We work around Africa to increase access to basic services, help after humanitarian emergencies and empower girls and women, ultimately helping people lift themselves out of poverty. In these blogs country teams discuss their work and progress towards these and other goals.
I'm a time-traveller. It is currently 2004 here in Ethiopia, as they use their own unique calendar. This is just one of a wealth of facts that have emerged during my first two weeks in this fascinatingly different community. The …
The opportunity to attend a COP (Conference of the Parties) event, and one that was hosted in South Africa where I grew up, was a dream come true for me - a once in a lifetime event I won't soon …
"What's an Ethiopian?" cried a 14-year-old girl during a boisterous lunch break at my Surrey school. I remember it well: my friends and I ridiculed her, yet, at that stage, none of us knew much about what being an Ethiopian …
Of all the things I thought I'd be doing when I got the chance to go to Africa and see Red Nose Day cash being spent - mixing cement wasn't one of them. After the years I spent working on …
I'm sitting on a covered patio at the Embassy, watching a Congolese storm brew. The weather didn’t let up all weekend, and it's hard not to see it as a metaphor for the turbulence that has followed the release of …
"I thought results were due out today?" my dad asked on Tuesday. "What's going on?" It's true that the announcement of the results of the DRC elections were originally slated for the 6th December. But the huge challenge of getting …
Over the past few weeks, and as I mentioned in a previous blog post, I've been continuing to help the DFID team in Ethiopia design an exciting new programme focused on supporting new small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs, including …
Sitting down for dinner in the Bulawayo Club (est. 1895) in southern Zimbabwe, one feels that one has been transported back to a gentlemen's club in fin de siècle Mayfair. One is immersed amongst Greek colonnades, oil portraits of colonial …
Locked inside a classroom at 9pm, watching the count of presidential votes by the light of camping lanterns, I couldn't have been further from my day job. As I reported in my last blog, I spent Monday 28th November 2011 …
"Can you call someone?" I kept being asked, "We want to be able to vote." I set off at 4:45 this morning - bleary-eyed but as tightly wound with excitement and anticipation as the city of Kinshasa has been throughout …
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