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 live on a military base in a very dusty part of the world, where temperatures top 50 degrees in the summer. We've not seen much rain since I first came here in early June. A number of UK troops live on …
I have just got in after a training course into the weird and wonderful ways and workings of the ‘Development Partnership Group' (DPG). The purpose of the DPG, and its many underlying sector and cluster working groups, is to manage the …
I was in the air somewhere above Helmand the other day, flying in a Sea King helicopter, trying to do my commute-time reading, but a long way from the squeeze of the Tube. A moment later, I was interrupted from …
One of the things I miss about living in London is cycling to work. So once I realised that it would only take around 20 minutes to cycle to my new office in Dar Es Salaam, I was keen to …
The themes of my week have been interrupted dinners and the frequent donning of body armour. Why? On Saturday night, there was an attempted attack on Lashkar Gah - the first since the Taleban arrived here in the 1990s. The …
UK Development Secretary Douglas Alexander MP arrived in Ethiopia early this morning. We changed to a 10-seater plane and flew straight up to Kebredihar in the Somali Region - part of Ethiopia most seriously affected by the humanitarian crisis. Douglas …
I assume that if you have internet access (and perhaps own a computer) then you've probably eaten without thinking, as many of us do every day. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm writing this as we mark World Food Day. Living …
I said in a previous post that I was preparing for a visit to Ethiopia by the UK Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander MP. Douglas arrives in Ethiopia today on World Food Day. So preparing for that …
On this Blog Action Day focussing on poverty, I thought it timely to talk about access to the internet, or perhaps more importantly how the millions living in poverty access the internet. It is unfortunate that much of the recent …
In Tanzania, as in many African countries, there is evidence of the informal economy wherever you look. As you walk through the streets of Dar Es Salaam, there are small stalls everywhere, selling fruit and veg, plants, mobile phone sim …
