The philanthropist Howard G. Buffett—eldest son of multibillionaire investor Warren Buffett—and Rwandan President Paul Kagame go back a long way. Buffett’s foundation has been active in Africa for years, investing more than $140 million in central Africa’s Great Lakes region, which includes Rwanda. Almost every time Buffett visits Africa, he stops by the Rwandan capital of Kigali to see Kagame.

The Prime Ministers of Viet Nam and Japan reaffirmed yesterday their commitment to comprehensive development of the strategic partnership between both countries. In talks held between Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, the commitment found concrete expression in the latter's announcement of an official development assistance package of around US$1 billion (JPY1 trillion) for the second half of the 2013 fiscal year.

Turkey has emerged as a generous donor for humanitarian crises across the world over the past five years, especially in the context of Africa. In 2011, while official development assistance (ODA) fell in 16 DAC countries, Turkey's net ODA increased by over 38%. Following the 'Turkey – Africa Co-operation summit' in Istanbul in August 2008, the African Union declared Turkey a 'strategic partner' and in May 2010, Istanbul was the venue for the 4th UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).