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 arrived in Kigali at the end of August, to begin my first experience of working here in Africa. I have looked forward to this for many years. And I know I am especially fortunate to come to Rwanda and Burundi …
Kano does not get many tourists – visas are awkward to come by and the overland route north across the Sahara to Europe has been closed for years due to insecurity. Recently I headed across to Zinder in Niger, the francophone desert …
Maputo was hit by edge of a tropical storm last night, with high winds, thunder, lightening and rain, and I thought it might put a damper on the events organised to mark World AIDS Day today. I was very cautious …
Last Thursday, at around 8.30am, I sat in the queue at the Sir Sanusi Hospital waiting to see the doctor. There were 15 of us in the women’s queue and about the same number in the men’s. Two men came …
Nigeria is currently going through its own mini World Cup fiesta. After many months of doubt, deliberation and dubious ‘readiness reports’ the FIFA Under 17 World Cup is on and much of this football crazy nation are intensively following the super …
One of my roles working for DFID is to explore ways in which the UK and China can work together to promote development in Africa. We discuss these issues in big international meetings. We have started to do this in …
Last week I was out on 'representational duty', attending a poverty summit held in Kano's neighbouring State, Jigawa, to listen to progress on impacting on poverty. What difference can a year make? Jigawa State with 4.3m people is not only as …
My colleagues and I went to Mbuji Mayi (capital of Kasai-Oriental Province) for three days to attend the opening ceremony for the first water network out of eleven that will be constructed in Mbuji Mayi using DFID funds. The day started …
Have you ever organised an event that flopped? In 1985 I was working for an international development NGO, and I organised a young people's fund raising event in a park in West London. It failed; few people came and even less …
Awareness on climate change and the need for long term adaptation has been relatively slow to develop in Nigeria - 'Naija' in local slang - and with understandable reason. Some developing countries have never had major industrialisation or modern infrastructure, so the debate …
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