Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Blogs

A unique insight into UK foreign and development policy

15th March 2013

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by Sarah Dickson

Ambassador to Guatemala (June 2012 - June 2015)

Tour for Life: Campaign against violence

This week the Embassy helped Jovenes Por Guatemala (JXG) launch the next phase of their campaign to break the cycle of violent culture in the home.  Regular followers of the Embassy’s work on this campaign will remember JXGs 2012 event, the Subida por la vida – the “Climb for Life” up the Agua volcano in […]

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15th March 2013 Beirut, Lebanon

Tom Fletcher

by Tom Fletcher

Former British Ambassador to Lebanon

Two years of crisis and human tragedy in Syria

Guest blog from British Ambassador to Turkey, David Reddaway, marking the second anniversary of the Syrian Uprising: The two years of crisis and human tragedy in Syria since the uprising, shaped by the Assad regime’s decision to respond to the Syrian people’s demand for democratic rights by repression rather than reform, have had a huge […]

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15th March 2013 New Delhi, India

Medical device meet up

Continuing our series of guest blogs from people we’ve worked with recently, here’s a blog from Arun Muthirulan, Accelerator India, about an exciting event in Bangalore a few weeks ago… Feb 5th 2013. Bangalore played host to RiffStream#, a very interesting “event”, focused on companies from UK and India operating in the medical devices, equipment […]

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15th March 2013 Beirut, Lebanon

Tom Fletcher

by Tom Fletcher

Former British Ambassador to Lebanon

Syrian uprising two years on

Today marks the second anniversary of the Syrian uprising. Lebanon now hosts almost 400,000 registered Syrian refugees, but the real number of Syrians here is over 1m. Imagine the impact of 15m refugees in the UK. Lebanon, lashed to Syria by history and geography, has responded with extraordinary generosity. With camps avoided for political reasons, […]

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15th March 2013

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by Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Turkey, Iceland, press freedom, Google

What links Turkey, Iceland, press freedom and Google? My recent blog “World Press Freedom Index:  Turkey” was the most-read blog I have written since coming to Turkey.  So I was interested to see reports recently about the balance which all countries must strike between media freedoms; genuine security concerns; and ensuring that the extent to […]

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15th March 2013 Windhoek, Namibia

Marianne Young

by Marianne Young

High Commissioner, Windhoek

Celebrating the Commonwealth in Namibia

This week is Commonwealth Week – which kicked off with Commonwealth Day on Monday 11 March.To mark the event officially, I joined the other High Commissioners accredited to the Republic of Namibia to travel to State House to deliver Her Majesty the Queen’s annual Commonwealth Message to President Hifikepunye Pohamba. The theme of this year’s […]

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15th March 2013

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by Peter Beckingham

Former governor in Turks and Caicos Islands

Gas fields, gels and gin – mixing it with the PM’s visit

The Prime Minister’s visit to India in February set a number of firsts: the first by a British PM to Mumbai for 20 years, the first by a PM to Amritsar, and the first to India (or anywhere) to be joined by over 120 businesspeople. The size of the business group set us in Mumbai […]

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14th March 2013

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by Sarah Dickson

Ambassador to Guatemala (June 2012 - June 2015)

British Week 2013 – we will rock you Guatemala!

The unofficial anthem of the London Olympics became our unofficial anthem for British Week 2013. As we proved that music is Great Britain by showcasing some of the best of British music via a Queen tribute band and a charity dinner with everything from Rolling Stones to Coldplay. But regular readers will know that British […]

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14th March 2013

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by Sarah Dickson

Ambassador to Guatemala (June 2012 - June 2015)

British Week 2013 – we will rock you Guatemala!

British week 2013 – we will rock you Guatemala! The unofficial anthem of the London Olympics became our unofficial anthem for British Week 2013. As we proved that music is Great Britain by showcasing some of the best of British music via a Queen tribute band and a charity dinner with everything from Rolling Stones […]

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14th March 2013 Nairobi, Kenya

by Matt Baugh

Ambassador to Somalia

Giving voice to Somalia’s silent majority

International Women’s Day is a global opportunity to celebrate and promote the rights of women. It is a chance for all of us, men and women, to unite under a single, common aim – gender equality. This is particularly pertinent in Somalia. Everyone in Somalia has suffered from decades of often unrelenting conflict. But Somalia’s […]

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