We've been reading...

New power in Africa... and beyond
Patricia Sellers, FORTUNE -- Leadership, essentially, is about inspiring others to carry on a mission. The leadership opportunity compounds in a connected, viral, global community. Here's how leadership can spread: In 2006, Fortune and the U.S. State Department launched the Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. Every year since then, we've selected two dozen or more of the best and brightest young women leaders in developing countries and invited them to the U.S. to shadow women who attend the annual Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. Mentor/CEOs like Andrea Jung of Avon (AVP), Ellen Kullman of DuPont (DD), Ann Moore of Time Inc. (TWX), and Ursula Burns and Anne Mulcahy (now chairman) of Xerox (XRX)--plus top women execs at companies like Wal-Mart (WMT) and Exxon-Mobil--have hosted these international women. Ideally, the mentees return home and apply what they learned to improve their own community...

Single Entity to promote women's empowerment
UN -- In a bid to accelerate the empowerment of women, the General Assembly today voted unanimously to create a dynamic new entity merging four United Nations offices focusing on gender equality, a move hailed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other senior officials. “The newest member of the UN family has been born today,” Mr. Ban told the Assembly after it passed the resolution setting up the new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, to be known as UN Women. “This is truly a watershed day,” he declared. The new body will merge four of the world body’s agencies and offices: UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW)...

Tony Hayward and the failure of leadership accountability
Rosabeth Kanter, Bloomberg -- BP doesn't need an engineer at the helm. It needs a leader. Of course engineers matter, when the task is stemming damage from the largest oil spill in U.S. history. BP needs all the talent it can get. Scientists, engineers, and technicians, including the 2500 BOP employees sent to the Gulf from all over the world, have a critical role to play in cleaning up the environmental mess. But BP must also clean up an organizational and cultural mess. The company needs a leader who engenders confidence. CEO Tony Hayward has had over six weeks in the spotlight to demonstrate his leadership capabilities. Yet the situation keeps getting worse: escalating damage in the Gulf and a whopping 35% drop in BP's stock price...

Has the G8 delivered on its Africa promise?
BBC -- In July 2005, leaders of the G8 group of developed nations promised a $50bn (£33bn) aid-boost to poorer countries. Five years on, Ian Brimacombe of BBC World Service explores how the decision affected the lives of some people in Africa. It was 12 years ago when Ethiopian cancer survivor Fantu Shoamare had her first cancer scare. She had just had a baby and noticed a lump while breastfeeding. Her family raised money for her treatment, and she was able to arrange to receive drugs from abroad. They were not available inside Ethiopia at the time. "I was very very lucky to get the medicine, to get the specialist treatment," she says. "I am lucky. God helps me. Now I am OK"...


Lites
Indian investment in Africa
China to build $8bn oil refinery in Nigeria
World Cup an economic success
Government hints of ‘mentoring’ under NYEP
Ethiopia on Track to Halve the Poverty Rate by 2015