LONDON — The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has become synonymous with state failure. No country has endured more brutal conflicts, hosted more kleptocratic and corrupt governments, or squandered more resource wealth.

Two-year-old Bintu Mustapha is the human face behind the hidden humanitarian catastrophe now unfolding in northeast Nigeria.

Buried among the 169 targets contained in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — adopted by the United Nations last September amid a blaze of glitzy events, celebrity endorsements and back-slapping by world leaders, aid donors and non-governmental organisations — was the vita

Imagine you woke up tomorrow without access to modern energy.You have no fridge, cooking stove, or air conditioning. Your kids cannot do homework after sundown.

Some 236 years ago, a young governor from the American state of Virginia broke the mould on education reform.In his “Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge”, Thomas Jefferson called for “a system of general instruction” that would reach all citizens, “from the richest t