What Works?
In What Context?
Under What Circumstances?
Why?
By Nthanda Manduwi
A seven-part reckoning with power, purpose, and possibility.
When I was a student at the University of Malawi, my classmates would often say, “You’re going to work for the UN.” It was meant as a compliment—an affirmation of brilliance. But at the time, I didn’t even know what that meant. I was the daughter of mariners, raised in Mangochi’s quiet privilege, groomed for a future in science or law. International development? That was not quite on the roadmap.
And yet, it found me.
From joining the Leo Club as a student, to founding my own non-profits—Ntha Foundation and the Kwathu Kollective, I was constantly drawn to the question: What happens after we donate? What happens when the cameras are gone? I began to see the cracks in how we “help,” and I knew I needed to do something different.
In 2021, I was selected as one of 18 from nearly 38,709 global applicants for the UNDP Graduate Programme. I was seconded to New York at the Independent Evaluation Office, working on SDG knowledge coordination, supporting evaluation conferences, and producing early conversations around what would become my show: The Lessons Conversation. I worked on global synthesis coalitions. I read every major framework. I learned the language of diplomacy.
And I learned its limits.
My former manager, and a great mentor of mine once told me, “You can’t change the world from here. You can only change the area around your desk.” That line stayed with me. It broke me a little. Because I didn’t come to the UN to change my desk—I came to change the world.
I still believe in sustainable development. Deeply. But I also believe that we are failing to deliver it—not just the UN, but all of us: governments, NGOs, donors, even private actors. The MDGs failed. The SDGs likely will too. Not because the intentions aren’t noble, but because the systems remain unchallenged.
So I chose to step away from New York, to recourse. To return to Malawi. To the work. To the ground. To change what I can measure. I later got into my MBA program with the Michigan State University, and I moved to Lansing.
To Learn.
And to write.
Why I am Writing the Lessons Series
I bet you are wondering, why on publication day, I am still saying ‘I am writing‘.
Over the past decade of my career, I have had the privilege of moving through very different worlds.
I grew up in Mangochi by the Lake Malawi. I had the privilege of studying economics and demography at the University of Malawi. I also had the privilege of working with the government of Malawi, first as an intern and later as a revenue officer with the Malawi Revenue Authority.
I had an even greater privilege of working with the United Nations, first as an intern with UN Women in Malawi and later as an evaluation analyst at headquarters with the United Nations Development Program Independent Evaluation Office. I was happy to support the knowledge coordination in the SDG synthesis coalition and support the launch of it.
Over my career, I’ve spent time with entrepreneurs, with creatives, development practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and business leaders. I have lived and worked in Malawi and the U.S. and the rest of the world by way of the United Nations.
And I have seen communities with very little and institutions with seemingly unlimited resources. I like to think I understand all the extremes of the spectrum.
With all this, there are a few questions that continue to follow me.
Why do some societies, for example, like America, prosper while some, like my country, Malawi, struggle?
Why do good intentions so often produce disappointing outcomes?
Why do so many projects succeed on paper and fail in practice?
Why do some ideas scale while others remain pilots forever?
Why do some institutions that are filled with capable women and people sometimes produce outcomes that nobody really wants?
And perhaps most important, what works in what context, under what circumstances, and most importantly, why?
The more I learned, the more I got aware of my own ignorance.
I think the world is full of explanations, especially with artificial intelligence, we have so much faster evidence. We don’t have a shortage of theories, frames, opinions, ideologies, prescriptions.
Everyone seems to know what countries should do, what governments should do, what entrepreneurs should do, what citizens should do, yet many of the places that have received the most advice remain stuck.
Malawi naturally occupies my mind for much of this journey.
Malawi is not uniquely broken, nor does it lack talent, debatable, nor does it lack ambition, debatable as well.
But it also forces some really difficult questions.
For example, how does a country with decades of development interventions remain among the poorest in the world, a country with no history of war?
How do well-designed programs fail to transform lives?
Why do systems that appear rational produce irrational outcomes?
And with all of this, this was the heart of my work in UNDP.
I was appointed by my manager to lead the lessons conversation podcast where we would discuss international development and go deep into what works in what context and why.
When I left the UN, I asked if I could continue producing the podcast in my own right.
As I was coming up with the spine of the podcast, what we’re going to talk about, I quickly realized that I myself was ignorant too.
As I did more research, I began writing because I needed someone to pull those questions.
So at first I said, I’m going to write one book, I’m going to call it Lessons.
As I did more research, I started coming up with key themes that were coming out of that one book, which did not fit in the one book.
One of those key themes was beggars in suits.
I wanted to pull out the threads of that and really understand that.
When I understood the beggar, I got deeper into the system.
I had to understand the system.
What is its history?
Why does it exist in the way it does?
Immediately after I understood the system, I was like, oh God, we have some impossible economies.
And how do we understand these impossible economies?
What makes them or what made them what they are?
And how can we work around them?
And immediately after I understood impossible economies, it hit me that we have been so wrong for so long, you know, and I pulled at those threads as well, how wrong we have been over time.
And as I realized how wrong we have been, it took me back to war and I realized that we are still at war.
And I pulled further and further and it drove me back to where we stand today in all the development documents we have in present day, in our UN 2.0 and Africa 2063 agenda.
And together, these themes created what is now a series.
They represent my attempt to make sense of the world as I have encountered it so far.
These books are not the final answer.
I am not coming to you to tell you that I have the definitive explanation for a formative fact.
I am still asking questions, and these are my best efforts at this point in time, which is why I have chosen to release them now the way that I am.
Traditionally, an author writes a book, I have done this in the past, publishes it, records an audiobook, and moves on to the next project.
I think of the lessons conversation as my making with some of my foundational work, and I want to do it differently.
These books, as you experience them, are volume one.
They represent ideally the foundation of research and synthesis and reflections that have emerged from the first phase of my journey building lessons.
Beginning now, ideally, each chapter for me is a conversation.
Over the coming years, I want to engage with scholars, entrepreneurs, policymakers, practitioners, artists, technologists, and builders into the lessons conversation.
I want together to examine the assumptions, evidence, experiences, and ideas that sit behind these chapters.
I do not intend to defend this book, far from it.
This is pure synthesis.
This is not something that I’m deeply attached to.
For me, the goal is to improve the conversation, to challenge our ideas, to strengthen our arguments, and to expose our blind spots, to test all our ideas against different realities.
Every conversation will become a layer of evidence, another perspective, another case study, another lesson.
And when enough of those conversations have taken place, I will return to text.
I will continue writing.
So at the end of this, you will get volume two.
Volume two will be shaped not only by what I think, but also by what we all learned.
And perhaps that is the real purpose of this project for me.
I didn’t want to just publish seven books.
I wanted to create a structure that would allow me to keep learning in public, to help us learn through the conversations, to ask better questions, to meet people whose experiences challenge our assumptions, and to understand a little more about why the world works in the way that it does, and why, despite everything, I remain optimistic that it can all work better.
And this is where this journey begins.
Lessons Conversation
Delve into Business and International Development with Nthanda Manduwi
Episode 4: The OS of Politics | Lessons Weekly
I had reached out to Justin Onwenu to ask how I could support his campaign, as he runs for State Senate. He was amenable, and invited me to join a canvass over the weekend. The team was meeting at Memorial Park in the City of Ecorse, part of Michigan State Senate District 1.
I had shared that I do not drive in Detroit, and when I spoke with his campaign manager, Cal, he was more than happy to pick me up and bring me to Ecorse. It was a small logistical detail, but a make or break one, for me. In conversation with him as he dropped me back home later that day, Cal joked that there is roughly a 50% flake rate in volunteer organizing, which made him even more committed to making sure as many people as possible were able to participate.
Campaigns are often narrated through the visible things: the candidate, the speeches, the endorsements, the policy platform, the fundraising numbers, the election results. But the day-to-day running of a campaign depends on the people doing the practical work on the ground: organizing volunteers, moving people, assigning turf, answering questions, solving problems, and making sure others are able to show up.
For me, that was my entry point into the day. That was how the day started.
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Welcome to the Lessons Conversation.
You are with me, your host, Nthanda Manduwi.
And until next time, keep learning.
The Books (2026 Publication)
1. Lessons
A Handbook for Professionals Starting Out in International Development
This is the heart of the series. Lessons is where it all crystallized—the patterns, the politics, and the people I met along the way. This book reflects on my early years in global development, particularly through the lens of a young African woman trying to make sense of systems.
It’s a guidebook, a memoir, and a challenge to the status quo—all in one. If you’re starting out in international work, this is the book I wish someone had handed me.
2. Beggars in Suits
A Study in Elite Capture and the Corruption of “Good Intentions”
This one cuts deep. Beggars in Suits is a confrontation—with development leaders, think tanks, and all those who weaponize titles, polished accents, and TED Talks to secure funding but block real change. I have been one of them.
It’s about how power replicates itself under the guise of “doing good”—and how elite capture is alive and well, even in the spaces meant to liberate us.
3. Systemic Nonsense
Untangling the Logic Behind a World That Runs on Illogic
We like to pretend the system is broken. But what if it’s working exactly as designed? This book unpacks the myths, contradictions, and dysfunctions that have become normalized in international institutions.
It’s both satirical and surgical—a dissection of policies that don’t make sense but continue anyway.
4. Impossible Economies
A Front-Row Seat to How Big Governments Have Failed Small Nations Throughout History
Here, I zoom out to the macro level—colonial trade, IMF loans, extractive governance. This is about Malawi. About Africa. About the global South.
Impossible Economies questions everything we’ve been told about “economic development” and looks at how outdated models continue to harm those already on the margins.
5. So Wrong for So Long
An Inquiry into How Bad Ideas Survive—and How Good People Enable Them
Failure isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s quiet, polite, and well-funded. This book reflects on the inertia within development institutions, where bad ideas live forever—because no one wants to admit they were wrong.
It’s also a self-interrogation: when have I looked the other way? When did I enable a broken structure? It’s not a blame game—it’s an honesty exercise.
6. We Are Still at War
Inside the Quiet Wars Big Powers Still Wage—Without Armies
This one is personal. We Are Still at War talks about the violence we don’t name: donor pressure, policy conditionalities, global funding politics. It’s about how war is still being waged—not with bombs, but with trade agreements, austerity, and coercion.
I wrote it to honor the silent resistance of small nations still trying to breathe under the weight of global control.
7. A New Normal
A Future-Minded Reflection on Systems Rebirth
This final book is the bridge between critique and imagination. It’s where I ask: What if we did things differently?
It brings together all the reflections from the first six books and dares to suggest alternatives—not perfect ones, but better ones. It’s a manifesto for the future. A blueprint, maybe. But mostly, it’s a love letter to what’s still possible.
Why All Seven? And Why All at Once?
Each book is a chapter in a much larger story.
Together, they form a complete arc—from awakening, to confrontation, to rebuilding.
I wrote these books not because I have all the answers, but because I couldn’t stay silent anymore.
This is my offering. To my peers. To my continent. To the world. To you.
Explore the Series
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with care,
Ntha
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About the Author
