Skoll Curated Content

The latest estimates about human trafficking indicate at least 21 million people on the planet are currently in slavery. For years human traffickers have used the latest technology to profit from the slave trade, but now software engineers at big data companies are enabling anti-trafficking organizations to fight back.

A group representing 2,800 Brazilian supermarkets has signed an agreement barring beef linked to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest from their shelves. The system aims to improve transparency in commodity sourcing, while encouraging landowners to respect Brazil's environmental laws.

Pioneering groups of foundations and philanthropists have pooled their talent and resources to help solve social sector problems too big for any one to tackle alone. What can donors learn from these efforts?

John Oldfield, CEO of WASH Advocates, reflects on the latest USAID Water Strategy and their 2 pronged approach of: water, sanitation + hygene, AND water for agriculture and food security.

JMP (WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation) releases their 2013 update on sanitation and drinking water. "Drinking-water coverage in 2011 remains at 89% – which is 1% above the MDG drinking-water target. In 2011, 768 million people relied on unimproved drinking-water sources. Sanitation coverage in 2011 was 64%. The world remains off track to meet the MDG sanitation target of 75% and if current trends continue, it is set to miss the target by more than half a billion people."

Cecilia Flores-Oebanda has spent her life fighting -- as a child for some education, as a teen rebel against a dictator, and for more than 20 years against human traffickers. Now, after two years of reporting in the Philippines – from going on police raids in Manila to going undercover in search of human trafficking in remote provinces - CNN airs "The Fighters" on CNN International on two consecutive nights beginning in May, providing a unique glimpse into the world of combating human trafficking through the eyes of those risking their lives so that others may live theirs in freedom.

Foundation calculates that to wipe out polio worldwide, it would cost about $5.5 billion over six years. Gates is adamant that wiping out polio is worth the hefty price tag. "Once you get zero, all the expense to protect people goes away," he says. "So you have two choices: You can spend less and have the disease spread back and paralyze lots and lots of kids. Or you can double down and get to zero."

The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported Friday. Indirect measurements suggest that the last time the carbon dioxide level was this high was at least three million years ago, during an epoch called the Pliocene. Experts fear that humanity may be precipitating a return to such conditions — except this time, billions of people are in harm’s way.

Some 20,000 farmers in Rwanda stand to benefit from a microinsurance plan designed to aid in protecting their crop investments. Kilimo Salama, "safe farming" in Kiswahili, is a project that offers low-cost microinsurance to maize and bean farmers in southern and western Rwanda, protecting them from financial loss if their crops are damaged by weather.