From the sixties we have tinkered with all manner of programmes all aimed at creating a Nigerian brand…with the civil war after the military came into government and even the Gowon administration came with the 3Rs, Restructuring, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction to put before the citizenry a nation that we all could say that we are one and to put the effect of the war behind us.

There’s also a strong likelihood that Chinese interest in Africa’s infrastructure will wane in time. This is because China is not in Africa out of magnanimity, but rather to extract resources and boost its soft-power reach. Once those are secured, there will be less reason to invest in infrastructure.

The world's nations achieved a U.N. goal of cutting in half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water five years ahead of the 2015 target...The water target was one of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals to reduce global poverty that government leaders, nongovernmental organizations and the United Nations have been working to achieve, with varying success.

Today, government and private sector leaders gathered at the White House to highlight progress in answering President Obama’s call to use science, technology and innovation to promote global development.

This is about growing Brazil’s soft power on the international scale and raising Brazil’s role in the world,” said Matthew Taylor, a Brazil specialist at the American University’s School of International Service. “Brazil is taking on a bigger role in the hemisphere in terms of aid and finance, and by helping out Cuba they really draw attention to this new role they are playing.”

“In terms of public diplomacy, it is always more interesting if members belonging to the local population express your message. The French won’t believe what the emir of Qatar tells them, but they will believe the director of a start-up in the French suburbs,” said Pelletier.