Guest blogs
International Tom Hanks Day
It’s the tenth anniversary of International Tom Hanks Day. It’s founder, Kevin Turk, has some fun things planned this year. Find out how you can get involved.
African Innovator of the Month
A Shining Role Model for ICT Women in Africa At just 25 Clarisse Iribagize has created one of the leading mobile technology companies in Rwanda. In 2012 she won an Apprentice-style reality show for Africa, winning US$50,000 and this year her company won the Transform...
LIFTing the Lifeplayer MP3 in Zambia
Meet the Educational Broadcasting Services (EBS) team. This dedicated group of women and men are behind the Learning at Taonga Market primary distance education programme in Zambia. We’re partnering with EBS for a three-year research project that will analyse the...
Not the Picture the Brochure Painted – Mozambique in 1993
In 1993, just a year after the peace accords ended a brutal civil war where a million people were killed and five million were displaced, I took a mini-break in Maputo. I was working in the private sector in Johannesburg back then and couldn’t resist a holiday by the sea.
My Oh So Amazing Week in Zambia
DAY 1 - Energy poverty in your face (4 October) The BA flight from London touched down right on time at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, just as the brilliant hot African sun was rising. The pilot announced that it might take longer than usual to exit the...
Starting All Over Again in Zimbabwe
Although they’re located just to the north of us in South Africa, I hadn’t been to Zimbabwe since 2003. Back then I was involved in providing our radios for a local language soap opera drama to help communities learn about health issues…
What About Including Women in Africa’s Transformation?
I left the closing plenary of the World Economic Forum on Africa in Addis Ababa last Friday with a profound sense of optimism. Josette Sheeran, the Forum's new vice-chairman, moderated a wonderfully inspirational panel with African Young Global Leaders and Global...
Whirlwinds Of Change
When the London cabbie driving me to Paddington on Sunday asked where I was going and I replied that I was headed to Ethiopia, he said ‘What’s it like there now, is everyone still starving? Perceptions, it seems, aren’t easy to erase.
Shining a Light on Rose
Rose sits down to study on a worn out sofa in the corner of a tin shack at 7:00 pm each school night. After she’s helped with washing up and ensuring that the other 20 orphaned children she lives with have been fed, Rose begins her homework. Science, her favourite...
The Importance of Lighting and Communication
On her last day as as an intern, Rhea Ranjan explains how interning at Lifeline Energy helped her understand how access to information and clean lighting is an important aspect of international development.