating value for its shareholders? In other words, how can a company do good while doing well?

As representatives from nearly 200 countries gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the development community will be watching closely to see where global development ranks in a world of competing priorities. This year, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – 17 ambitious targets UN member states have committed to reaching by 2030 – will take center stage more than once, giving SDG watchers plenty to look out for over the coming week.

Nearly thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the state of democracy in the world remains a mixed picture of both progress and decline. But investments in diplomacy and development by the U.S. and new leadership in developing democracies provides fresh potential in addressing corruption.

Gangs present a vexing challenge for urban communities throughout the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador – and the municipality of Escuintla in south-central Guatemala is no different. That’s why Tetra Tech is on the ground in Guatemala, implementing the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Urban Municipal Governance (UMG) project to prevent crime and protect vulnerable youth.

While global leadership on climate change will require multi-faceted policy solutions, there is consensus that extreme weather and disruption from drought, flooding, and conflicts over natural resources disproportionately affect the developing...

Since 2013, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has worked in Myanmar to support the country’s democratic development. A cornerstone, decade-long, project is USAID’s promoting the Rule of Law in Myanmar project (PRLM), currently implemented by international development firm Chemonics International and formerly implemented by Tetra Tech. To date, the PRLM project has overseen a variety of programs – ranging from creating  Myanmar’s first independent lawyer’s association to piloting and expanding an electronic court case management system.

In September 2016, Global Communities began partnering with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Nuestra Salud (“Our Health”), a three-year program to stem the spread of the virus in Honduras, where there were about 36,000 cases of Zika at the time. With help from the program, volunteers are taking on roles as community leaders to educate younger Hondurans about the dangers of mosquito-borne Zika, which can cause serious birth defects if contracted by pregnant women.

Americans take their private property seriously, so it came as a surprise that I could simply walk into a stranger’s wheat field in rural Kansas with a yard stick, measure a stalk of wheat, and check for bugs or disease. And yet I did this— over and over— across the state for about a week in May, assessing wheat quality and estimating crop yields as part of the Wheat Quality Council’s Annual Hard Winter Wheat Tour.