Welcome to the journal

For twenty years my writing has mostly lived inside government memos, donor reports, and program plans. This is a different kind of writing: slower, more personal, and closer to the ground than a policy brief usually allows.

I'm starting this journal to think in public about the things I've spent my career on: humanitarian coordination, state-building, employment and settlement services, and what "development" actually looks like when you're the one implementing it, not just funding it or writing about it from a distance.

Expect essays on Somali governance and the Horn of Africa, field notes from Toronto's settlement sector, and the occasional personal reflection that doesn't fit neatly into either category.