Cervical cancer kills more than half a million women worldwide every year, and is the leading cause of female cancer deaths in the developing world. New low-tech screening programs have begun to reduce cancer deaths but campaigners like Sarah Nyombi, a politician in Uganda, want to see more.

Kids in developing countries need vaccines, but will the world's wealthy financial markets really help to deliver them? A deal brokered by former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has so far raised nearly $2 billion for just that purpose. It's called the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), and author Aminatta Forna wants to know how it works.

The Advance Market Commitment scheme, formulated by the GAVI Alliance, aims to provide more vaccines to the developing world by fixing their price over a 10-year period. Is it going to deliver, what will be the result, and how did global health institutions and the big pharmaceutical companies manage to agree on such a deal? 

Throughout the world, access to safe drinking water is the most critical element of sustained good health. Clean Water focuses on the highly successful efforts of one humanitarian organization, East Meets West, to bring safe drinking water to rural communities in Vietnam -- led by staff member Richard Brogdon, a Vietnam war veteran who has special reason to help the local Vietnamese community.

The Tokyo International Conference on African Development is more than just a conference. It has become a major global framework for Asia, Africa, and the UNDP to collaborate in promoting Africa's development. Here are five projects working to improve people's everyday lives throughout the continent. Produced by UNDP.

Halting the destruction of Amazonian rainforest isn't Brazil's only battle in the fight against climate change. The country is also working hard to eliminate CFC gases that not only harm the ozone layer, but are also much more harmful to the atmosphere then CO2. UNDP is helping the Brazilian government to safely extract and dispose of this harmful chemical.

Many African refugees are environmental migrants; they are forced to leave their homes because spreading deserts are destroying their livelihoods. A Swiss doctor has set up a new project in the Sahel zone of the Sahara desert aimed at reclaiming land from the advancing sands, and it is giving encouraging results.

At TEDxChange, Melinda Gates makes a provocative case for nonprofits taking a cue from corporations such as Coca-Cola, whose plugged-in, global network of marketers and distributors ensures that every remote village wants—and can get—a Coke. Why shouldn't this work for condoms, sanitation, vaccinations too?