25th April 2024
Reflect & Remember: Anzac Day 2024
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs
A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy
23rd April 2024
Good English – A Key to Panama’s Future Success
21st March 2024
Forests in focus on International Day of Forests
13th October 2022
Girls’ education: measuring access and learning through the Global Objectives report
Today the Minister for Development Vicky Ford launches the Global Objectives report alongside colleagues from the Global Education Monitoring Report, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and the UN Girls’ Education Initiative, who jointly authored the report. The report sets out the progress made against two objectives on girls’ access to education and their learning. Improving […]
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12th October 2022 Geneva, Switzerland
Number 51
I’ve always had a fond attachment to the number 51. It was my house number growing up in Manchester, as little Robert. My first memory there was my parents bringing my newly-born baby sister home from the hospital. And my mum was born in the year ’51 (as well as some more famous but less […]
11th October 2022 London
International Day of the Girl 2022: the story of Beletch
Today is International Day of the Girl (IDG) where we stand accountable, with and for girls, especially those growing up in poverty who face unprecedented challenges from widening inequality and compounding global crises. This includes the 118 million girls who are out of school globally and the 12 million girls who are married before the […]
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7th October 2022
UK Ministry of Defence provides support to Cayman Islands following Hurricane Ian
Hurricane Ian caused much anxiety and tension for many in the Cayman Islands as it was the first storm for the hurricane season to set its path close to the country. However, the storm created an opportunity for great collaboration between the Cayman Islands Government and the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD). In the run […]
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29th September 2022
Prioritising foundational learning at the Transforming Education Summit
September is a crucial month in the calendar. In the UK, as in many countries, children have been going back to school. We have a new Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. We have also seen the sad death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of His Majesty King Charles III. And last […]
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1st August 2022 Geneva, Switzerland
Disarmament blog: the NPT Review Conference
Finally, it’s here. The 10th Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) begins today. National delegations, civil society representatives and the media are converging on New York from around the world for four weeks of intensive negotiations on some of the most sensitive, contentious and important issues for global peace and security. This RevCon […]
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29th July 2022
Global Education Summit: one year on
This time last year, leaders and ministers from all over the world were in London for the Global Education Summit. Co-hosted by the UK and Kenya, our mission was to raise as much money as possible for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), the world’s largest fund dedicated to transforming education in lower-income countries. I […]
6th July 2022
Tackling the education crisis: our priorities for the Transforming Education Summit
I joined the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Girls’ Education Department almost 10 weeks ago. Since then there have been multiple mentions of the ‘Transforming Education Summit’; the TES. I have just returned from Paris where, with Laura Davies, our Ambassador to UNESCO, I was representing FCDO at the TES pre-Summit. Held to build […]
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4th July 2022 Belgrade, Serbia
Displacement and destitution – the global consequences of Russia’s invasion
The numbers are growing. Some 13 million people have fled their homes in Ukraine since the Russian invasion. More than 5 million are still outside the country. Over 6 million people remain displaced within Ukraine. These are ordinary people, children and adults, citizens of a European country that is a close friend and ally of both Serbia and the UK. A few […]
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1st July 2022
Prioritising foundational learning in a crisis setting
In my role as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Girls’ Education I have been lucky enough to visit many countries across Africa and Asia. Last week I was privileged to visit Jordan for the first time and got to meet children being supported by UK aid to get an education even in challenging settings […]
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