How much aid does China give Africa? Does it complement or undermine the aid from the United States and other Western donors? China releases little information and outside estimates vary widely.

A novel approach to studying Chinese aid flows relies on a database drawing upon thousands of news reports on Chinese-backed projects in Africa from 2000 to 2011.

We, the co-authors, are not claiming that the database is fully comprehensive. We understand that some projects may not get picked up by the media.

Further analysis of the media reports of Chinese-backed projects may eventually yield insights into the extent Chinese assistance to the region is focused on natural resource extraction, and whether Chinese activities complement or compete with assistance from other donors.

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The recollections of a young MSF doctor provide a refreshing take on the humanitarian aid worker experience. Brown is a candid author who unpicks the fragile emotions surrounding his work in Africa.

This searingly honest and funny personal account of his work in Angola, Mozambique and Sudan charts the emotional highs and lows of helping those in need in isolated and under-equipped conditions.

Although he suffers a painful breakdown and ends his work with MSF, Brown emerges from his experiences surprisingly optimistic, and there is a positive tone throughout the book.

By working on a medical frontline, Brown is engaging in ‘a bed for the night’ humanitarianism – immediate interventions that can save lives but the patients may remain as vulnerable as before.

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Africa has robust growth, and the region’s economic prospects remain good. GDP per capita has expanded at 2.4 percent per year, good for an average increase in GDP per capita of 50 percent since 1996.

But the averages also hide a substantial degree of variation. For example, GDP per capita in resource-rich countries grew 2.2 times faster during 1996-2011 than in resource-poor countries.

Despite the better growth performance, poverty declined substantially less in resource-rich countries. Fast growth has also been recorded in resource-poor countries such as Rwanda, Ethiopia and Mozambique.

Most importantly, the youth bulge will need to be absorbed in productive jobs. Migration out of agriculture into the rural nonfarm economy and secondary towns appears more conducive to faster poverty reduction.

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Recent years have seen a growing interest on taxation in developing countries among aid agencies. This reflects a concern for raising domestic revenues to finance public goods and services.

It also represents a recognition of the centrality of taxation for growth and redistribution. However, efforts to broaden the tax base are intimately connected to the quality of government expenditure.

Aid to taxation can be grouped into three broad working areas: (1) strengthen tax policy and design; (2) build more effective tax administrations; and (3) encourage constructive state-society engagement around taxes.

This article discusses experiences with donor support to strengthen tax systems in developing countries and challenges in scaling up donor efforts, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

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Illegal transactions of wealth out of developing countries is estimated to equal 3-5 times total global aid flows from all donor countries, or 6-8 times total Norwegian foreign aid over the past 50 years.

The amounts evaporating into the pockets of wealthy and influential African leaders and their families as corruption each year exceed by far the total aid from all donors to the region.

Nordic aid has been distributed to around 100 of the world’s poorest countries for more than 50 years, with surprisingly modest impact on income and wealth inequality in the recipient countries.

The Nordic countries should keep a zero corruption vision and work pro-actively to fulfil it by reallocating a considerable share of their aid budgets to anti-corruption activities.

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A new dynamic stage has been reached in the debate on social protection and cash transfer programs, both internationally and on the African scene.

These issues are likely to figure more prominently in connection with the on-going discussions about the new multilateral development goals beyond 2015.

In Africa the debate has also been influenced by the current dilemma: high economic growth rates in many African countries, but persistent poverty and widening income gaps.

Stronger African action at the political leadership levels is needed with increased willingness to embark on concrete programs in cooperation with civil society.

Aid agencies need to take a stronger interest in cash transfers as a means to fight poverty. Sweden has a legacy of being in the forefront regarding social protection systems.

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The DAC has been at the forefront of ‌development for decades, setting important standards and providing essential co-ordination of development assistance.

In this new, multi-polar world, there are many nations beyond the DAC that provide important development assistance – and the DAC must engage with them.

The DAC must intensify work with the rest of the OECD system, in particular on three key areas: 1) Taxation/domestic resource mobilisation, 2) Education – PISA; and 3) Environment, with a focus on green growth.

I want to ensure that the DAC fulfils its obligation to the poor in the new and challenging, but also fascinating and promising world of the 21st century.

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Development planning has a long and chequered history in Africa; our development trajectory has been influenced by various approaches to development planning since the early stages of independence.

National Development Strategies (NDS) have now gone beyond the narrow objective of poverty reduction to encompass accelerated growth, employment creation, structural transformation and sustainable development.

ECA has developed a network of development planners which includes an electronic platform that will serve as a repository of literature current research related to development planning.

Africa must continue to plan its development, increase policy space, and make prudent decisions about the appropriate strategies needed to achieve economic growth and structural transformation.

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This January, two years away from the expiry of the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the post 2015 agenda has already created a buzz in Monrovia and Johannesburg.

Last week ONE Africa launched a new post-2015 SMS and social media campaign called “You Choose”, which aims to engage Africans from all walks of life on what the new MDGs should focus on.

Unlike when the 2000 MDGs were created, the post-2015 MDGs process is seeking advice this time from citizens on what future MDGs should address when the current ones expire in 2015.

You Choose participants will have an option to join ONE so as to have opportunities to join the current campaigns ONE is running on improving health and agriculture investments in Africa.

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An important new paper from some big development names directs a slightly fierce but welcome political economy gaze at donor efforts to strengthen civil society – one of the more recent developmental fads.

One of the striking conclusions is how little we really know, but it gropes gamely through the fog of ignorance and confusion and arrives at some interesting conclusions.

Village-level group formation in Africa increased dramatically over the 1990s when participatory approaches were promoted through aid, and adopted by governments to deliver projects to communities.

That increased participation applies to both democratic and less democratic systems. The question is in what situations the upsurge in civil society has impact, and how – if at all aid – agencies can help.

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