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 …
It has been quite a while since my last blog. My excuse is that I was acting as head of DFID Mozambique for a couple of months. However Keith Mackiggan, the head of office is back, so no more excuses …
What’s this then? A whole day dedicated to humanitarian workers? Don’t they get enough air time as the face of disasters, recounting tales of untold suffering on our TVs? Well, no, actually. The sad fact is that regardless of how …
I can hardly believe how quickly it’s come around – but my time here in Helmand is over. It’s been a fantastic experience, and what I've seen on the ground is very different to the picture so often presented on …
The greatest challenge in my job is when I hear colleagues from developing countries ask how they’re supposed to tackle climate change when they have a hundred other development issues to think about. As I’ve written before, my answer is …
The rainy season is now in full swing and Northern Nigeria is rapidly greening once more, with crops of maize and millet growing fast. I’ve survived my last domestic flight through a brewing storm, with turbulence so bad it dumped most …
A couple of weeks ago I found myself back in Bhubaneswar, the state capital of Orissa (see the Government of Orissa website), to attend a workshop convened by the state government as part of consultations about its Climate Change Action Plan(the …
Last week I wrote about the importance of protecting our forests. But earlier this week I heard one of the world’s leading development economists say that, “sometimes the right thing to do is to cut down a forest,” if it was essential for …
I managed to combine work and pleasure last weekend when I went to visit Polana Secondary School in Maputo for the promotion of the 1GOAL campaign here in Mozambique. The Polana Secondary School is situated just behind the Dutch Embassy …
That's me under a tree, trying to figure out why the school behind me wasn't currently a place of learning. A recent visit I made to a ‘middle belt’ (ethnically mixed area with both Muslim and Christian inhabitants) Local Government …
After all the excitement of the elections, I took the chance to have a couple of weeks off in Uganda and Ethiopia. Now I try not to think about work when I’m having some down time. But when your work …
