According to a declassified Ministry of Defence report on the power of soap operas, positive messages and storylines slipped into New Home, New Life, the British-backed Afghan incarnation of The Archers, have helped reduce landmine injuries, and persuaded Afghans to vote and to stop producing opium.

Mondelez-owned coffee brand Kenco is launching a project to helping young Hondurans reject gangs and violence by becoming coffee-growing entrepreneurs. The year-long Coffee vs Gangs initiative (site yet to go live), conceived by Kenco's agency JWT London, will give 20 recruits in violence-ridden areas of Honduras the training and support to embark on new careers as trainee coffee farmers and therefore build a better life for themselves, away from gangs.

Thirty-seven young people from across the Balkans gathered in Turkey last month to participate in a youth conference in order to boost interaction between Turkey and the Balkan countries. The new project, organised by the Prime Ministry's Office of Public Diplomacy, invited young people from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Bulgaria, Kosovo and Macedonia.