Beyond the Rhetoric: Essays in Africa's Development Challenges There are many analyses of Africa's developmental challenges, most cloaked in fashionable buzzwords, semantics, grand theories and media-friendly mellifluous phrases. Dr Chinua Akukwe goes beyond the rhetoric to pose a simple question: what can be done? With policymakers and general readers in mind, he discusses and proffers solutions to a number of current contentious issues in Africa, - from the Darfur crisis in the Sudan, African Union's Diaspora strategies, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to the political crises simmering in his own country, Nigeria. ___________________________ Dr Chinua Akukwe is an adjunct professor of both global health and community/preventative health at the George Washington University School of Public Health, Washington, DC, USA, and also Chairman of the Technical Advisory Board of the university's Africa Center for Health and Human Security. He was equally a former member of the Executive Committee of the university's Medical Center Faculty Senate, the highest representative body of all professors affiliated with the medical center. A former Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee and Governing Board of the National Council for International Health, NCIH, (now known as the Global Health Council, Washington, DC), Dr Akukwe was also a member of the International Human Rights Committee of the American Public Health Association as well as a board member of the Christian Connections for International Health, an international ecumenical organization based in the United States. A widely published scholar on HIV/AIDS, healthcare, and development issues in Africa, he served for five years as a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Public Health, one of the leading public health journals in the world and is also currently a Contributing Editor to both the Worldpress.org and the USAfricaonline.org. ___________________________________________________________ Dr. Akukwe is a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, London, and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Constituency for Africa (CFA), Washington, DC - a leading advocacy organization for Africa's development in the United States. He has equally served as an expert analyst on African issues for both the BBC's World News and the Voice of America's Africa programs.