I once spent three weeks in a humid warehouse outside Goma, waiting for a shipment of temperature-sensitive vaccines that were supposedly “funded by a major …
What a Development Bank Does
Energy Projects and Financing Rules
I remember sitting in a humid warehouse outside Goma, staring at a stack of procurement forms that had been rejected three times because the transport …
Why Adaptation Money Is Hard to Access
I remember sitting in a humid, corrugated-iron office in Goma, staring at a spreadsheet that claimed three million dollars had been earmarked for flood resilience. …
The Loss and Damage Fund and Its Gaps
I spent a decade watching people in suits debate abstract percentages in air-conditioned conference rooms while I was staring at a broken axle in a …
Requesting Documents From a Government
I spent nine years watching trucks sit idle in the mud outside Goma because a single signature was missing from a customs clearance form. People …
Whether Climate Finance Is New Money
I spent nine years in East Africa watching people get lost in spreadsheets while the actual work stalled in the mud. I’ve sat in meetings …
Monitoring a Place You Cannot Visit
I spent nine years in the dust of South Sudan and the DRC, where “monitoring” usually meant a frantic radio call to see if a …
Oda Defined Properly
I remember sitting in a humid, corrugated iron warehouse outside Goma, staring at a stack of papers that claimed we had secured millions in funding. …
Twelve Donors, One Ministry
I once sat in a humid, windowless tent in Goma, watching three different agency heads argue over a color-coded spreadsheet while a shipment of temperature-sensitive …
Handling a Document You Cannot Source Publicly
Most people treat a data dump like a sacred religious relic, wasting weeks trying to decode the “intent” or the moral weight behind every single …