Blog
How Winrock and Microsoft Worked Together to Manage Data in Vietnam
December 14, 2020
In 2018, under the USAID-funded Vietnam Forests and Deltas Project, Microsoft and Winrock began an exciting partnership. The goal: to harness data across environmental and social indicators to help the Government of Vietnam better understand the impact of its innovative Payments for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) system. PFES pays upstream forest owners to maintain healthy […]
From Every Angle: Winrock’s Commitment to Water Security in Tanzania
November 17, 2020
Winrock has worked in Tanzania across a variety of sectors over the past 40 years, and much of its work there over the last decade has been dedicated to improving water resource allocation and management to ensure sustainable, equitable access to water for all. Water security has always been a priority for Tanzania, especially increasing […]
Return Migration Presents an Opportunity for Change in Nepal
July 15, 2020
Poverty, lack of domestic employment and increased income opportunities outside the country have driven Nepali youth to foreign employment. For a few years the numbers of female migrants have been steadily rising, too. The age restrictions the government places on women who want to migrate to India and the Gulf states for domestic work means […]
Bringing Innovation to the Conservation of Indonesia’s Peatlands
April 30, 2020
Winrock International is helping restore Indonesia’s peatland in a way that will mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, slow land subsidence, combat the threat of fire, and support the tens of thousands of people who live and work there. I recently returned from a trip to Indonesia, where obstacles — and opportunities — are both in full […]
A More Just Vision
April 24, 2020
If you have ever been part of designing and implementing a large event you will recognize the need to start well in advance. In our case we started planning the Wallace Center’s fifth National Good Food Network (NGFN) conference — an important biannual networking and programming event — 18 months ahead of time. We lined […]
A CLEAN Getaway
March 30, 2020
In the weeks leading up to my trip last month to work onsite with the USDA-funded Creating Linkages for Expanded Agricultural Network (CLEAN) in Laos, the pandemic that has now interrupted daily life in many parts of the world had not yet reached its current proportions. It was my first scheduled trip to support a […]
Women and Climate Leadership
February 10, 2020
On U.N.’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, February 11, Winrock salutes all the girls and women our projects educate and empower — as well as the female scientists on our staff, who use their talents to help societies thrive. Last year I was selected to join the fourth cohort of Homeward Bound, […]
Fighting Wetland Loss Through Sustainable Development
January 30, 2020
On February 2, 1971, representatives from a handful of countries gathered in the small Iranian city of Ramsar on the Caspian Sea. Their historic mandate — to sign the first modern agreement between governments to preserve natural resources — built upon a decade of negotiations by environmentalists concerned by […]
Helping Vietnam Track its PFES Impacts
December 20, 2019
Since 2012, the USAID Vietnam Forests and Deltas program (VFD) has been helping the Government of Vietnam develop and operationalize a national Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) program that has already directed over USD $500 million to forest owners as financial compensation for maintaining forest cover. For example, Vietnam’s hydroelectric power plants now reward […]
On the Frontlines of Climate Change
December 9, 2019
Bangladesh regularly tops the list of countries most heavily affected by global climate change. With over half the U.S. population in a country the size of New York state, its vulnerability is compounded by low-lying, flood-plain geography, limited infrastructure and high exposure to natural disasters and extreme weather. The day I landed in Dhaka, the […]