And as 2018 draws to a close, we’re taking a look back at our top stories of the year. We’ve told stories of impact, showcased successes in global development, and explored some of the toughest issues in politics and foreign policy.

Just ahead of the Administration’s announcement of a new Africa strategy last week, Bill Gates joined in a conversation with Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday at the Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. to share his insights on a host of growing global challenges and the vital need for continued U.S. leadership around the world— particularly in Africa.

Cities across America lost the bid to house Amazon’s HQ2. Although they lost the bid many of these cities are saying perhaps they’re better off because they are now equipped to handle them. This step— creating infrastructure that supports business development— is vital to a city’s economic growth. Just as major metropolitan areas in the U.S. are investing in their infrastructure, on the other side of the world, cities throughout Sub-Saharan Africa are following suit—working to provide consistent access to the internet, establishing trading partners, and creating currency exchange programs.

In 2016, Abbott partnered with Prabhat, an Indian dairy company, and TechnoServe, an international nonprofit focused on business solutions in the developing world, to create a sustainable new approach for working together with small family farms. The dairy initiative provides rural dairy farmers with access to the training, resources and infrastructure needed to produce higher quality milk that meets industry standards.

Food insecurity hinders nearly every aspect of human life, subjecting undernourished populations to a range of physical and societal ills—including higher childhood mortality, stunted growth, susceptibility to disease, lack of economic opportunity, poor education, and victimization by radical movements. One thing is clear at this point in our planet’s history: It is absolutely critical to support international development efforts that can increase the world’s ability to achieve food security through sustainable agriculture.

Since 2010, Feed the Future has helped an estimated 23.4 million people escape poverty and has prevented 3.4 million children from suffering from the devastating and irreversible effects of stunting. Furthermore, the program helped unlock $3.3 billion in agricultural rural loans, enabling farmers to generate $10.5 billion in new agricultural sales from 2011 through 2017. This economic growth has also created new markets for American businesses.

The heads of development agencies will gather for the first-ever G7 Development Ministerial Meeting ahead of next week’s G7 summit. At the top of the agenda for the meeting: empowering women and girls.

Over the past three decades, global poverty has declined by nearly 70 percent as hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Despite this tremendous progress, more must be done to fill an enormous void: the U.N.’s Sustainable...

For nearly a decade, EDC’s Akazi Kanoze projects have been helping the Government of Rwanda improve opportunities for hundreds of thousands of young people who are coming of age during the country’s economic transition. Akazi Kanoze originally delivered livelihood and work-readiness trainings for out-of-school youth, but it was so successful that the program’s core approach — which included Work Ready Now! and partnerships with local employers — has been scaled up nationally, reaching over 92,000 high school and TVET students each year.

With 90 percent of people in the developing world living without access to the internet , many of the problems rural communities face here at home are also mirrored overseas. Luckily, the Administration is working to expand internet connectivity both at home and abroad, which will not only benefit American farmers and businesses, but spur economic growth and development in some of the world’s poorest countries.