Oluwatamilore Oni on LinkedIn: #funfact #tradepolicy #exports #nigeria #industrialpolicy #economicgrowth… (2024)

One of the things I've really enjoyed doing over the last few months is having conversations with some of my favourite people on the Oxford Policy Pod. Adenike Adeyemi joined me to discuss her work expanding the high-impact team as CEO of FATE Foundation (Nigeria's foremost business incubator), strategic policymaking for economic development, and the potential of AI to accelerate solutions for entrepreneurs. In my 9+ years working in social impact, Adenike stands out as an exceedingly exceptional leader - thoughtful, conscientious, and excellent. It was wonderful to host her!Many thanks to Nick Fabbri and the BSG AV team for the backend coordination!You can listen on:🎧 The Oxford Policy Pod - https://lnkd.in/eSvberw2🎧 Spotify - https://lnkd.in/e6QYHeh6#Entrepreneurship #PublicPolicy #Policymaking #PolicyforProsperity

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My time as a Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust Scholar at the University of Oxford iswinding down. In fact, a new cohort of scholars is already gearing up for the 2024/25 session. A couple days ago, I was looking through some photos on my phone and knew a reflection was in order.Oxford can be an overwhelming place, especially when you’re there for a 1-year programme. There is too (very deliberate use of ‘too’ instead of ‘so’) much to do, see, learn, and join. Although this abundance of activities and events is nothing desert-like, the WHT cohort was an oasis. It was a privilege to be part of such a refreshing and energising group that gave me life every single time we got to chat, hang out, attend a lecture, or simply experience Oxford together. From exploring Blenheim Palace to visiting Plexal at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, our interactions were a blessing.I found accountability and grounding with Anshuman Mruthunjaya (a fellow MPP scholar and social impact devotee); brothers-in-innovation - Ibrahim Haroon and Lavish Dudeja (together, we created One Public - more below); friends-in-philosophy - Rohan Chopra (personal library link-up) and Tsimafei Malakhouski; Keble College, Oxford soulmates - Hanbit Lee, Dmytro Lopushanskyy, and Iggo Nzioki; policy and development sisters, Luisa Costa, Sagoon Bhetwal and Sara Compaore; co-Barnett Family Scholar. Khalid Abdelgadir; and fellow MPP-ers - Mohamed Salah Ahmed, Mykhailo Kiktenko, Mariana De Lucio, Shawntel Nicole Martinez Nieto, and Fareed Fakhoury Massive shoutout to Amina Suveha, Vladyslava Savytska, Faizan Ahmad, Marina Berdikhanova, Syed Taha Qadri, Max Rath, Ángel Carballo Cremades, Smriti Jalihal, Claudia Vidal Cuéllar, and Xenia Baranchikova. With each and all of them, I got to connect on post-colonial development, faith, evidence-based policymaking, life, love, and the list goes on. Here are some of highlights from a truly amazing programme:⚡ I hosted a debate, project managed by the amazing Jordan Simpson, at the Oxford Union (you can watch it here - https://lnkd.in/eKbjYNsR). The debaters were 🔥!⚡ This one makes me smile - I was voted "Marvelous Mentor" of the year. 😁 ⚡ One Public was ranked third in the WHT business challenge. We envisioned One Public as a one-stop-shop for public innovation - something we know the ecosystem needs. A million thanks to the awesome team who made all of it possible (organised thought-provoking seminars, made useful connections, engineered meetings, tours, lunches, and so much more) - Alexandra Henderson, Jane Baldwin, Stephen Wright, Eman Hamdan, Chuchu Chen, and Kate Starkey!

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In January, Sakarias Eriksson invited me to speak with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Mali team about fundraising for innovation at a design sprint organised (in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Regional Office) for representatives from various UNFPA units, implementing partners, and youth organisations. It was part of a week-long series at the Mali national office to explore new approaches to accelerate outcomes, strengthen innovation and secure funding to support women’s sexual and reproductive empowerment.With four years of corporate philanthropy under my belt and eight years of working with and in nonprofits to execute projects, this is a topic I am very passionate about. So, it was super easy to say, ‘Of course!’Thanks to virtual conferencing, I dialled into one of the in-person sessions. However, my French is not yet where it needs to be to deliver a session en français, so we had an interpreter. Special shout out to Margot Dupé for an extraordinary job! For folks seeking funding for innovation or impact projects, I selected some tips and decided to share them here. #SocialImpact #FundingforInnovation #Grantmaking #Philanthropy #Fundraising

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Had a blast at this year's edition! Highly recommend. There is also an opportunity forAfrican conference speakers, living in Africa, to apply for funding to attend #OxCSAE2025 (https://lnkd.in/ez5ygvTb). Deadline for attendance funding is 31 July 2024. (https://lnkd.in/e7Xdemus)"Funded participants will attend both apre-conference workshopfrom 03-06 December 2024 in Pretoria, South Africa, as well as theCSAEConference from 23-25 March 2025, in Oxford."

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If the world is the wealthiest it’s ever been, why are governments struggling to finance the business of governance?I came across this article about the UK’s declining (in real-terms) public sector pay and how it’s not changing soon (https://lnkd.in/eSahr2be). This is not unique. From Kenya to Argentina and Nigeria to the UK, governments seem to struggle to fund their operations and pay their people decent wages. We could say the scope of governments has expanded over the years, or there is rising infrastructure demand, or populations are growing (in some cases). There is probably a study somewhere that analyses surpluses/deficits in spending versus income versus populations versus XYZ factors across time (if you know any good ones, please share). However, the fact does remain that the world is the wealthiest (and most productive) it’s ever been (https://lnkd.in/e3fCNmN2). So, why can’t we fund important things?Cue the trickle-up phenomenon. Eight weeks exploring new approaches to economic thinking with my MPP classmates, led by Professor Eric Beinhocker, shed some light on this. Trickle-up (very simply) is the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and is usually the heir to neoliberal economic policies. Ding, ding, ding. It explains where the wealth has mostly gone. For example, Nigeria’s richest man is worth almost half of the country’s 2024 budget. But what to do with this information?As democracy increases as some hope/believe it will (more to debate on this, considering we’re currently leaning towards more autocratic typologies) and people demand more of their governments, it is likely the costs of governance will continue to increase. Funding shortfalls could be caused by chronic mismanagement, reduced tax revenue (yes, ding again given - https://lnkd.in/ev-dqnhN and https://lnkd.in/eYjjM6hF), or other factors. Root causes notwithstanding, the results are the same (disclaimer: generalisations here): talent and innovation migrating to the private sector, stagnating or declining wages across sectors, and governments raising taxes and tightening their belts.We need to think creatively about how to finance the future (and present) of governance. Austerity measures are not the answer, especially in developing countries. Sure, prudent spending is critical, but not at the cost of further retarding long-term development. Don't cut school meals to save money if it means reduced education outcomes for your children. How do we move from corrective measures to value-creating solutions?

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Nonplussed every single time this map truth shows up on my TL, in a doc, in an article or wherever. It's like I forget, and it dawns on me all over again. Questions of salience arise, thanks to politics classes at the BSG.

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