What NGOs and Silicon Valley VCs Get Wrong About Africa
How Joy Njeri is birthing resilient, community-based economic models in Kenya
What if the investment meant to "help" Africa is actually keeping it dependent?
My conversation with systems doula Joy Njeri reveals how Western development models create the very dependencies they claim to solve.
Joy is a regenerative economy advocate who helps communities reclaim power and reimagine economic systems from the ground up. Her journey from NGO disillusionment to the corporate world led her to question fundamental assumptions about development and investment.
As someone from the coloniser Cecil Rhodes' hometown (whose empire-building blueprint evolved into today's extractive investment models), I'm increasingly aware of how these legacies shape our relationships even today. Joy's insights about the Mau Mau resistance movement, where her own Kikuyu people fought British occupation, illuminate why healing these historical wounds is essential for genuine economic transformation.
You can learn more about her work on LinkedIn or through her contributions to the Doughnut Economics community.
NGOs Often Leave Communities Worse Off
Joy witnessed how donor-driven projects create dependency cycles, solving narrow problems whilst ignoring holistic community needs and existing assets.Silicon Valley Models Replicate Colonial Extraction
Venture capital in Africa prioritises white founders and scaling obsessions over local problem-solving, with 70% of startups failing at seed stage due to misaligned criteria.
Indigenous Wisdom Offers Economic Alternatives
where communities exchange different forms of help, create reciprocal abundance without monetary dependency.
Commitment pooling systems like those championed byBusinesses Must Strengthen Communities, Not Extract From Them
When businesses see themselves as part of living systems rather than separate entities, they create regenerative cycles that benefit everyone involved.
“ We have believed we don't have the capacity. But when you look at indigenous wisdom, like mud houses that someone in America is now winning awards for—that has been in our cultures for years.”
“We only lose what we allow ourselves to lose. The communities I work with are extremely wealthy—they are flourishing right next to the biggest dump site in this country, yet they've created such a regenerative space with no funding, just community coming together.”
What strikes me most about Joy's work is how she refuses to perpetuate the very systems she critiques. Her insistence on equal pay, her focus on local assets and her patient work building alternatives rather than just criticising existing structures: this feels like genuine systems change in action.
Ready to go deeper? Watch the full episode on YouTube below, or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Links and Resources
Joy’s upcoming Seismic Questions book co-authored with
The Mau Mau movement