David Weiss

Liberia once again captured international headlines, with former president, Charles Taylor, hearing his verdict in a courtroom in The Hague on April 26. Taylor was found guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity by supporting rebels in Sierra Leone in return for "blood diamonds."...

One of the first things you notice when you arrive in Accra's Kotoka International Airport is a huge red sign that reads: "Welcome to Ghana, the Gateway to Africa." I quickly discovered on my recent visit to this West African nation that this is not an idle boast. Not only...

The 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan one year ago was the most expensive natural disaster in world history, totaling nearly $235 billion in recovery costs. It also signified a growing trend that is putting urban residents -- primarily in low- and middle-income countries -- most at risk...

Just before the New Year, the London-based Center for Economics and Business Research announced that Brazil had overtaken the UK as the world's sixth largest economy. Furthermore, it predicted that by 2020, India and Russia will also have overtaken all the European economic powers. The BRIC countries --...

As you drive through Kitui and Mwingi provinces in southern Kenya, you notice the fields of golden corn around you on all sides. Only gradually do you realize that this is when the crops should be green and productive. But they are not. The golden brown color is the color...

Now is the time to invest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This is not a sentiment you hear expressed very often. But while the political instability across the region is likely to cause investor apprehension and economic contraction, there are many good reasons to invest there now....

As the Peace Corps celebrates its 50th anniversary, its approach to development and its work around the world remain more relevant than ever. Over the last five decades, the "Peace Corps model" has had a tremendous amount of influence on organizations working in the developing world. At

In April 2010, I visited Haiti and saw the destruction wreaked upon the people of this already desperately poor nation by the earthquake. I was deeply saddened to see how much the Haitian people had lost and was extremely concerned about the amount of effort it would take to rebuild...

With South Sudan becoming the world's newest nation on Saturday, July 9, some commentators have suggested that violence or even a full-blown war might be imminent. Meanwhile, distant from the headlines and unaware of the many broader issues that still need to be addressed -- such as defining final borders...

When we think of countries like Rwanda, Honduras and Yemen, we know there are many vulnerable, poor and marginalized communities. But if we can put a name or face to some of the people who live in these communities, that vulnerability quickly ceases to be an abstract.

Mohammed from Yemen,...

The nature and motivations for corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been undergoing very significant changes in the last decade. Whereas corporate philanthropic activities may have once been motivated more by image-building and were thus seen as 'window-dressing,' CSR today is more often an integral part of corporate strategy.

Since October...

Although President Obama's recent trip to Latin America did not spark as many headlines as one might have expected, the region once again came onto the US radar -- and this time for the right reasons. As the president noted in his speeches, most Latin American countries have come a...

Imagine you are age 11 and are suddenly torn from your home and thrust into an improvised camp in a place where you don't speak the language. Your father's health deteriorates rapidly and he dies, leaving your devastated mother in a condition from which she never recovers. Then you move...

When I told friends that I was going to Rwanda their reaction was an almost uniform: "How horrible!" Of course, their view of Rwanda was based on the terrible genocide of 1994 that left an estimated 850,000 dead and a country with deep psychosocial scars behind in its...

These last two weeks, the headlines have been dominated by political turmoil in the Middle East, particularly in Egypt, the most populous and precarious of the countries currently experiencing popular demonstrations against their leadership. Whatever the outcome in each of these countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, we...

As I write I am in Nairobi, Kenya, for the CHF International Africa regional conference. But the highest profile events in the continent just now are taking place several hundred miles north of here in southern Sudan, where the world's 193rd country looks likely soon to be created.

It has been one year since the people of Haiti suffered immense losses from the devastating earthquake that struck their country. But despite the frustrations of the relief process and the ravages of cholera, there is reason to find hope in Haiti. And that reason is its people.

I started...