By Nthanda Manduwi
Launching September 14, 2025
In the world of international development, it is a little too easy to get lost in frameworks, indicators, and five-year strategic plans. But underneath the policies and programs lie lived realities — of those who implement, those who are impacted, and those who navigate the uneasy space in between.
After over a decade working across public, nonprofit, and multilateral systems — from the grassroots to the United Nations Headquarters — I’ve come to understand that development is rarely about what we do. It’s about how we think. And whom we center.
This 14th September, exactly 5 years since the publication of my first book, I am proud to release my upcoming book:
LESSONS: What Works? In What Context? Under What Circustances? Why?
This book is not so much a memoir. It is not a manual. More Bildungsroman. Something in-between.
It is a reflective critique of the systems we inherit, the ideologies we export, and the futures we’re still capable of building — if we are bold enough to rethink everything.
About the Book
Lessons is a deeply personal, policy-informed exploration of what international development looks like when you’ve lived on both sides of the equation:
- As a young African woman navigating large institutions (UN, World Bank, Microsoft, EU, etc.)
- As a practitioner delivering national projects on the ground
- And as a systems thinker grappling with what “progress” really means
Rather than offer abstract theories, this book walks readers through real-world experiences, from my earliest days interning at an intergovernmental organization (IGO), to leading digital transformation projects for government, to representing African youth voices at the UN HQ, to supporting the gaming ecosystem within Microsoft.
Book Contents
Each chapter of Lessons is designed to build on the last — tracing a journey of growing awareness, increasing responsibility, and radical reimagination:
1. The Foundations of Development: The Basics
A primer on how development is taught, framed, and funded — and where the gaps begin.
2. First Steps into Global Development: Interning at an IGO
A reflection on entering the field with ambition, only to encounter bureaucracy, hierarchy, and unspoken politics.
3. Navigating Bureaucracy: Challenges in Statutory Institutions
Lessons from working within government — balancing duty, reform, and slow-moving systems.
4. (Digital) Transformation: Leading National Projects
Insights from building Malawi’s national digital literacy and creative economy initiatives — where innovation meets reality.
5. Perspectives from the UN HQ: Relocating to New York
Behind the scenes of global diplomacy, from SDG coordination to youth policy — and the challenge of visibility for voices from the Global South.
6. What Works in Development?: Effective Strategies
What I’ve seen work — and what often fails — when it comes to implementation, monitoring, and real impact.
7. The Role of Context: Tailoring Development Approaches
Why importing solutions doesn’t work — and how to design with, not for, communities.
8. Circumstantial Success: Adapting to Changing Conditions
How political, economic, and cultural shifts impact outcomes — and why flexibility is non-negotiable.
9. Voices of the Global South: Centering Local Perspectives
Moving from tokenism to co-creation — making room for knowledge that isn’t “Western” but still wise.
10. Reimagining Development for the Global South
A final reflection and rallying cry — for systems that are equitable, locally led, and built to last.
Who This Book Is For
- Young professionals entering the development field
- Policy advisors and donors seeking context-sensitive insights
- African and Global South leaders navigating institutional power dynamics
- Academics and educators teaching global development theory
- Activists and innovators building better futures from the ground up
Why This Book? Why Now?
We are halfway through the SDG era — and progress is uneven, uncertain, and in many places, unraveling.
This is not a time for more jargon.
It is a time for honesty.
For critical reflection.
For leadership grounded in reality, not rhetoric.
Lessons is my contribution to that discourse. It brings lived experience into conversation with systems thinking, and asks the reader to not only reconsider how they work — but why.
Publishing Details
🗓 Release Date: September 14, 2025
📕 Format: Paperback + E-Book (via Amazon & select distributors)
🌍 Preorders open: September 1st, 2025
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Part of a Larger Trilogy
Lessons is the first of three books that I hope to publish this year. Though not a series, all these books (and all my future books to come) explore systems, identity, and personal evolution as I turn 30:
- 📘 Lessons (September): On development and systems
- 📗 Feminine Silence (October): On womanhood and quiet power
- 📕 Traversing Your Terrible Twenties (November): On growth, failure, and becoming
Final Word
Development is not something we do to others.
It is something we must do with — and ultimately, within — ourselves.
If we are to build a more just world, we must confront not only how our systems function, but why we believe in them at all.
This book is not the final answer.
It is an invitation to begin asking better questions.
With clarity, care, and urgency —
Nthanda Manduwi
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About the Author
