Rethinking Development Podcast
Long-form, personal conversations with international development and humanitarian aid practitioners, thinkers, activists, academics and more. Conversations center on lived experiences and reflections on ethical issues, power dynamics, systemic challenges and lessons learnt. Common themes: redistributing power, working with diverse stakeholders, negotiating partnerships, measuring impact, learning from mistakes, doing no harm, building trust, ensuring accountability, rejecting saviour complexes, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination, and much more.
Rethinking Development Podcast
3.5 Feeding Minds
Ousman Umar is a former child migrant who spent four years travelling on foot from Ghana to Libya to Spain. In 2012 he founded an NGO named NASCO Feeding Minds, which aims to create a network of IT centers with computer classrooms in rural Ghana in order to familiarize students with digital tools and facilitate their access to information. He has recently launched a social enterprise named NASCO Tech: Code Made in Africa, which aims to provide job opportunities for young IT graduates. He is also a writer and has published an autobiography entitled “Journey to the Land of the Whites”, where he shares his life story.
He speaks to us about:
- His migration journey
- Racism and anti-immigration sentiments in Europe
- Addressing the root causes of migration
- The importance of education and job opportunities
- Exploitation and underdevelopment in Africa
- Being a leader and starting an NGO
- Horizontal vs. vertical aid
- Nature as our biggest teacher - and much more!
He joins us from Barcelona, Spain.