Country snapshots

In this section, our consultants provide us with their impressions of a country they have recently visited.

Snapshot from Pakistan

Seema Khan was in Islamabad recently to support the work of the bilaterally-funded Maternal and Newborn Health Research and Advocacy Fund amidst the ongoing and very real threat of violence in the country. She reports on the differences in healthcare provision in urban and rural areas and how the fund seeks to address the broader, social, cultural and political factors which affect the health of mothers and newborns.

Snapshot from Liberia

Sarah Maguire recently visited Liberia to conduct primary research on violence against women for UN Women. Here she discusses how the increasing participation of women in public life sits side by side with endemic levels of domestic violence.

Snapshot from Angola

SDDirect's Lucy Earle visited Luanda, the world's most expensive city, for the first time in November 2010. She was part of an impact assessment of the Luanda Urban Poverty Programme financed by the UK Department for International Development since 1999. Here she reports on how rapid urbanisation propelled by oil exploration has left the poor and marginalised without access to basic services.

Snapshot from Ghana

Emma Broadbent recently returned to Cape Coast, Ghana, where she has been supporting a group of youths in their commercial ventures in the historical slave fort town. As a researcher with an acute interest in African politics, she offers some perspectives from Ghana's dynamic political environment in the lead-up to the 2012 elections.