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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.

Can playing games with disasters make sense?

Yesterday, I played a "disaster game". It was part of an event organised by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), which has brought together development practitioners, students with unbelievable energy, and lawyers and economists that – like me – …

Match-making in a changing climate

It's a big week of change for DFID this week. Despite apparently being in the "sexiest" department in Whitehall (according to the London Evening Standard at least!) we're all actually reeling from the news that our fantastic Permanent Secretary Minouche Shafik …

The power of pictures in cooking and economics

One of last week's editions of the Financial Times featured an article by John Kay, a top UK economist, saying that "clarity of thought and clarity of expression tend to go together". And he's right – presenting complexity in a …

Motorbikes, Mercedes and low-carbon choices

I've been working with two of our Asian country offices this week – Vietnam and Indonesia – helping them focus their programmes on low-carbon and climate-resilient growth. Travelling back and forth to the offices, I've noticed some sharp contrasts between …