Archive for December 2011
The end of the year is always a time for reflecting on what has gone well and hasn't: 2011 has been my first full year at DFID, working on the topic of green growth – one of the hottest issues out there, and a focus of next year’s Rio+20 Summit.One of the first phrases I [...]
Of all the things I thought I'd be doing when I got the chance to go to Africa and see Red Nose Day cash being spent - mixing cement wasn't one of them. After the years I spent working on building sites before the X Factor though, I felt strangely at home when I was [...]
The phrase "the benefit of hindsight" has been ringing in my ears as I've been reading the reports from the close of the Durban climate negotiations late on Saturday night. In particular, it's been ringing in my ears as I read that we're now aiming to get a global deal in 2015. The question I've been asking [...]
I'm sitting on a covered patio at the Embassy, watching a Congolese storm brew. The weather didn’t let up all weekend, and it's hard not to see it as a metaphor for the turbulence that has followed the release of the provisional results of last month's elections. On Friday, the electoral commission announced the tally. 49%, [...]
"I thought results were due out today?" my dad asked on Tuesday. "What's going on?" It's true that the announcement of the results of the DRC elections were originally slated for the 6th December. But the huge challenge of getting materials to the polling stations meant that some opened late, and voting ran over three [...]
As the world gathers in Durban to continue discussions on how best to avoid the impacts of climate change, last Saturday, several UN organisations and others hosted the Agriculture and Rural Development Day. I gave a keynote presentation, sharing a platform with Rachel Kyte, Vice President of the World Bank, and Dr Mary Robinson, former [...]
Over the past few weeks, and as I mentioned in a previous blog post, I've been continuing to help the DFID team in Ethiopia design an exciting new programme focused on supporting new small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs, including green businesses. So I've been surprised to hear that the private sector has started to become [...]
Sitting down for dinner in the Bulawayo Club (est. 1895) in southern Zimbabwe, one feels that one has been transported back to a gentlemen's club in fin de siècle Mayfair. One is immersed amongst Greek colonnades, oil portraits of colonial expeditions and the cult of Cecil Rhodes; of how this 'wild west' was won for [...]
Herat is seen as the cultural capital of Afghanistan. It boasts a university, a growing economy, a thriving carpet and crafts industry, and is one of the more secure provinces in Afghanistan. Herat lies in the North West of Afghanistan, bordering Iran and Turkmenistan, and enjoys a thriving economy due to its position in the [...]
Locked inside a classroom at 9pm, watching the count of presidential votes by the light of camping lanterns, I couldn't have been further from my day job. As I reported in my last blog, I spent Monday 28th November 2011 as an international observer of the elections in the DRC. The morning – covered in [...]
