Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou, set to step down after two terms as president, was last week awarded the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.

He recalls the popular challenge now underway against Omar al-Bashir’s rule in Sudan; the deaths of Kofi Annan, the first African secretary General of UN, and Winnie Mandela, a flawed leader of the South African liberation movement; the highly positive emergence of the reform-minded Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian prime minister; and the international attention to Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege, who won a Nobel Peace prize for his work with rape victims.

Ten people who passed away this year who shaped world affairs for better or worse.

In an op-ed recently published in Foreign Policy, I write about the legacy of former Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the United Nations. Kofi Annan, who died last weekend, was arguably the most co…

Kofi Annan—the seventh secretary-general of the UN—passed away last week. He should be remembered not only for his work to fight poverty and promote economic development, but also his efforts to impl…