Defining Moment

In 2010, the first time I landed in Goma, the head city of the North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, my plane almost crashed. The runway was cut in half by the remains of a recent volcanic eruption. By then, I was a few weeks into a trip that took me across the country. Along with the two other people in my team, I was conducting a study on the contribution of forestry practices to conflict resolution, sponsored by the Minister for the Environment of the DRC, and donors. 

Fortunately, the pilot hit the brakes just before the lava flow. Yet, the feelings we experienced in Goma were the emotional equivalent of a plane crash. At some point, the local office of UNHCR took us to Mugunga, which was then the largest refugee camp in the world (a dubious claim to fame soon to be made by refugees in Kenya, and later in Jordan). On the way back, my two partners broke down in tears. I remained silent. One hour later, we had to facilitate a roundtable with local civil society leaders. I would end up doing it partly alone, conscious of how weird it was to be “hosting these people in their own home”, so to speak.

What I learned from this brief experience is integral to mine and Tusker Club’s vision and mission.

• Leadership is about making conscious decisions. I remember asking myself what I should do with my life now that I had been to, what people un-thoughtfully called, “the field”. In the months that followed, I would seek clarity through many discussions, including one with the then head of Peacekeeping operations at the UN. The short answer is that there is no such thing as “doing the right thing”. Leaders need space to reconnect with their sense of purpose in order to take responsibility for their decisions (at any level of leadership).

• Mediation between institutional and community approaches is essential to problem solving. The same way Goma and Kinshasa are on opposite sides of the map; civil society, governments and international organisations look at issues from seemingly opposite directions. The challenge is to empower communities, whilst accepting that institutions need a certain degree of formality in order to function and deliver on their mission to bring positive solutions to scale. Inform and engage with both sides of the spectrum, reframe the issues, build solutions from the ground up, and inspire stakeholders to adopt them.

• What shapes networks into communities is the ethical choice that their members once made, much more than other characteristics such as age, background, wealth or education. I aspire to be part of a community of people who have consciously chosen to be of service – the best course of action considering the otherwise absurd reality – and actively seek to build bridges between communities and institutions to deliver a sustainable impact.    

“But do you think what you did back then had any impact?”, I reflected. 

Indeed, it is a question that we ought to ask ourselves regularly. Back then, we were told that extracts of our study were included in the DRC State of Development report to the UN. We also published an article in an Oxford University review. And the picture we took in the rainforest in the outskirts of Kisangani (see below) became the 2011 Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs’ New Year’s card and was projected in the background of the graduation of the class of 2011, attended by Kofi Annan. In short, I would say we had a rather limited impact.