The expansion of YALI programs over the past five years has allowed the United States to connect with more young Africans than ever before. To date, tens of thousands of young African men and women have increased their skills, professional networks, and resolve in driving positive change in Africa.

This month, President Obama is in Africa reaching out to the approximately 200 million people on the continent between the ages of 15 and 24. The United States is strengthening ties with this dynamic and fast-growing region, embracing what the President has described as “a new era of engagement, based on mutual interests and mutual respect…to advance the common security and prosperity of all people.”

َAn Africa-based advocacy group working for continent-wide recognition of  the human rights of LGBTI Africans has won official recognition in South Africa. This tremendous gain will benefit Pan Africa ILGA and all its member organizations working to advance the rights of LGBTI people on the African Continent. 

George Clooney, the Hollywood actor, has launched a new initiative called The Sentry aimed at ending conflicts on the African continent by tracking the money that fuels them. The Sentry, founded by Clooney and John Prendergast from the advocacy group the Enough Project, will investigate the financing of conflicts in South Sudan, Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR) and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The government of North Korea has rightfully gained a reputation in the West for isolation and obstinacy, but its diplomatic ventures in Africa have poised it to be significantly more influential on that continent than potentially anywhere else. 

Bob Geldof’s Live Aid pioneered a new wave of stars’ involvement in the developing world that has produced mixed results. [...] Yet, as American journalist David Rieff has noted, Live Aid’s donations to NGOs such as Oxfam and Save the Children also facilitated the displacement of 600,000 people by the autocratic Mengistu regime, resulting in an estimated 100,000 deaths.

There is only as much traditional diplomacy of state-to-state exchanges can do. The reality of contemporary times is that non-state actors have become increasingly potent agents of diplomacy engaged directly or indirectly by states in pursuit of their foreign policy interests.

Britain’s foreign aid budget must be used to “discourage mass migration”, the Defence Secretary has said. Michael Fallon said that foreign aid spending “should be used” to help prevent conflicts breaking out in African countries in order to prevent refugees fleeing to Europe. He said that it would stop the UK military having to “fish people out of the Mediterranean” when they try to escape from their home countries.