In a new series of briefs, Council researchers highlight key results, recommendations, and examples of research impact from Project SOAR, a collaborative 6-year, 21-country implementation science initiative funded by USAID to generate critical evidence to improve HIV prevention, care, and treatment policies and programs worldwide. The Council-led Project SOAR consists of over 70 activities undertaken in collaboration with Avenir Health, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, Palladium, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In the Council on Foreign Relations’ Women Around the World blog, Council researchers Nicole Haberland and Timothy Abuya discuss the impact of COVID-19 on progress in education worldwide.

This past year, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted every country, every community, and every person in this world – but not equally nor in the same ways. For communities who experience vulnerability and marginalization, because structural barriers such as economic inequality, racism, harmful gender norms, and numerous other intertwining factors, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, these challenges have been exacerbated and inequalities even further exposed.

Knowing the potential impacts the pandemic could pose on individuals and communities, we leveraged proven tools and strategies we have used in other global health crises, and rapidly deployed them across 13 countries—often generating and sharing data in real-time. These efforts to provide context-specific data on what was happening, to whom, and the potential risks to their health and wellbeing helped, and continue to inform, the decision making of health authorities and policy makers in India, Kenya, Mexico and many other countries.

Our Research in Humanitarian Settings Task Force (HTF) has been leading the Council’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These researchers and scientists are working with partners around the world to continue to tackle the damaging impact of the pandemic on the health, education, and economic sectors using their expertise in biomedical research and social and behavioral science research. Below we share highlights from our continued COVID-19 response and invite you to visit our new Research in Humanitarian Settings webpage to learn more and access the latest data and perspective on our ongoing COVID-19 response.

The increasingly destructive impacts of environmental risks and climate change continue to challenge our planet and disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations worldwide. This Earth Day, we asked a co-leader of our Population, Environmental Risk and Climate Change (PERCC) Initiative, Bidhubhusan Mahapatra, for his perspective on the Council’s diverse, environmentally focused research portfolio and its relevance for addressing key populations.

The Population Council was the proud recipient of a 2021 FutureEdge 50 Award, presented by IDG’s CIO and recognizing organizations “pushing the edge with new technologies to advance their business for the future.” The award honors technological advancements and the innovative cultures enabling them.

The Population Council celebrates the life of Dr. Samuel “Sab” Koide, a giant at the Center for Biomedical Research, who died earlier this month. Koide spent nearly four decades at the Population Council helping to understand the basic science of reproduction and advance contraceptive development. Koide's discoveries and contributions to science continue to impact the field today.  

It is our great honor to announce the appointment of Dr. Harriet Birungi as the Vice President of International Programs and Dr. Thoại Ngô as the Vice President of Social and Behavioral Science Research – colleagues who have been promoted to our executive leadership team following recent transitions. Harriet currently serves as Director of the Population Council’s office in Kenya and Thoại serves as Director of our Poverty, Gender and Youth program.

In a new commentary in the journal Contraception, leaders from across Population Council offices and centers for social science and biomedical research came together to call for increasing contraceptive choice and access to self-managed methods in light of challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following the horrific shooting in the U.S. city of Atlanta that killed six women of Asian descent, the Council’s Thoai Ngo authored a powerful piece in BMJ Global Health blog on the gendered and public health consequences of anti-Asian racism in America. 

In a recent Knowledge Success post, Council researchers from the Evidence Project highlight lessons learned from research in Ghana on the expansion of access to DMPA-SC, an injectable contraceptive with a self-injection option. Injectables are among the most popular contraceptive methods in sub-Saharan Africa.