Lizard lab
On the road the other day and decided to swing by and see how the rain harvesting scheme at Gidan Mutan Daya primary school, Katsina was getting on now, over 3 months into the dry season. When I last visited the tanks had just …
Africa
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.
The Global Health Initiative
At the end of last week, I went with my DFID colleague Katie Bigmore to the offices of USAID, which are really close to the DFID office near the waterfront in downtown Maputo. We were there to give a brief …
Rest and relaxation in Swaziland
I managed a short trip to Swaziland last week. Just one night in Mbuluzi Game Reserve was enough to re-charge my batteries. It takes just an hour and a half to drive to the Swaziland border from Maputo, and 10 …
Voluntary Pooled Procurement
I mentioned the visit of the Global Fund to Mozambique the other week, and I introduced Alberto Pasini. Alberto kept up a high pace of meetings during his visit, and we were all feeling a little weary by the time …
Dirty business in Nairobi
Every year, like kids on a school trip to the zoo, DFID lets its education and health advisers all meet up to take stock and share their experiences over the past 12 months. Last week we gathered in Nairobi to …
How to measure performance
Last Wednesday was Heroes Day in Mozambique and a national holiday. The web-link gives the background to the day, which commemorates the lives of soldiers lost in Mozambique’s Independence war, which ended in 1975. For me the day off was …
Jigawa surges up the education spending league
The Universal Basic Education Intervention Fund (UBE-IF) established in 2005 is a key initiative to try to channel more of the Nigerian oil revenues directly to States to spend on schooling: classrooms, books and teacher training. Early implementation was plagued by fund …
DFID Director visits Mozambique
There was an absolute torrential downpour of rain last week, flooding the roads of Maputo and preventing a number of colleagues arriving at work. It was a bit of a wet welcome then for Beverley Warmington, DFID’s Director of West …
A whirlwind pace of reforms
Another leader making waves, this time of education reform, is the Hon. Commissioner of Education in Kwara State, Mr Bolaji Abdulahi. DFID education programmes have been working in Kwara since 2007 and we have constantly struggled to keep up with his …
Introducing Alberto Pasini...
It ended up being a relatively late night on Tuesday, due to a working dinner which came at the end of a full day of discussions on the Global Fund. I say relatively late, as my working day normally begins …
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