Transport, electricity water supplies and services are essential to enabling countries to develop. Here we discuss our work to identify and unblock major infrastructure problems, enabling development to progress unhindered.
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 …
It had rained solidly all night, and was still raining at 6:30 as we assembled at the Pakistani Company Operating Base outside Walungu to assess whether the road trip was possible. The Burhale to Shabunda road in South Kivu is …
World Water Day often carries a simple message, and this year is no different. The message “humanity needs water” is clear but in its simplicity hides the complexity and urgency of what needs to be done to ensure a water …
So many of the ways in which women and girls around the world must live their lives are simply taken for granted, never given a second thought. We all know that domestic tasks fall disproportionately on women. That is as …
July 2013: my first week in Zimbabwe, in a taxi in Harare: “Boss, you can tell everything by the street-lights (‘boss’ being a friendly if slightly over-respectful Zimbabwean term when addressing customers)… “The street-lights….? I replied. “Sure Boss, the street-lights. …
Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must be one of the most difficult environments to deliver clean water. The city is built on the lava flows from nearby active volcanoes (the last major eruption was …
In Nepal, it’s not unusual for there to be 16-hour electricity blackouts in the dry season. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) simply cannot meet rising demand. Sadly, no power has been added to the national grid for the past 2 …
Local governance in Afghanistan is full of acronyms – PDP, DCC, DDA, PGO to name just a few – and SPAD is the latest addition. Admittedly, UK civil servants when they hear "SPAD" will not think of a programme that …
Last week I went to see some road construction in a UK and World Bank joint-funded programme called ProRoutes. We headed out of Kisangani in DRC’s Oriental Province, driving some 270 km north of the Congo River through the tropical …
I'm the Head of Office for the Department for International Development (DFID) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I have been based in the capital city, Kinshasa, for just over a year. This is a challenging and exciting job …
Recent Comments