There has been a lot of talk lately about the relationship between development and trade, just as the United States is stepping up new trade initiatives across the Atlantic and the Pacific. The announcement of the Trade Africa initiative during President Barack Obama’s recent trip to Africa and calls to renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act next year have also put the benefits of trade with sub-Saharan Africa front and center, which holds 7 out of the fastest 10 growing economies.

It is commonly known that monetary remittances, the funds that foreigners working abroad send back to their origin countries, make up an important part of many developing nations’ economies. Less commented on, however, are social remittances, or the influence migrants exert on their home countries’ politics. One of the most important mechanisms for social remittances is the absentee ballot. According to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 115 countries or territories now grant voting rights to their citizens living abroad.

When successful entrepreneurs come together, the ideas that emerge are nothing short of amazing. And when those entrepreneurs are also women who have fought gender bias and other challenges, the ideas have the potential to change the face of commerce for a continent. This week, we welcomed to Washington small and medium-sized business owners from 27 countries in Africa who spent the last two weeks meeting with U.S. entrepreneurs and CEOs in places like Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and Albuquerque, as part of the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP).

In the heat of the afternoon, especially this past month of Ramadan, downtown Tunis plays dead. Offices and shops close at 2 p.m. and life is suspended as everyone, parched and hungry, waits for sunset and the breaking of the fast. On a side street behind the Interior Ministry, the only movement is the occasional rumble of a tram, the only sound the trill of its bell warning pedestrians to step off the tracks.

In what a spokeswoman attributed to "an abundance of caution," the State Department decided late last week to close a host of American embassies in Africa and the Middle East, most of them in predominantly Muslim countries, due to concerns about possible terrorist attacks. This decision may have been prudent and was certainly based on extensive, if ambiguous, intelligence, but it should not become the norm.

As Chinese citizens are tempted by these governments to invest and relocate abroad, China has been experiencing an influx of immigrants as well – many of whom have come from Africa. Guangzhou, one of China’s largest cities and a main manufacturing hub in the Pearl River Delta, is home to over 20,000 Africans who hail from West African countries such as Nigeria, Mauritania, Mali, and Guinea.

The long awaited analytical study of Uganda's tourism sector is finally out. The Tourism Expenditure and Motivation Survey (TEMS), commissioned last year by the ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, in partnership with the World Bank and DFID, was released on Thursday at the Kampala Serena hotel. The economic and statistical study collected data on tourist expenditures, duration of stay, tourist activities, sites visited, level of satisfaction and suggestions for improvements in the sector.

These refugees don't know dunks, nor do they know why a 25-year-old NBA star, coming off his breakout season, would fly more than 8,000 miles and 24 hours, risk malaria, typhoid and yellow fever, just to hang bed nets in their mud huts for the anti-malaria program Nothing But Nets. On his vacation. "Man, for a huge American sports star," said Nothing But Nets director Chris Helfrich, "he sure doesn't act like it."