26th February 2016
In May this year, the first World Humanitarian Summit will be held in Istanbul. The United Kingdom sees this as a real opportunity to take stock of how humanitarian aid around the world is distributed, and to improve the effectiveness of delivery to ensure that aid reaches those most in need. Humanitarian aid needs to […]
17th April 2014 Washington DC, USA
I’ve been getting into Twitter in the last couple of weeks. I know I’m only five years later than everyone else, but I’m loving the new insights and the quirkiness of it all. Two things were “trending” on my Twitter timeline recently that, seemingly unrelated, made me reflect on the incentives shaping donor effectiveness. The […]
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21st February 2014 Washington DC, USA
Satellites, open data, crowdsourcing – these are some of the hottest buzzwords in the tech industry right now. But these innovations aren’t just limited to Silicon Valley and start-ups – they have come to dominate much of our everyday lives. Each time we open apps like Yelp and Foursquare to find the closest Starbucks or […]
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19th December 2013 Washington DC, USA
In my lifetime, the rise of digital communications has changed nearly every aspect of our daily activities. And in foreign policy, the world is changing as a result of digital’s ability to give a voice to so many. We have seen social media play a huge role in regime change in the Arab world, we have […]
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16th December 2013 Washington DC, USA
Washington truly epitomises the holiday spirit. It’s my first holiday season here, and I’m seeing firsthand the spirit of giving across the city. Bell-ringers collecting for the homeless. Toy drives in offices all across town, including our own. Washingtonians’ generosity is making an impact from local neighbourhoods to the far side of the globe. This […]
31st October 2013 Washington DC, USA
I’ve been looking forward to October 31st for some time now. Why you ask? Because it marks two occasions that signal the UK’s commitment to aid transparency – the official full launch of DFID’s Development Tracker website and the first day of the 2013 Open Government Partnership Summit. That may not have been the answer […]
2nd April 2013 Washington DC, USA
I don’t give as much money to good causes as I should. For someone who works in international development and who feels strongly that we need a joint, all-out effort to end poverty, that’s a pretty stark admission. Given my own failings, I can only say hats off to the UK Government for maintaining its […]
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30th January 2013
Guest blog by Henry Kenrick, Political Officer at the British Embassy in Ankara, Turkey The eyes of the world are on the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Syria – right on Turkey’s doorstep. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 50,000 Syrians have died. More than 700,000 people have become refugees; and more […]
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6th December 2012 Washington DC, USA
Back in the days when tweeting was what birds did, a cloud was something in the sky, an app was what you sent to the university admissions office, and Google was simply a misprint for the word which means 10100, who’d have thought that mobile phones could improve the daily lives of the world’s poorest […]
27th July 2012
Trade and development. In the UK, it’s a single subject. Just take two examples. First, the UK’s trade policy unit is staffed by officials from both the Department of Business and the Department for International Development. Second, whilst two-thirds of the UK’s Trade and Investment White Paper is about boosting UK exports and attracting more […]
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