aid
April 30, 2025
Resuming blogging after completing my PhD studies, I find myself confronted with a deep crisis in the aid sector. The dismantling of US foreign aid, coupled with severe funding cuts by major European donors, is an unprecedented blow to international cooperation. Without a doubt, the current situation is a cause of major concern for the future of humanitarian and development aid as we know it. Yet, it also offers a rare opportunity for practitioners and policymakers to rethink the foundations of the aid system altogether. What strikes me, though, is that most opinions tend to come from professionals based in the Global North. Far fewer voices from the Global South have spoken up on the aid funding crisis. Why, I wonder?
April 29, 2024
Director of the Akiba Uhaki Foundation, or East African Human Rights and Social Justice Fund, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Ezra is also a Mason Fellow of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and an alumnus of the Kellogg International Leadership Program. He has already contributed to this blog here. Here is a short summary of our conversation on how African organisations like Akiba Uhaki can and should engage international donors differently to hold them accountable for the aid they promise.
November 13, 2023
Vitalice Meja (or simply Meja, as he likes to be called) is the Executive Director of Reality of Aid Africa, a pan-African civil society initiative to contribute to more effective development cooperation and international aid. Founded in 2000, Reality of Aid Africa is part of the global Reality of Aid Network. I have collaborated with Meja for many years and find him to be one of the sharpest minds when it comes to analysing the impact of international assistance on receiving countries. Here we talk about how to improve accountability for the aid donor governments give to recipient countries and Civil Society Associations (CSOs), particularly in Africa.
August 7, 2023
Civil society estimates that every year, USD 312 billion are lost in unpaid corporate taxes around the world. By using legal loopholes, many companies avoid paying their dues – often to Southern countries that host their operations and provide cheap labour. This happens because the governments of those countries are unable to enforce their fiscal policies, and there is still no global tax agreement to protect their interests.
But something is about to change...
June 30, 2023
A first for this blog, here is the video recording of a panel discussion held at the Nairobi chapter of the Imperial College Business School last September. Three Kenyan experts discuss development and international cooperation in their own country: Ezra Mbogori, Executive Director of the Akiba Uhaki Foundation and Fellow at Harvard University and the Kellogg International Leadership Program; G.K. Ndungu, economist and public policy specialist; and the moderator Wairu Kinyori-Gugu, former Programme Director at Oxfam Kenya, consultant and Kiliza author.
November 3, 2022
Après une longue pause, je reprends mon blog en interviewant l’une des personnes les plus inspirantes que je connaisse : Dieudonné Cirhigiri, un professionnel chevronné de l’aide humanitaire et du développement de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC).
November 3, 2022
After a long hiatus, I resume my blogging by interviewing one of the most inspiring people I know: Dieudonné Cirhigiri, a seasoned humanitarian and development professional from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
April 16, 2021
Every so often there are people who transition from national or small not for profit into the International NGOs. Many times, it is a dream come true because you have probably put in dozens of applications and this one lucky one made it through, and you cannot just believe! There you are in a multicultural fancy office; it really is a dream come true.
March 11, 2021
A few months ago, I wrote about how the international aid and development sector was addressing the double challenge of Covid-19 and mounting accusations of racism following the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US. I recommended levelling the playing field between Northern and Southern academia to counteract the widespread belief that ‘developed’ nations know what is best for ‘developing’ countries. In particular, establishing joint Northern and Southern degrees in comparative development would in my view be a major step forward to ‘decolonise’ development knowledge and lay the ground for more equitable solidarity. [More...]
December 11, 2020
I’m a big fan of my colleague Wale Osofisan, who works as Senior Director of the Governance Unit at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Recently, we have started collaborating more often on global advocacy priorities and that’s given me the excuse to ask him a number of questions about his background and his vision for international cooperation in the years ahead.