The Peer Review Mechanism is opening avenues for citizen engagement all over Africa

I'll never forget my first trip to rural USA. A friend had invited me to spend Thanksgiving with his family in Sparta, Wisconsin--population 8,921. As we made the drive, I imagined a quaint town, lined with small stores, selling local products. In reality, Sparta felt more like a main drag for big-box retailers―the largest of which was the brand new Walmart Supercenter.

Entering the seond week of Black History Month in a celebration of influential black people across the globe, Lindsay Barrett pays tribute to Dudley Thompson. A Jamaican Pan-Africanist who throughout his career strived to strengthen the links between Africa and the Caribbean.

Tom Heinemann, a multiple award winning investigative journalist, recounts his experience after a critical investigation into the dark side of Microcredit: "The Micro Debt". "The US-based Grameen Foundation has launched a World-wide campaign in a bid to intimidate me in a way I have never seen before," says Heinemann.

Africa's many entrenched presidents should learn lessons lost on recently deposed Arab tyrants as the Arab spring moves into another season.

Over the past 10 years, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has launched a number of bold and innovative programmes. In some instances the plan is already scoring notable yet underreported gains.