DfID’s role put to the test

At a speech to the Royal Defence Academy earlier in the year, Andrew Mitchell outlined the costs of overseas conflict to Britain and offered a number of lessons for the future. The most important, he argued, was the need to help prevent wars before they start, starting with being “better at identifying the potential for conflict.” The Cabinet’s only ex-soldier, Mitchell has seen up close the cost of conflict, burns with anger about the Rwandan genocide and knows that development funds will forever be wasted if people are mired in violent conflict.

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Rob Crossan

The unpalatable truth about British food

The thesis he has brought to DfID – that there can be no development in conditions of conflict – is about to be put to the test again in Cote d’Ivoire, where the president has laid siege to the man who defeated him in an election, cutting off food and medical help to his headquarters in a hotel guarded by United Nations peacekeepers.