My friend Danny recently entered the Guardian Development Journalism Competition, run by The Guardian in association with the Department for International Development.

The brief was to write an article about the issues and challenges facing the world’s poorest countries, and as Danny’s a very talented writer (not to mention director, but that’s a topic for another time), and has always been much more informed about international affairs and politics than I could ever be, I was pleased to hear that he was amongst the 40 semi-finalists chosen from 400 or so entrants.

His entry’s available to read online, and I heartily recommend you have a look at it – it’s a topic which gets little coverage, but it’s extremely timely and important, and I think Danny’s written a good solid article. I have to say, more journalism of this level in actual print newspapers would make me far more inclined to read a paper on a regular basis.

You can read the article here, and I strongly urge you to do so, it’s very good.