News
First Best Buy Teen Tech Center in Arkansas Launches Phase I Soft Opening
March 2, 2021
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — February 22, 2021 — Dr. Chris Jones, Executive Director of Winrock International’s Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, announced today that the Innovation Hub is partnering with Best Buy to create the first Best Buy Teen Tech Center in Arkansas — a place where Arkansas teens can develop critical skills through hands-on […]
Guest Speaker Educates and Inspires Winrock Staff
March 1, 2021
On Thursday, February 25, Janis F. Kearney, author, lecturer and diarist of former President Bill Clinton, addressed Winrock staff as a featured speaker for Black History Month. Kearney, a native of Gould, Arkansas, grew up poor in a family of 19 children, the daughter of sharecroppers Thomas James (“T.J.”) and Ethel Kearney. From these humble […]
SWP Hosts Closeout Webinar for Pilot Activity in Mara River Basin
March 1, 2021
The Sustainable Water Partnership (SWP) recently held a webinar to detail the achievements and lessons learned during the three-year Sustainable Water for the Mara (SWM) pilot activity in the transboundary Mara River Basin. Home to more than a million people and world-famous wildlife in Kenya and Tanzania, the basin faces multiple risks to water security […]
Celebrating the U.S. Return to the Paris Climate Agreement
February 25, 2021
On February 19, the United States officially became part of the Paris Agreement on climate change again, flowing from actions President Biden set in motion on his first day in office. President Trump announced he would remove the U.S. from the Agreement in 2017 and formally notified the United Nations of this decision in 2019. […]
Partners Work to Reduce Worker Vulnerability to Unfair Labor in Thailand’s Seafood Supply Chain
February 22, 2021
Led by Winrock International and supported by the corporate sustainability and global development consultancy Resonance, the USAID Asia Counter-Trafficking in Persons (USAID Asia CTIP) and the USAID Thailand Counter-Trafficking in Persons (USAID Thailand CTIP) programs are driving positive change in the oft-maligned Thai seafood and fishing industry by partnering with Mars Petcare to support sustainable […]
ONE-SL Project Begins, Marks the Future of REDD+ Implementation
February 18, 2021
WASHINGTON, D.C. — February 18, 2021 — As businesses strive to achieve a carbon neutral footprint and demand for carbon offsets increases, developing countries are seeking new ways to finance efforts that reduce emissions, including from forest land use. The Offset National Emissions through Sustainable Landscapes (ONE-SL) project, funded by the U.S. Department of State […]
Commemorating Black History Month
February 18, 2021
President and CEO Rodney Ferguson recently addressed Winrock staff about Black History Month. Here are his remarks: February is Black History Month, and the commemoration feels different than in years past — more urgent, more vital. We at Winrock, like many of our colleagues and partners in the nonprofit sector, are reexamining our own commitments […]
U.S. Department of Labor Awards $8M in Grants to Engage Cocoa Cooperatives to Combat Child Labor in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana
February 15, 2021
WASHINGTON, DC – Under a hot sun, a child wields a machete at work in the fields, forced to inhale pesticides sprayed by adults eager to maintain their cocoa crop. Sadly, it is a reality for too many children, particularly those at work in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana’s cocoa industries. A recent report by NORC, an independent […]
How Chocolate Can Help Save the Planet
February 12, 2021
You can count on the fact that chocolate will, as always, be a mainstay of Valentine’s Day. You can also count on the fact that cocoa bean cultivation is bad for the environment—especially for the rain forests of West Africa. That, along with concerns over child labor on cacao plantations is enough to make the conscientious consumer […]
Winrock’s Pearson is Guest Editor of the Journal Forests
February 8, 2021
WASHINGTON, D.C. — February 8, 2021 — Winrock Ecosystem Services Director Dr. Timothy Pearson is the guest editor of a recently published special issue of the journal Forests titled “REDD+: Protecting Climate, Forests and Livelihoods.” The issue includes 12 articles by leading practitioners in the field addressing the efforts taken under REDD+, with topics including […]