James Mwangi, Executive Director of the Dalberg Group, has spent decades designing and supporting innovative approaches to tackling the world’s most stubborn problems. His recent work has focused on helping structure and implement large-scale multi-sectoral partnerships for complex development challenges. He joined the Skoll Foundation’s Board of Directors last month and brings with him a remarkable depth of knowledge of the global social impact landscape. Skoll Foundation video producer Gabriel Diamond recently caught up with him at the tail end of UNGA Week to hear more about his thoughts on philanthropy and how he defines progress in an era of global urgency.
Gabriel Diamond: What excites you most about joining the Board of Directors at the Skoll Foundation?
James Mwangi: I remember at the beginning of Dalberg’s journey back in 2001-2002, thinking, ‘Well, there has to be a term for what we’re doing that’s not just pure charitable work.’ We were trying to run a successful enterprise that scales, but for social purpose. When the Skoll Foundation came along it provided a vocabulary for a range of actors around the world that we could affiliate to in terms of building something that’s disciplined and can scale as an enterprise but is really focused on the collective good.
At a time of global crisis and urgency, one of the most interesting questions to ask is, ‘how can we shape the next phase of making meaningful and urgent change in the world?’ That’s the question I’m really inspired be a part of answering.
Gabriel: And as you start to think about answering that question, what is top of mind for you?
James: Today is the last day of the UN General Assembly 2019. Greta Thunberg challenged our entire global system very poignantly at the beginning of the week at the Climate Summit. Whether you’re focused on the SDGs writ large or the climate change challenges more specifically, we’re not moving anywhere near fast enough or big enough. I think there’s a challenge to all of us to think about how we fundamentally shift systems and shift them urgently. We have a decade in which if we don’t manage to shift systems, the consequences are truly dire. What are those key levers for rapid and effective systems change? That’s an exciting question for us to sink our teeth into.
Gabriel: There’s a vibrant and pointed conversation currently in our space around reshaping the future of philanthropy—what Edgar Villanueva calls the work of decolonization. Where do you see that conversation heading?
James: When I moved back to Kenya a year ago, I was struck by the fact that you’ve got this bubbling digital ecosystem, the Silicon Savannah. The vast majority of companies that are raising capital to build applications and solutions for the average Kenyan are run or fronted by non-Kenyans. It’s not a lack of skills. I am by no means the only one of my colleagues who received a great education and has good ideas. Nor is it a lack of capital—there’s a lot of capital looking for opportunities to do things at scale. But something is broken in the system.
I’m grateful that there’s a global community turning to issues in Africa, the global South, and a range of emerging markets. I’m excited about that and I make common cause with that. But I am sensitive to the fact that we need to make sure that the people from those contexts have a voice at the table when it comes to how we invest in those societies, and how we try to transform those societies.
Part of what we need to figure out over the next 10 years is how do we equip truly grassroots-based change makers of different kinds with the tools to drive systemic change where they are. Because they’re the ones who know best how to do it, and if they are successful, they are the ones who will have the legitimacy to build on that systemic change. As you would with any tree, you look at the roots first and build from there.
Gabriel: What does systemic progress look like to you over the next decade?
James: If we buy into this idea of a decade of delivery—it’s going to be 10 years till the end of the SDG period—the scale of some of the things we’re facing is massive in terms of inequality and exclusion, climate change and so on. The good news is it makes things a bit simpler because it’s very clear, it’s go big or go home. So, how do we build on success? How do we scrap things that are just not going to get us there and go back to the drawing board quickly?
I think we’re going to need to learn some new disciplines. When something seems to be succeeding and growing fast, what tends to happen in the social sector is we say, ‘well, don’t grow too fast, stabilize.’ In the world of business, if you start to scale rapidly, you get more capital to scale even more rapidly. We need to bring that thinking to the world of social enterprise, or systems enterprise, or any effort to attack one of the SDGs.
We also need to get a lot more disciplined about saying that even when something is kind of working, if it’s not working at anywhere near the pace or scale necessary, then it’s actually a waste of talent and treasure to continue. Let’s take all those amazing people and resources and try something else.
Gabriel: What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
James: I was almost arrested in high school for writing a politically charged play that really pissed off the Kenyan government at that time and I left the country to go to college at a very timely moment.
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