Two Sisters, One Pool, and a World Learning to Invest in Its People

A World Learning to Feed Itself

Around a kitchen table in Yorkshire, two sisters are laughing. Astrid, 17, born in Edinburgh and swimming for Scotland. Ursula, 14, born in Halifax and representing England. On Friday morning, they'll face each other in the women's 100m freestyle S13 heats at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games—the first time they've raced in competition despite training together their entire lives.

"It'll be nice walking out and just seeing you," Astrid says.

"Scottish, unbelievable," Ursula fires back, grinning.

This is what progress looks like in 2026: siblings who can compete freely, communities investing in children they may never meet, and a world slowly—but measurably—getting better at feeding itself.

The Hunger Numbers Are Finally Moving

The UN's latest report, released this month, confirms what aid workers hoped was real: global hunger declined for the third consecutive year in 2025. An estimated 7.8% of the world's population faced hunger last year—down from 8.1% in 2024 and 8.6% in 2022. That means roughly 645 million people affected by hunger, representing a reduction of nearly 14 million people in just one year, and 43 million since 2022.

The improvements remain fragile and unevenly distributed. Africa now holds the highest number of hungry people in absolute terms—approximately 309 million—with a population growing faster than progress can keep pace. But the trend is finally bending downward: Africa's hunger rate dropped from 20.3% to 20.0% in the past year.

Asia and Latin America show steady gains. "Progress is possible," the report acknowledges, while cautioning that current trajectories won't achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

States Investing in Their Youngest Citizens

Half a world away from UN conference rooms, state governments are making similar bets on human potential.

In California, reading scores have climbed more than 7 percentage points since the state began pouring billions into literacy reform. In 2013, California ranked 47th nationally for fourth-grade reading skills; only 27% of students scored proficient. Today, that number is rising. The state now requires phonics-based instruction, has released new curriculum materials, implemented a dyslexia screener, expanded transitional kindergarten, and dedicated $500 million for literacy coaches who help teachers reach struggling readers.

The effort isn't without obstacles—there's a shortage of trained literacy coaches—but the trajectory is clear.

In Kwara State, Nigeria, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq approved full sponsorship for the Common Entrance Examination into Junior Secondary Schools, scheduled for August 1, 2026. No child in the state will pay a fee to take the test. "The governor's approval is a demonstration of the administration's commitment to expanding access to quality education for every child," said Commissioner for Education Lawal Olohungbebe.

In Massachusetts, First Literacy awarded more than $34,000 in grants to eight organizations supporting adult basic education and English language learning. Recipients include a digital literacy workshop for grandparents raising grandchildren in Worcester and an AI-powered English learning program in Boston's Chinatown.

What Research Is Teaching Us

Across American universities, researchers are uncovering new dimensions of child development that could reshape how we think about education.

At the University of Michigan, a study of more than 3,000 children found that Black and Latino children whose mothers had a stronger sense of ethnic-racial identity during infancy demonstrated higher social skills by age 5. "Our findings suggest that strong ethnic-racial identity within families can be an important developmental asset for young children," said lead author Sunghyun Hong. The study also flagged a troubling pattern: widely used social skills assessments consistently rated Black and Latino children less favorably than white children, raising questions about whether those measures capture children's full strengths.

Meanwhile, Penn State researchers discovered that students' emotional resources—motivation, persistence, and perceptions of school climate—may matter just as much as academic achievement for college completion. Students who reported higher levels of motivation and persistence in 10th grade were more likely to earn a bachelor's degree a decade later, even after accounting for family background and prior academics.

"Students' emotional resources also matter, and those are resources that schools can help cultivate," said lead researcher Katerina Bodovski.

The Long Game

None of this diminishes the world's persistent challenges. Hunger remains devastating in real terms—hundreds of millions of people. Educational inequities persist across every country. The research itself reveals how much we still don't understand.

But the direction is shifting. The 2026 World Cup drew record audiences to American soccer and sparked a league's ambitions to reach elite status. Two sisters will race each other at a major international event, family divided cheerfully between flags. States and organizations are funding programs that remove financial barriers to opportunity. And researchers are mapping the emotional and social ecosystems that help children thrive.

Progress rarely arrives all at once. It comes in literacy coaches, sponsored exams, and siblings sharing a lane. It comes in 645 million hungry people—but 43 million fewer than four years ago.

The world is learning, one child at a time.