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.

The United States has announced plans to increase its funding levels to Zimbabwe, particularly in the health sector — despite a diplomatic tiff between Washington and Harare. [...]    “We are very heartened that our Congress just passed the budget within the last few days and our President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) funding is remaining constant. In fact it will likely grow to almost $150m next year,” said Thomas.

Cultural and social norms are one of the most significant, yet largely ignored, barriers preventing women and girls accessing mobile phones and the internet. In some cases they have even resulted in death and rape. However, current efforts to bridge the digital gender divide are failing to prioritize initiatives which seek to understand, and ultimately, challenge these powerful norms, 

The more people go hungry at home the more likely they are to migrate, according to the United Nations as the world grapples with four potential famines simultaneously for the first time in recent history. If governments want to curb global migration flows, they should tackle the hunger crises that are displacing so many people from their homes, the United Nations' food aid agency said on Friday.

Most of these aid projects were carried out through a competitive bidding system open to eligible enterprises and there was little space for Chinese NGOs to participate. "Most of these foreign aid projects are large engineering projects, and the design of the bidding system leaves no space for NGOs to take part," Ji Lin, managing secretary at Global Environmental Institute, told the Global Times.  

Philibert Browne, editor of Liberia’s Hot Pepper newspaper, says China is winning admiration. In Liberia, it has built roads — ones of not obviously inferior quality — and a spanking new campus at the University of Liberia, replete with friendship tower and Chinese-style gate. “You can see what they are spending their money on but you can’t see what the Americans are spending on,” Mr Browne says. “You don’t put capacity building on your meal table. Slowly but surely, the Chinese are winning in Africa.”

Syrian students and academics scattered by war have had their careers and education disrupted. We spoke to the founder of the Jamiya Project, which is trying to reconnect Syrian academics to refugee students through blended online and in-person learning. Syria's Higher Education sector has been wrenched apart by the war. Once-flourishing universities have lost professors, students and facilities to violence and the exodus of 5 million people from the country.

More than 20,000 other people also observed that moment after Adam posted a 40-second video of his experience on Facebook. It was one of many this social activist would share during his six-week trip to Somalia [...] Today, Adam is harnessing that following to galvanize support for Somalia, which is on the brink of a famine that threatens the lives of an estimated 6 million people, according to the United Nations.