Economic growth is the most important means of raising people’s incomes and reducing poverty in the developing world – it creates jobs and opportunities for poor people to support their families and build more stable futures. We work around the world with organisations and individuals to stimulate economic growth so people can lift themselves out of poverty.
Last month I joined Justin Lin – the ex-Chief Economist of the World Bank and something of a rock star in the world of development economics – to talk at a conference in Geneva organised by the Donor Committee for …
Right now, Afghanistan is on the cusp of a series of profound changes. The international troops are drawing down and the process to elect a new President is underway. All of these changes are leading to an economic transition. When …
I first met Pabitra Damai at the village development office in Banke, West Nepal, where she had walked for 4 hours to open a bank account so that she could withdraw her monthly social security allowance of Rs. 500 ($ …
I recently joined DFID Afghanistan as the Private Sector Development Programme Manager, and my first "trip out" was to a programme I manage called Zardozi. It was already warm at 7:30am as I set off to meet 3 women - …
What do we mean when we say we are creating jobs in developing countries? That's not as easy to answer as it might first appear. For a start, few people in developing countries are ‘unemployed’ as we might use the …
Two years have whizzed past since I first arrived to work in Tanzania and was sent straight down to the capital Dodoma to attend the Parliament (Bunge) budget debate. I’m now at the likely mid-point of my assignment, so it’s …
A couple of weekends ago, the Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang made his first ever trip to Africa, visiting Angola, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Kenya. This was a significant date. 50 years ago, the then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai made the …
It always strikes me on my visits to Africa how imaginatively people use their mobile phones. Mobiles are not just for calls, texts or browsing the internet. Instead they are used to transfer money, like I saw on my last …
Since I wrote my first blog about my short-term placement in the John Lewis India Sourcing Office, I’m now several weeks smarter about the world of retail sourcing and how we might work together with retailers to deliver development results. …
Nothing can quite prepare you for walking into Zimpeto market, the largest wholesale market in Mozambique. It is a hive of activity, colour and noise with stacks of fruit and vegetables piled high in great walls of produce. It is …
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