As Hillary Rodham Clinton's first senior adviser for innovation, Alec Ross was one of the State Department's biggest champions of digital diplomacy, an advocate for a style of statecraft that capitalized on the technology and culture of the social networking era to reach people around the globe. Now Ross is betting on a San Francisco startup as an agent for change in developing nations: He recently joined the board of Telerivet, a company that has developed a cloud-based, short message service (SMS) to allow people in the world's most remote corners to communicate with basic cell phones.

As the BRICS Summit meets hot on the heels of the FIFA World Cup, also in Brazil, a remarkable trend is apparent. Most of the major global sports events such as the World Cup and the Olympic Games are taking place in the emerging powers of the 21st century. Russia, China and South Africa are all hosting the World Cups or Olympics along with Brazil in recent years. This phenomenon reflects a trend to adopt global sports events as a diplomatic tool to enhance prestige and become more socially accepted in the established world order.

The Chinese government released its second-ever white paper, outlining its foreign assistance from 2010-2012. As the country continues to make itself an international development player, the new details about how it spent is money gives a better understanding into the country’s goals.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has said it will provide Peru with about US$60 million to support alternative development programs and reforestation works to fight against illicit coca cultivation and illegal logging.

Leaders of the five largest emerging economies will meet July 13-16 to finalize their first joint project: a new international development bank. The countries, known as BRICS (Brazil, Russia,India, China, and South Africa) have spent many years trying to find a common goal. Together they have more than 40 percent of the world’s population. And they share an interest in challenging many of the norms set by the West. Yet each nation is quite different in governance and ambition.

Great Britain will continue extending the 300- million Pound Sterling assistance it provides annually to Ethiopia, the International Development Cooperation Minister said.  Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn held talks on 07 July 2014 with a delegation led by UK International Development Cooperation Minister, Lynne Featherstone.

The event is part of a project, ID100, bringing together key academics, think tanks, NGOs, international bodies and the general public to address the world’s biggest environmental, political and socioeconomic problems. The project is being led by researchers from the University’s Sheffield Institute for International Development (SIID).

France's budget for public development aid continues to fall. The French government presented its altered, and reduced, budget for this year's foreign aid. "The ministry contributed in the collective effort of reducing France’s public deficit, but everyone has to take part," said Annick Girardin, France’s Secretary of State for Development and Francophonie. A finance law will reduce the foreign aid budget by €73 million in 2014. It was originally €2.9bn.