I spent most of my nine years in East Africa staring at cargo manifests and listening to the diesel engines of aging Mercedes trucks, not …
The Reform Agenda and What Moved
July 2026
Insuring Against a Drought
I remember sitting in a humid, windowless office in Goma, staring at a stack of “emergency relief” brochures that promised everything but delivered nothing. The …
Complaints Mechanisms That Get Answered
I’ve sat through enough donor briefings to know that most people treat “accountability to affected people” like a sacred, abstract ritual—something you achieve by filing …
Prevention Is Cheaper and Harder to Fund
I remember sitting in a humid, windowless office in Goma, staring at a spreadsheet that claimed we had “secured significant multi-year commitments” for regional resilience. …
Releasing Money on a Forecast
I spent a decade watching NGOs scramble to move tons of grain or medical supplies only after the drought had already turned the soil to …
Coming Home From a Difficult Assignment
I remember sitting in a humid transit office outside Goma, staring at a stack of casualty reports that felt more like death warrants than data. …
Targets That Distort Behaviour
I remember sitting in a humid, makeshift office in Goma, staring at a spreadsheet that claimed we had achieved a 95% immunization rate for a …
Poverty as More Than Income
I spent nine years in the back of dusty Land Cruisers across South Sudan and the DRC, watching people try to solve crises with nothing …
Consultation That Is Not Tokenism
I spent three years in South Sudan watching “community engagement workshops” eat up forty percent of project budgets while the actual delivery schedules sat gathering …
Following a Crop to the Shelf
I once spent three days in a humid warehouse outside Goma, watching a shipment of temperature-sensitive vaccines sit on a concrete floor because the paperwork …