In recent years, Nigeria has been in the news for a different reason – its music. With the popularity of young Nigerian musicians internationally, a new generation has a new word association with Nigeria – Afrobeats. As we harness the newfound fondness of Nigerian Entertainment for economic gain both domestically and internationally, we must also see its potential in shaping public opinion and international policy and helping advance Nigeria’s interests on the global stage.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded Pasadena-based Tetra Tech Inc. a $23 million single-award contract to improve economic growth and food security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Under the five-year Feed the Future Strengthening Value Chains Activity Contract, Tetra Tech will foster relationships between market exporters and local farmers in the Congo in order to increase sales and the profitability of their key, nutrient-rich crops.

Under the theme, “Stimulating Private Sector Development and Economic Growth”, The Ministry of Finance in collaboration with Compete Caribbean Partnership Facility hosted the workshop in an effort to start a dialogue on generating innovation in the private sector.

Irina Bokova, the director general of Unesco, talked about how culture was instrumental to economic growth, citing a 2015 study that said the arts generated 29.5 million jobs worldwide, more than the auto industry. “Development without culture cannot be sustainable or equitable or inclusive,” she said. Other discussions at the conference resonated more subtly with the most salient issues of the day, including panels on refugees, censorship, heritage preservation and cultural diplomacy.

As Xi tries to increase China’s soft power, the last thing he wants is to cause the next global crisis or recession. The plot thickens when you consider the evolving nature of China’s role in the global economy.

One of the big questions in both politics and economics is whether government development aid actually produces economic growth in the recipient countries. [...] And, as the finding above shows, it doesn’t work. Not only doesn’t it work, the aid we give for political reasons works less well than that. We should, therefore, simply stop doing this. Which is as some of us have thought for a long time. The last 40 years of globalisation have shown that the finest poverty reduction technique we have is trade