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Climate Change

Climate change is affecting the world’s poorest countries in numerous ways. As well as the first to be affected, the poorest are also hit hardest as they are less equipped to cope with the effects. In these blogs we’ll be looking at the impact of climate change in the developing world and what DFID is doing to help poor countries adapt.

Tanzania: One year in...

I’ve just passed a major milestone: my one year anniversary of arriving in Tanzania. Today also sees the launch of the amazing Project Everyone. If you’re a development person, you’ll know that the UN is about to agree a new set …

Energy access: the next thing to go viral?

Of all the things that have gone viral this year, there is 1 in particular that stood out for me. A Swedish professor, Hans Rosling, produced a survey that tests our assumptions about the progress of the developing world. It …

Helping communities to adapt to climate change in Pakistan

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Climate Change, Pakistan

Climate change has already created many issues for communities around the world, perhaps no more so than in Pakistan. Productivity of crops is at risk of decline due to increasing land desertification, increasing temperatures and loss of soil fertility. This …

Power to deliver: equipping health centres in DR Congo with renewable energy

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Climate Change, Democratic Republic of Congo, Health, Infrastructure

Blogging by candlelight seems like a contradiction in terms.  But in the city of Kananga – the most Bond villain-sounding of a strong field of Congolese place names – it’s candlelight or nothing.  Kananga is a “ville noire” – which …

Putting on my sceptical hat for access to energy

Economists have a reputation for being sceptical. So much so that there is a book called the Skeptical Economist, and a new book referring to economics as the dismal science. This has a lot to do with our teaching. For …

What’s the route to becoming a developed country?

Last week, there was a great quotation doing the rounds on Twitter, Pinterest and other social media from the Mayor of Bogota in Colombia.  The quotation was "A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's …