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19th September 2017
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
The UK and the Enescu Festival
George Enescu, who died in 1955, is Romania’s most celebrated composer. A child prodigy, he wrote an opus for piano and violin entitled “Romanian Land” at the age of five. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory and then the Conservatoire de Paris. As well as a prolific composer, he was a distinguished conductor, and was […]
19th September 2017
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Britain in Focsani
One of the strands of the Embassy’s current #BritainInRomania campaign is to highlight all of the cities in Romania in which the UK has ever had a consulate or other form of diplomatic representation. This took me earlier this month to Focșani, capital of the county of Vrancea, some three hours drive to the north […]
19th September 2017 Abuja, Nigeria
What works to improve nutrition in northern Nigeria?
With a strong focus on learning and continuous engagement with Nigerian policy-makers, the Operations Research and Impact Evaluation (ORIE) project, led by Oxford Policy Management, was successfully completed in August 2017. ORIE has contributed for the past five years to inform nutrition research and the policy debates in Nigeria and beyond. ORIE provided operations research, […]
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18th September 2017 Geneva, Switzerland
Uniting Against Slavery
The seasons change fast in Switzerland though nothing quite takes the shine off a summer break like a week holed up in UN meetings. Once they begin, life becomes a strange combination of rapid high energy bursts of darting about, mixed with prolonged bouts of repetitive drudgery. Spending hours arguing over the wording of resolutions […]
18th September 2017 Holy See
Sport at the Holy See
On Sunday, I took part in the Via Pacis marathon, a 21km or 5km run for peace around Rome (I did the 5K option!) taking in not just churches but also a mosque and a synagogue, and organised jointly by the Rome city council, thePontifical Council for Culture, Muslim and Jewish representatives. Last year, the Vatican explained its […]
15th September 2017 Hanoi, Vietnam
The spirit of democracy is more important than the form
Today is the UN’s International Day of Democracy (IDD). Time flies – it seems like much less than two years ago that I marked IDD in 2015 by meeting with civil society representatives to discuss the development of civil society in Vietnam. This year, the IDD again represents an opportunity to step back from our daily work […]
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14th September 2017 Vienna, Austria
Celebrating 20 years of fighting illegal drugs and crime
On 14 September the UK joins others in celebrating the 20th anniversary of the formation of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, known as the UNODC. The UNODC was set up in 1997 from a merger between the UN’s Drug Control Programme and the UN’s Centre for International Crime Prevention. Today, the UNODC’s work […]
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14th September 2017 Science and Innovation Network
Influence Through Impact: 10 Years of the UK Research Councils in China
Ten years is a fleeting moment in the history of the Research Councils but this Sunday is a special day. 17th September 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Research Councils’ China Office. Between 2007 and 2017, British researchers were awarded 17 Nobel prizes spanning Physics, Economics, Chemistry, Physiology and Medicine – […]
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12th September 2017 Geneva, Switzerland
The Power Of The Human Rights Council
The Human Rights Council of the United Nations is just a political forum, powerless to do anything to stop the worst human rights violations around the world. This was the argument put to me at a briefing last week. We were discussing the session of the UN Human Rights Council that began on Monday. I […]
11th September 2017 Geneva, Switzerland
Back at the Wheel
It’s been a summer of car-related mishaps. The Swiss do many things well, though they must be among the best in the world when it comes to handing out speeding fines. I managed to pick up two tickets for going 1km and 2 km an hour over the limit and to add insult to injury, […]