I had a moment of dizzying clarity during a visit to The Gambia last month, when policy lines revisited in briefings, meetings and documents burst back into life, regained their power and gave a renewed sense of purpose to my …
Coming back from Latvia from a conference on women and sustainable development last week, a voice welcomed us on to Ryanair. “This is your captain speaking”, she said. Familiar enough words, but less so from a woman. In the week …
I'm Joseph Pakenham and I'm the Digital Advisor at DFID. This means I'm a huge advocate of anything digital (so long as it works), especially connected to international development. I'll be blogging about my work as part of DFID's Digital …
We often associate FGM with the harmful physical effects suffered by more than 125 million women worldwide. There is much less awareness about the psychological effects that can haunt a woman throughout her lifetime. I know from experience that sometimes …
The DFID Digital Advisory Panel is now just over a year old – and as we approach our 6th meeting we thought it was a good time to reflect on what has happened and outline some plans for possible future …
Having arrived in DRC just over a month ago, I was incredibly lucky to be taken with Alastair and Mischa - colleagues from the DFID DRC humanitarian team - to see our programmes in the east. Having seen that special security …
Cash transfers are an increasingly important component of DFID’s poverty-reduction tool kit. There is strong evidence that they are a highly effective means to support extremely vulnerable and poor people. Cash transfers can help people to recover from shocks caused …
There is a growing recognition of the extent and impacts of child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) in Zimbabwe. CEFM is widespread; 31% of young women in Zimbabwe are married by the age of 18. And research shows the deep …
May for me, as Head of DFID Kenya, was a month of stark opposites. Highs and lows, achievements and failings, celebrations and disappointments. To explain, the government of Kenya released a report called a 'A Price Too High to Bear', …
Not long after I arrived in Bangladesh, something very mundane happened to me that just happened to shatter my perspective. I was walking home, holding onto the remains of my lunch and naively expecting to encounter a rubbish bin along …
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