by Steven | Apr 25, 2026 | 2026 Challenge
She saw them first with bowls of pale, squirming worms in their hands. Two young mothers walked slowly through the dilungu, toddlers trailing behind them. Cream-coloured sand clung to the fingers that held their dinner tightly. Their colourful kikwembes swished in the...
by Steven | Apr 25, 2026 | 2026 Challenge
She always fancied herself a bit of a philosopher. A free spirit with an environmental degree and lofty plans. If she could just secure a role at a respected engineering consulting firm in Europe — ensuring infrastructure projects did not damage ecosystems beyond...
by Steven | Apr 25, 2026 | 2026 Challenge
I met Pierre Mutambwe relatively early in my career. Within months, he became “Papa Pierre” to me. He was about five years from mandatory retirement when we first worked together — a community relations manager with the kind of quiet authority that does not announce...
by Steven | Apr 25, 2026 | 2026 Challenge
He was young. An intern consultant on his first major out-of-country assignment. Fifty-two stakeholder meetings in remote central Africa for a greenfields mine not yet built. A public participation process that moved from village to village in convoy. He carried the...
by Steven | Apr 25, 2026 | 2026 Challenge
She is in her mid-forties and permanently on the move. Her car is her second office. The passenger seat carries a laptop bag, tangled chargers, and a large tub of jelly babies. They spill easily when she brakes too hard. She eats them when she is nervous. Which is...
by Steven | Apr 25, 2026 | 2026 Challenge
It arrives as a spreadsheet. Neatly arranged columns.Indicators grouped into categories.Units of measurement.Dates.Geographies.Descriptions. On paper, it looks obedient. Captured and reported, it provides executives with management insight and investors with comfort....