Dame Vivienne Westwood has teamed up with Yoox.com and the United Nations Agency to provide much-needed ethical employment for the people of Nairobi. Her Ethical Fashion Africa Collection for the e-tailer comprises handbags and totes created with from all sorts of refuse, from flip flops to old tent fabric, and transformed into covetable accessories by impoverished people in Kenya, through fair labour conditions.

Watching the wife of the US vice-president touring the world's biggest refugee camp for famine-hit Somalis was a scrum of television cameramen, international reporters and Washington staffers thumbing their BlackBerrys. US officials privately agreed that the main thrust of the visit was to get the story onto American television channels, which have been slower to report on the crisis than in other countries.

...Nigeria should use cultural diplomacy as a means of leading the way in projecting all that is good in us and Africa. By our share size, we should be able to use our arts, music, literature and drama to project our culture and emphasise the uniqueness of African culture.

I had the privilege of seeing CNN hero Doc Henley speak at the National Speakers Association Influence ’11 event on Monday...A former bartender, Doc began his first fundraiser to help provide water to the people of Darfur after reading a statistic that moved him deeply...

CPD Director Philip Seib was interviewed on PRI's The World this week about the power of media coverage to make the public act upon current issues.

Every day, in rural areas across Africa, millions of women and girls walk for hours to fetch water. An American woman is also walking for the same reason. Amy Russell hopes her 12,000-kilometer, two-year long trek across Africa will raise money for and awareness of the need for clean water.

Bruce Wharton... said that by inviting the four presidents to Washington, the Obama administration is highlighting the importance of "holding credible elections, building strong democratic institutions and fostering economic development."