About 35 years ago, the radio news announced that the then president of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi, had broken diplomatic ties with Norway. The embassy, with about 100 foreign and a few local staff, had one week to clear out of the country.
I was one of a few staff there at the time who worked for the Norwegian development agency, Norad, and our jobs disappeared with that radio broadcast. An estimated $30m annual budget, largely targeted at the arid and semi-arid parts of Kenya, also disappeared. Obviously that did not matter much to Kenya’s leadership, who felt that the independence of the country and the ability for them to decide what was good for Kenya, was more important.
The drama was triggered because the Norwegian ambassador decided to appear in a court in Nakuru, where the human rights activist Koigi Wamwere was being tried for treason, hence showing solidarity with a so-called dissident who had been in exile in Norway.
I was in a state of disbelief, as all my hopes of enjoying what looked like a progressive career were dashed overnight, barely 10 months after joining the embassy. I had been comfortable, having sole access to a desktop computer, rare in those days, but had not even practieds my computer skills as it was a privilege I took for granted.
There are close parallels between my story and what happened to many non-profit organisations in Kenya and globally after 20 January, when Donald Trump took over as US president and cancelled most of the traditional work of the government’s development agency, USAid, throwing many charities into a spin of confusion and unanswered questions.
How could he do that so suddenly, they asked. Now, the UK is also cutting back on its own aid budget.
For me, in 1990, the abrupt end of my job was a wake-up call. I never looked back. When I got my next role, three months later, I embraced my secondhand laptop and quickly perfected my ability not only to produce monitoring and evaluation reports supported by case studies, but also project proposals and budgets that I needed to submit to my supervisor for consideration.
I embraced the fact that my job was never guaranteed. There were many factors at play that I had no control over. I needed the skills to be able to survive with any “sound” employer, anywhere in the world, so developing myself was not a choice. I have since managed to have a flourishing career in the not-for-profit sector, in and outside the country.
Even after leaving full-time work, I continue to offer my knowledge to a variety of groups locally and globally, simply because I woke up and practised self-determination. I remain a strong advocate for independence from donor dependency throughout my career.
Trump’s actions just re-energised my commitment to continue to use every single opportunity to support global majority actors to embrace the right mindset in their effort to explore alternative resources for their work. Funders, on the other hand, definitely need to embrace genuine and practical shifting of power in their approaches to supporting development work, so that what they initiate can outlast them, and be driven by local organisations, especially those from the global majority.
In the past couple of weeks, I have become alert to various reflections that speak to this from colleagues in the sector. I continue to be astonished by how hard it is for us to learn important life lessons. One statement I like is by Thomas Sankara, who said: “He who feeds you, also controls you.”
I consider the spirit behind this wisdom a key takeaway for us in the not-for-profit sector. It reminds us how much power we surrender to those who fund our work, especially when we act and behave comfortably, when this is happening over many years, and without us riding on that wave to slowly grow alternative resources, however small they may be. Developing other resources requires a different mindset and the recognition that it’s a courageous long-term journey, not for the faint-hearted.
It is working against the tide. What happened to Kenya when our president froze a bilateral relationship with Norway overnight, has some parallel with USAid ending with a stroke of President Trump’s pen. It looks as if we need to accept that these acts will repeat themselves in our unpredictable world, in one way or other.
And so, for us in the majority world, it’s time to shape our destiny; not to blindly follow those who “feed” us; to start saying no to any money that does not meet the community needs we exist to support.
It’s time to rise up and be counted, as true believers, in the interests of the people we claim to represent when negotiating for funds, and be ready to walk away with our heads held high if it’s not working. It’s time to organise, not agonise.
