Fred Amonya on LinkedIn: Nice auction, but Ed Miliband is still a long way from his 2030 targets… (2024)

The World Bank messed up road management in Africa (and kindred ecologies)Corporate glamour. Sociological nimbleness was forgotten. The new road authorities looked to Fortune 500. After all, the road network was the country's most valuable asset. Away with colonial-era humble buildings. Look for the highest skyscrapers in town. Create big HR machinery instead of the natural controls of the old regime. Build strong comms teams that match the world's top corporates. And of course, pay salaries that match the world's top corporates. Leave the miserable pay of the old regime. Hooray. We have an arm's length efficient organisation. Gone is the miserable past. That was the thinking of the World Bank in the 1990s. That was SAP [structural adjustment] in the roads sector. Wrong. The old regime was a stable ecology. It had weaknesses. But make no mistake, that old regime had deep strengths. The ecosystem had created an internal mechanism of control. And it was professional. Promotion was based on known parameters of knowledge. Conflicts would emerge and be resolved internally. The ecosystem was frugal. An engineer-in-chief looked to small pay on visiting a project. And that pay was in the BoQ. The chief would look forward to having the vehicle fuelled, ready for the weekend journey to the rural home. That was the magnitude of corruption. What's the order of corruption today? So, the World Bank needed surgical treatment of the old ecosystem. Instead, they went for wanton destruction. Look at the mess today. Alas, our people don't see the mess. Our people struggle to distinguish natural progression from deliberate conscious improvements. With or without the road reforms, African countries would have paved their networks. Our people must be educated about the dynamics of adaptive systems. Why did the World Bank get it wrong? Heuristics ruled. Science was absent. The mathematics of complex systems would have compelled these framers to be humble. They would have looked deeper into the human ecologies and respected them. Way forward? First, we must remember that the World Bank is a supra-commons. It's you and me. We must question more. Chastening is healthy. In the decades ahead, let's see the World Bank help remedy the mistakes of SAP. #africa #worldbank #imf #sustainability #complexity #infrastructure Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) The World Bank AfricanUnion African Development Bank Group FCDO Services Agence Française de Développementhttps://lnkd.in/epCJGWVc

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International Development: Institutions (Societal Norms and Values) MatterYes they do. Organisations can't survive as mechanical entities. Leave Uganda aside. I was in another African country recently. The permanent secretary took me to the roads authority. The yard was lined with brand new Toyota Land Cruisers. Back to the parent ministry, they were happy to have any ramshackle cars. That tension strains institutions. The framers of structural adjustment (SAP) should have seen this tension coming.#infrastructure #africa #sustainability #worldbank #imf #afdbhttps://lnkd.in/etbKi92P

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Africa and the Colonial Tectonics: Time for OnenessLet Africa be Africa. We face deep challenges, including the complexity of infrastructure investment. Yet, we tend to the colonial tectonics: Anglophone, Francophone, and Portuguese plates. Africa, we must sort out our house. We must be one. #africa #infrastructure #auc #sustainability #complexity #uneca #auda #fcdo #afd #ipad #worldbank #imf #usaid https://lnkd.in/erRvRmAh

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The Imperative and Relativity of Net ZeroWe humans binged on oil. We must decarbonise. No appeal. Yet: How do we decarbonise in an equitable way?#climatechange #netzero #infrastructure #sustainabilityhttps://lnkd.in/eJYbkZ_C

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Africa and Bretton Woods: A Failure of UnderstandingWhat went wrong? That's a basic question. Why aren't we asking it? Look beyond UNRA (Uganda). Look at SAP [structural adjustment of the 1990s]. What didn't we understand? Why didn't we understand? The World Bank and International Monetary Fund: Chastisement is therapy.#africa #infrastructure #worldbank #imf #afdb #complexity #sustainability

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How infrastructure sinks AfricaThe tax authority collects UGX 50-80 billion daily. It must then set aside nearly UGX 300 million as contract waste in the roads sector. Sustainable? Wait. The deeper loss isn't contract waste. It's demand waste. It's suboptimal investment, wrong timing. Look at Entebbe Expressway. Most disturbing, Uganda is creeping into hot commercial loans for infrastructure. Don't. The country isn't equipped to manage the complexity of that space. #africa #uganda #infrastructure #sustainability #afdb #worldbank #fcdo

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Humanity's Crisis of Waste: A Crisis of Understanding It's dark. It's painful. Let's be jolted by this crisis. We've focused on the centre. Wrong. Look at the network. Look at households and their values. Push out. Trace the network. It's messy. Yes, let's tackle the mess. Otherwise, for two decades we've looked at the centre. Bretton Woods has been involved. Results? #africa #ifc #worldbank #uganda #sustainability #complexity

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Alone in Pain: Roads UntoldI saw such a few times on Mbarara - Ibanda Road (Uganda). That was back in the late 1990s. I didn't need stronger motivation to stay awake deep in the night, redesigning the road to cut cost and stretch the upgrade. Three decades later, we should be in a better place. We hum glamorous expressways. We must not forget such pains in desolation.#africa #uganda #afdb #worldbank #sustainabilityhttps://lnkd.in/eHtyZ6Cj

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Africa: Cricket might be the best gift Britain has given the world.It was desperate. Losing, 49 needed yet only 20 balls left. Who picks the ball? Rashid Khan. He's king of the craft. Kieron Pollard puts that aside. He wipes Khan clean. End of game? Surely, riot! No, handshakes and hugs.Wait! Look at politics. Are we talking the same world? Yes, we can drink from the well of civility. Cricket is perhaps the best gift Britain has given the world.#africahttps://lnkd.in/eKZZaUgg