Between 2002 and 2013, approximately US$42.6 billion was given in foreign aid by the world’s richest countries to support higher education in developing countries. That may sound like a lot, but the total amount spent on foreign aid in that period was US$1.6 trillion – dwarfing higher education to just 2.7% of the total.

Japan said on Saturday it would extend around $6 billion in development aid to Mekong region countries, as China prepares to launch a new institutional lender seen as encroaching on the regional clout of Tokyo and ally Washington. Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam all have strong economic growth potential, and are promising destinations for Japanese exporters.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark urged Canada and Korea to bolster diplomacy in a world characterized by withering superpowers and sprouting middle powers. Canada’s 16th Prime Minister from 1979 to 1980 told a group of diplomats and scholars that as the international order is reconfigured around the world, nations increasingly rely on soft-power strategies of compromise, negotiation and development, rather than hard-power tactics of military aggression and bullying rhetoric.

Britain is paying professional aid staff up to £1,000 a day to work in developing countries as part of a spending "frenzy" to meet a government target, a new report suggestst. Spending on consultants has doubled in the past four years to £1.4bn with the bill for outside help now eating up more than 10 per cent of the aid budget. The figures prompted anger among MPs, who described the practice as a "grotesque waste".

We cannot forget that international development is also in the best interests of EU citizens. A number of issues such as illegal migration, climate change and terrorism can be best tackled at the root with international aid and support on the ground.

Japan’s Development Cooperation Charter, government officials say, is designed to more effectively utilize the financial aid scheme to bolster Tokyo’s role in global affairs.

The African continent is changing. Strong population and economic growth, natural and agricultural resources, and an emerging middle class have resulted in growth which attracts international investors.

The Embassy of Israel will on Tuesday, March 3 hold breakfast meeting for government officials, agricultural companies, farmers, agro-processors, financial and investment institutions.