Entries by Ian Randall
Complex problems, power, and Ubuntu: Together, we can change systems.
There is no doubt that complex problems disproportionately affect the less powerful: hunger, drought, floods, and conflict all punish the poor and marginalised first. It is understandable that the less powerful feel angry at the more powerful. They may despair or rage against the injustice. “Why me?” The powerful may be the winners in the […]
Why can’t my friends afford food? Inequality is a 21st Century complex problem
I live in Brighton, a wealthy, vibrant, liberal city; and yet I have dear friends who sometimes end the month without enough money to buy food. They have no assets to draw upon and, despite earning salaries around the national average, there seems little hope of this changing. Meanwhile, each year, I manage to get […]
No more boring conferences – the ultimate coffee break
Complex, interconnected challenges demand new forms of collaboration and innovation between diverse partners. And yet, the many meetings and conferences that are supposed to create this collaboration continue to be managed in didactic formats, with a few dominant voices holding court whilst everyone else though present in body, is absent in mind, awaiting the short […]
Grow Africa – a multi-billion model worth replicating?
“Grow Africa, your immense contribution to African agriculture is exemplary.” Akin Adesina, Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture Grow Africa has received some remarkable and enthusiastic plaudits. Yet what is it about it that has enabled it to rapidly deliver change at scale, where so many others have failed? Grow Africa can claim some big numbers. In […]
Dr Kate Simpson joins Wasafiri as Head of Development
Wasafiri has recruited Dr Kate Simpson to be our Head of Development. She will lead an expansion of our work delivering change in Africa, and establish our office in Nairobi. Kate comes from Impact International, where she headed up their Relief and Development Group and was a consultant on leadership development, organisational change and sustainability for Impact’s corporate […]
Solving the puzzle of parallel donor funding in Tanzania
The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) is an inclusive, multi-stakeholder partnership to rapidly develop the region’s agricultural potential. To advance this pioneering effort, the SAGCOT Centre was formed to provide coordination and facilitation for the partnership. For a development initiative, the SAGCOT Centre has an unusual governance structure that ensures it is genuinely […]
Billions of investment committed into African farming
Since inception in 2012, Grow Africa has catalysed a historic shift in private-sector engagement in African agriculture, with partner companies announcing over $10 billion in planned investment aligned to the national development goals of twelve target countries. This intent has translated into action, with over $2.3 billion invested, creating 88000 jobs, and reaching over 10 million smallholders […]
Coordinating donors behind Africa’s plan for agriculture
At the L’Aquila G8 Summit in 2009, African leaders called upon the international community to coordinate support for agriculture on the continent through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) as the leading African-owned initiative. They also called upon donors to do this in a manner embodying principles of aid effectiveness such as coordination, harmonisation, […]
