The spread of telecommunications can bring greater efficiencies to African agriculture

Perhaps accelerated by the financial crisis, a number of businesses operating in Africa are taking a greater interest in the social and economic impact of their operations, engaging in activities usually associated with development agencies

The microcredit industry in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is facing a crisis, which analysts say could have knock on effects for microfinance institutions worldwide

The US has talked up the strategic role of its foreign assistance, but the operational realities within USAID suggest that development is still a junior partner in the “3D” approach

The large scale of Indian corporate forays into Africa masks a relatively small and parochial diplomatic approach from New Delhi. However, the impact of the new wave of investors should not be dismissed

South Sudan is likely to become Africa’s newest country in a January referendum, but the differing approaches between development bodies and the private sector towards its many challenges are becoming clear

The Seoul summit of the G20 has ended without any appreciable resolution of the so-called “currency wars”, and its failure to create a meaningful development agenda undermines the evolution of the grouping as a successor to the G8

The UK’s development agency, Dfid, is to reorient itself to be better able to promote private sector development in low-income countries, and will drastically reform its investment arm, CDC Group

With his tendency to resort to drawing diagrams with every explanation, Hans Rosling, professor of international health at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the chairman of the Gapminder Foundation, appears to think through every challenge visually.

Negotiations over expanding Tunisia’s integration into the European Union are raising questions about the efficacy of Brussels’ soft power mechanisms in promoting political reform in the Southern Mediterranean

Ten years after the Clinton administration adopted the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a groundbreaking piece of trade legislation, Agoa’s architects are petitioning to take it a stage further and increase US investment in Africa

Africa’s urbanisation must be understood and managed to prevent growing inequalities from becoming a source of conflict, according to Anna Tibaijuka, under-secretary-general of the United Nations and executive director of urban development body UN Habitat.

Quiet streets greeted the African Development Bank’s return to Abidjan, its former headquarters, this May for its 45th annual meetings. The bank left in 2003, precipitated by the deteriorating security situation in the city as Côte d’Ivoire slid into civil war. Today it occupies three buildings in Tunis – a “Temporary Relocation Agency” that has begun to seem less and less temporary. Its dislocation has been frustrating for bank staff and for international partners, but with elections in Côte d’Ivoire repeatedly postponed an imminent return has seemed unlikely.

The Nile Exchange is one of a number of initiatives designed to provide a boost to Egypt’s small- and medium-sized enterprises but these are just a small step on the difficult path towards creating a culture of entrepreneurship in the region