Research & Insights

Writing from an ongoing conversation.

A journal of reflective musings, critical essays and observations grounded in African realities — and open to new questions.

Gender & power

5 August 2026

Why sameness is not fairness!

Why treating everyone equally can produce unequal outcomes Few ideas sound more fair than the promise to treat everyone the same. Governments promise equal access to public serv…

16 min read · Read essay

AI & ethics

2 August 2026

One road does not fit all

Why interventions must be fit for purpose Development is built on solutions. Roads improve access. Schools improve education. Health centres improve health. Credit improves live…

6 min read · Read essay

Research & methods

30 July 2026

How problems become problems

Recognition, diagnosis and the roots we refuse to uproot. Every development intervention begins long before the first dollar is spent. It begins long before the baseline survey,…

15 min read · Read essay

Research & methods

29 July 2026

What transforms understanding into recognised knowledge?

Understanding, legitimacy and the politics of recognition. I never doubted the value of expertise. Throughout my career I have worked with economists, engineers, statisticians,…

7 min read · Read essay

AI & ethics

28 July 2026

The wrong solution to the right problem

What counts as evidence in development? I am a mathematician. Numbers make sense to me. Equations make sense to me. Econometrics makes sense to me. Models bring order to complex…

6 min read · Read essay

AI & ethics

28 July 2026

The economy the market cannot see

Rethinking poverty, livelihoods and economic activity. The questionnaire was designed to measure consumption. But the people I interviewed were not consuming in the way the ques…

7 min read · Read essay

Gender & power

24 July 2026

When baseline data carries hidden theories of change

The questionnaire was not the problem. The problem was the theory of change it was carrying. Early in my career, I was part of a team conducting a feasibility study for a rural…

6 min read · Read essay

Gender & power

23 July 2026

The questions we ask shape the roads we build

Rethinking transport, development and the realities we fail to see Development does not begin with projects. It begins with assumptions. Before governments build roads, design p…

5 min read · Read essay

Tax justice & care

21 July 2026

Revenue measures what governments collect. Tax justice measures what societies become

Two series. Thirty-five essays. Thousands of words. One question has travelled through every one of them. Who pays? Who benefits? Who decides? This series has followed taxation…

6 min read · Read essay

Tax justice & care

19 July 2026

Where are the services?

This series has traced how women are taxed through unpaid care, depleted time, unavoidable consumption, and economic invisibility. It has shown how tax systems extract from live…

6 min read · Read essay

Tax justice & care

16 July 2026

What is not counted does not count

This series has traced how care, time, and consumption are extracted through systems that depend on what they do not measure. Now we ask: what does taxation choose to see – and…

4 min read · Read essay

Tax justice & care

21 May 2026

The tax you cannot escape

Consumption, survival, and the taxation of everyday life She buys food. VAT is already embedded in its price. She buys fuel. Excise is already embedded in its price. She buys so…

6 min read · Read essay