Archive for December 2012
Do you have your own special space where you feel free? When I'm in the pool it’s 'Becky’s World' and no matter what is going on around me, I can just be myself. And in Zambia I visited a place where women - against all odds - can also be free to be themselves. Handling expectation is [...]
The world is definitely changing. The song "Gangnam Style", made in Korea and sung in Korean, has gone to number 1 in the UK, number 2 in the US, and has broken the record for being the "most viewed" video on you tube, with over one billion views. It is also being parodied all over the [...]
Each day en route to work I pass a perplexing sight - a large single parent family living and learning under a giant fig tree. The hustle and bustle of crowded Dar es Salaam contains a large green space by the coast - like NY's Central Park. Within it resides Agnes and her six children. Curiosity finally [...]
Do you know what a multilateral organisation is? Do you know your GAVI from your GPE? Your AsDB from your AfDB? Your UNDP from your UNFPA? Last July I was happily informed I had obtained a place on the DFID graduate development scheme and would shortly be upping sticks from beautiful Belfast to glorious Glasgow. Little did [...]
As Education Advisor, I am often asked - what can we do that makes the most difference for the least amount of money? It is a tough question to say the least - but usually I respond with projects that help young children at an early age can be the most cost-effective. Why are projects that help [...]
About a year ago, I experienced one of the hardest working days of my life. It was the first day I chaired a meeting of a new 20-ish person taskforce on green growth and poverty reduction. It sounds odd and a little laughable now, especially now that a year has passed and that the group [...]
It takes imagination to picture what ancient Panjakent once looked like. While it might now be little more than a sprawl of ruins in western Tajikistan, the city was once a thriving trading point along the Silk Route. Like famous Samarkand, just across the border in Uzbekistan, this remote town is one of the oldest [...]
In Zambia one in four people live in slums. Finding regular work is really difficult and many families are forced to go hungry. Parents often can't send their children to school because there's not enough money to put food on the table, let alone buy uniforms and school books. In fact, when I recently visited [...]
Late on Sunday evening, something happened for the first time ever. Whilst the UK public was frantically voting on X Factor, Ghanaians had been taking part in a democratic exercise of their own. All day Friday, and on Saturday in some delayed polling stations, nearly 80% of eligible Ghanaians had gone out to cast their votes. Then, [...]
I have now left Afghanistan after nearly 21 months there. Just over a year ago, I spent four days in Bamyan province considering a new agriculture programme supported by UK and New Zealand aid. One year later I accompanied our Ambassador on his first visit to the province, and saw how the programme was progressing. Bamyan is one [...]
