I remember sitting in a dusty office in Goma, staring at a glossy brochure that used the word “catastrophe” fourteen times but didn’t mention a …
What Declaring a Famine Means
The Refugee Convention’s Core Obligation
I’ve spent enough years sitting in humid, makeshift offices in Goma to know that people love to talk about the “sanctity” of international treaties. They …
Sharing Data Without Exposing People
I remember sitting in a humid, corrugated iron warehouse outside Goma, staring at two different spreadsheets that claimed to describe the exact same shipment of …
A Rapid Needs Assessment
I once spent three days in a dusty compound outside Goma, watching a consultant in a crisp polo shirt try to explain how needs assessments …
Why Two Agencies Dug the Same Well
I remember sitting in a humid warehouse outside Goma in 2012, staring at a stack of signed manifests that meant absolutely nothing because the trucks …
Who Wins the Contracts
I spent nine years in the dust of East Africa, and if there is one thing I learned, it is that nobody actually cares about …
Incentive Workers and Their Status
I once sat in a humid office in Goma, staring at a spreadsheet that claimed we had “successfully disbursed” local stipends to a community health …
Justice After a Conflict Ends
I once spent three weeks in a humid warehouse outside Goma, staring at a stack of “capacity building” manuals that were never going to leave …
The Pay Gap Between National and International Staff
I remember sitting in a humid, corrugated metal office in Goma, staring at a thick stack of “standardized regional compensation frameworks” that had just been …
The Under Five Mortality Rate
I spent most of my years in South Sudan and the DRC staring at cargo manifests, not colorful infographics. I’ve sat in enough donor briefings …