Thanks for stopping by. This DFID Bloggers site is now closed and will no longer be updated regularly. However, all the blogs that appeared here will be archived if you want to look back at any of our posts. Why …
I put my book down and went to make another cup of tea. I never thought that those few steps to the kitchen would be the start of a journey towards creating a sustainable online fashion store called VV Vintage. …
I’m writing this from John Lewis’s India Sourcing Office where I'm doing a 4 week short-term placement, to learn more about the world of retail. I'll use the experience I gain to improve how I do my own job of …
Designing a large performance or results based education financing programme in Tanzania has certainly been a challenge over the past months. In particular getting the indicators right: how they can realistically be linked to achievable targets that both stretch and …
Twenty years ago the world took an important step in agreeing that population is not just about measuring the numbers of people in the world, it is about the quality of lives of individuals and that every person counts. At …
A highly addictive substance with strong stimulant properties is being grown in the conflict torn hills of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Between 50 and 80% of the harvest is then smuggled by boat and by road across the …
My primary school had some quite strong incentives to drive up performance. Every end of term, our teachers would test us and rank my classmates and I against each other. It was the extremes that mattered – top and bottom. …
As I'm sure you know by now, I am passionately committed to tackling violence against women and girls wherever it occurs, and this issue was the theme of my last speaking event at CSW before heading back home. The Millennium …
If I needed any reminder of the degree to which female genital mutilation (FGM) has shot up the international agenda in the last couple of years, the scrum to attend this morning’s FGM event at the UN Commission on the …
There's a key ingredient to women's equality that just hasn't made it far enough up the agenda, yet could literally power development: energy access for women and girls. So, this morning, I spoke at a meeting hosted by the Global …
As long as there is gender-based violence, we will never achieve gender equality. The Prime Minister appointed me as Ministerial Champion for Tackling Violence against Women and Girls Overseas in 2010 for exactly that reason. And today Poland organised their …
