17th July 2025
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Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
15th July 2025
International Day of Women in Diplomacy: UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls visit to Geneva
1st May 2025
The UN Commission on the Status of Women: My first visit as UK Special Envoy for Women and Girls
22nd July 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
PROTECTING GIRLS FROM ABUSE OF THEIR RIGHTS
Today (22 July) my Prime Minister, David Cameron, and UNICEF, are hosting the world’s first #GirlSummit in London. The Summit’s aim is to mobilise domestic and international efforts to end the appalling practices of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Child Early Forced Marriage (CEFM). This is a high priority for the UK government and the […]
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22nd July 2014 Sofia, Bulgaria
Our Bulgaria in the 1960s
by Margaret Heath, Clare Staughton and Nick Heath Lady Heath lived in Sofia in the early 1960s while her husband – Sir Mark Heath – was British Consul and Deputy British Ambassador to Bulgaria. They stayed in Sofia with their three young children. Two of them – Clare and Nick – also share childhood memories of Bulgaria in […]
21st July 2014 Colombo, Sri Lanka
The Times They Are A-Changin’
I am delighted to be taking over Robbie’s mantle as Deputy High Commissioner and British High Commission blogger-in-chief! Like him, I’ll aim to offer personal reflections from my ringside seat on the rich and varied UK/Sri Lankan relationship. Please do comment, whether it’s to agree with me or not. My first week here was dominated […]
21st July 2014 Brasilia, Brazil
One girl, all girls
For those of us who are involved with Human Rights – whether it is our job, or just a cause we support – there is always a tricky question to answer: how far should we go to defend these principles without imposing our values into different cultures and traditions? How much should we respect these […]
18th July 2014 Melbourne, Australia
Working with young people who are working for others – Scouting in Estonia
Estonia is the country in Europe with the most business start-ups per head. It has a lot of bright young people, as its top rankings in the PISA tests affirm (top results in the world outside East Asia). The Estonian education system is strong throughout, but excels in particular in maths, science, engineering and computing/ICT. […]
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18th July 2014 Brasilia, Brazil
Keep walking: the World Cup, politics and women
The World Cup is over for almost a week now. People are now dealing with “game abstinence”. Or the five stages of grief, depending on how much involved with it you were. I’m not really a football person (my go-to sport being volleyball), but it was impossible to not be involved in the World Cup […]
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18th July 2014
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The Girl Summit
Child, Early and Forced Marriage (#CEFM) affects millions of girls every year. One in three girls in developing countries is married by the age of 18. Some are as young as eight. Girls who marry young will have babies while still children, putting them at risk of death or suffering for the rest of their […]
18th July 2014 Brasilia, Brazil
BRICS Week Part 01- Guest blog by Floriano Filho
This week we are reaching across our Chevening alumni network in the BRICS countries, to understand a little more about what they think the future of BRICS is. We hope to be able to share opinions from some of our alumni in these countries over the week. This first piece is from Brazil where the […]
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18th July 2014 London, UK
End Sexual Violence in Conflict Hack
This is the last in a series of 3 blog posts about the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. See blog 1 and blog 2. “Hi, Marjourie how are you?” “Hi, I’m fine, thank you Toby” “How are things in Goma (East DRC) today?” “Fine…not good actually…we had a busy night. Four more […]
17th July 2014 Washington DC, USA
Our NATO: Looking back but moving forward
Yesterday marked 50 days to go until we host the NATO Wales Summit. In Parliament, the UK Minister’s for Europe, David Lidington, addressed Parliament on preparations ahead of the Summit, which will be the largest gathering of international leaders ever to take place in the UK. Over 24,000 room nights have been reserved in over […]
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