Sarah came to Kenya in 2018 as an expat hoping to make a difference. After 6 months, she left disillusioned.  In this episode, Sarah and I cover her journey to Kenya and her unique approach of coming to observe and learn first; her surprise at the expat bubbles she found herself in; the complexities of working for an expat-led NGO and the condescension that is implicit in the narrative of 'skill-transfer to Kenyans'; why she decided that in the end, her place for 'impact' was not in Kenya and the questions expats should ask themselves. It was a delight to catch Sarah for this interesting ..read more

In this introduction to The Development Dilemma, I lay out who your host is (hint: me - Arnav Kapur); the origins of this show; who this is for (you!) and what to be excited about. Please listen, review, share and send me any feedback! I can be reached on: Twitter: @dev_dilemma; Instagram: thedevelopmentdilemma; Email: arnavskapur@gmail.com. Music credits to Juliani, 'Kama sa Sisi' Instagram: thedevelopmentdilemma; Twitter: @dev_dilemma; Music credits: Juliani, 'Kama sa Sisi ..read more

Mary Njeri, Minoo Kyaa and Wanjira Wanjiru are three brave, powerful and caring women that are part of the Organic Intellectuals Network, a group composed of members who live in informal settlements like Mathare and work towards the betterment of their community. They present their chapters from the book, Breaking the Silence on NGOs in Africa by the Organic Intellectuals Network, which can be found here: https://darajapress.com/2023/03/14/breaking-the-silence-on-ngos-in-africa   We talk about how the presence, and intervention, of NGOs disrupts many of their grassroots initiatives a ..read more

Live from Nairobi, I was joined by three great panelists, Caroline Teti from GiveDirectly, Tom Wein from IDinsight and Kanyi Wyban from Mathare Green Movement to tackle three questions: what is dignity? why should people care about dignity in aid? what does it mean to implement aid with more dignified? You can subscribe to our newsletter through this link: http://eepurl.com/hMbM3T Instagram: thedevelopmentdilemma; Twitter: @dev_dilemma; Music credits: Juliani, 'Kama sa Sisi ..read more

In Part 2 of my conversation with Professor Funmi Olonisakin we explore how the global security interests perpetuate colonial approaches in Africa, and Funmi also up about her experiences as a black woman in UK academia and the power of the decolonising and black lives movements.   You can subscribe to our newsletter through this link: http://eepurl.com/hMbM3T Instagram: thedevelopmentdilemma; Twitter: @dev_dilemma; Music credits: Juliani, 'Kama sa Sisi ..read more

This episode is a conversation about power, how it is created, enforced and could be disrupted by young African leaders. I was honoured to host Professor Funmi Olonisakin, an activist at heart from her days of student protest in Nigeria, a Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at King's College London and a founding Director of the African Leadership Centre (ALC). http://funmiolonisakin.com/   We delve into why Funmi believes young African leaders need to study and understand circles of power and how to leverage it even without it. Secondly, we explore the key power players at ..read more

We hear the term 'White Saviourism' and think it only applies to the egregious examples we see on Social Media but it applies much broader to include brown saviours, many development institutions, certain forms of Western knowledge and perhaps even you!   Themrise Khan, Dickson Kanakulya and Maïka Sondarjee have put together a great book to address this, White Saviorism in International Development: Theories, Practices and Lived Experiences. If you enjoy this episode, you can get your copy here: https://darajapress.com/publication/the-white-savior-complex-in-international-development-theo ..read more

It is a real honour to bring to you my discussion with Ruth Levine, the CEO of IDinsight - a research and advisory organization that works with global development leaders to improve their social impact. As an organisation with 6 offices spread across 5 regions in Africa and Asia, I think Ruth is keenly aware of the complexities of cultural differences and sensitivities and how they impact meaningful collaboration. So in this episode we tackle the challenges she and IDinsight faced to hiring talent across the globe, building trust with communities and then her concerns around the all too superf ..read more

This is Part Two of my discussion with Shiro and Phuthi, two African students at the University of Stanford. If you haven't listened to Part 1, I would recommend giving it a listen first. Here we explore Shiro and Phuthi's internal struggles at work balancing competing priorities of justice for fellow Africans with pursuit of personal goals; what more expats and those workplaces should do to address this trade-off and finish with a discussion about the inequities in fundraising and the need for investment funds created by Africans for Africans.  Instagram: thedevelopmentdilemma; Twitter ..read more

Shiro Wachira and Phuthi Tsatsi are two brilliant African graduate students at the University of Stanford, with plenty of experience in development organisations in Kenya and South Africa. But after time with both, they are quite disillusioned. Why have they found Stanford at times disappointing and a hard place to be? Why do they no longer want to work in development organisations? In this Part 1 of 2, we tackle this and more! Instagram: thedevelopmentdilemma; Twitter: @dev_dilemma; Music credits: Juliani, 'Kama sa Sisi' Instagram: thedevelopmentdilemma; Twitter: @dev_dilemma; Music credits ..read more