• Name: Mthobisi Nkabinde
• Role: Analyst, Urban Resilience Programme
• Location: Pretoria, South Africa

What is your big why? What positive change or impact are you and others in your field trying to achieve, and what are some of the challenges you face in doing so?

My big why is really about contributing to development that makes a tangible difference in people’s lives. I’ve always been interested in the question of how we take good policies, plans and ideas and actually turn them into things that improve people’s lives.

A lot of my career has been about trying to bridge the gap between evidence and action. I started in government, working in research, monitoring and evaluation, where I saw how important good evidence is in making better decisions. Now, working at ASI in urban resilience and just energy transition, I’m able to take that experience and apply it to much more practical challenges.

I help municipalities and other stakeholders develop projects that can attract investment, while improving infrastructure and delivering better outcomes for communities.

The positive change we’re trying to achieve isn’t just about getting a project completed. It’s about making sure that projects are financially viable, socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable, and actually respond to the needs of the people they are intended to serve.

One of the biggest challenges is that development problems are rarely straightforward. You can have a technically sound project, for example, but then encounter institutional challenges, limited municipal capacity, difficulties accessing finance, competing priorities or challenges getting different stakeholders aligned.

For me, part of being a development professional is being able to navigate that complexity while still keeping focused on the outcome. That’s what motivates me: the opportunity to take something that can seem quite complicated and help turn it into something practical, implementable and impactful.

What do you like about working in a global development company?

What I really enjoy about working in a global development company like ASI is the exposure to different perspectives and different ways of solving problems.

Even though I’m working primarily in a South African context, the development challenges we deal with are connected to much bigger global conversations around climate change, infrastructure, inclusive growth, energy transition and sustainable development.

Being part of an international organisation means you get to learn from experiences and approaches that have been tested in different countries and contexts. I really value the combination of technical expertise from our consortium partners and practical delivery.

It’s not just about producing a report and moving on. There’s a real emphasis on asking: how do we make this work in practice, and how do we create something that can actually be implemented?

ASI has also allowed me to broaden my experience. My background was initially quite focused on research, policy, and monitoring and evaluation, and ASI has allowed me to move into infrastructure, investment readiness, project development and advisory work.

The global aspect is valuable because it gives you both a wider perspective and the opportunity to bring global thinking into very local development challenges. I also enjoy the opportunities within ASI to share lessons learned from different projects and countries, such as the Lunch & Learn sessions.

What’s the most exciting thing happening in your project or work right now?

Right now, it’s seeing projects move from an idea or concept on paper towards becoming genuinely investment-ready opportunities.

Within the Urban Resilience Programme, we’re working across a number of municipalities and sectors, looking at projects ranging from waste management and agro-processing to infrastructure and renewable energy.

What makes that exciting is that each project has a different set of challenges, and you have to bring together technical, financial, institutional and stakeholder perspectives.

I also find the investment-readiness side particularly exciting because it changes the question from simply, ‘Is this a good project?’ to, ‘What would it take to make this project investable?’

That requires you to think differently about risk, financing, institutional arrangements, procurement and the value proposition for investors.

I think that’s where development becomes really interesting for me: when you see the potential for an idea to move from a concept into something that can actually be financed and delivered.

What movements or discussions are inspiring you right now?

One of the discussions that’s really inspiring me at the moment is the broader conversation around health, fitness and wellbeing, particularly the idea that success isn’t just about how productive you are, but also about how you look after yourself.

I’ve become quite interested in the culture around fitness and personal discipline. Whether it’s going to the gym, getting outdoors or physically challenging myself, I think there’s something powerful about consistently trying to become a better version of yourself.

I’m also inspired by the growing conversation around work-life balance and mental wellbeing. There’s a lot of pressure, especially when you’re ambitious, to constantly be achieving the next thing.

I like the idea that you can also be ambitious while making time for yourself, your relationships, your health and the things that actually make you happy.

Being outdoors and staying active is part of that. It gives me a chance to switch off, reset and come back with a different perspective.

What do you do outside of ASI?

I like to keep quite active. I really enjoy outdoor sports and going to the gym.

I also think there’s a lesson from sport that applies to work: you don’t necessarily see the results immediately. You have to be consistent, put in the work and keep moving forward. That’s something I carry into my professional life as well.

I enjoy outdoor activities because there’s something about being outdoors that gives you a chance to switch off.

At the moment, I’m not doing any volunteering work. But being active is a good balance to the type of work we do, because development and consulting can involve a lot of time behind a laptop, analysing information, writing reports and sitting in meetings.

I just enjoy getting outside and doing something physical.

What qualities do you think Game Changers should have?

I think a Game Changer needs to have curiosity, resilience and a willingness to challenge the status quo.

Being curious is important because you need to be willing to ask questions and understand why things are done in a particular way, rather than simply accepting that something has always been done that way.

Resilience is also important because development work can be challenging and things don’t always go according to plan. You might have delays, institutional challenges, stakeholders with different priorities or projects that need to change direction. You have to be able to deal with that without losing sight of the bigger objective.

One thing I’ve learned the hard way is that being a Game Changer also means being collaborative. You can have the best idea in the room, but if you can’t bring people with you, it’s unlikely to have much impact.

Real change usually happens when you bring different people and institutions together around a common objective.

Being a Game Changer also means being comfortable with learning. You don’t have to know all the answers. Sometimes being open enough to say, ‘I don’t know, but let’s work it out,’ is more valuable than pretending you do.

If you could rewrite your job title, what would it be?

I would call myself a Development Problem Solver.

I say that because the work I do doesn’t fit neatly into one box. One day I might be analysing data, another day I might be engaging with a municipality, and another day I might be trying to understand how to make a project more investment-ready.

At the heart of it all, that is problem-solving.

I’m trying to understand a development challenge, bring together the evidence and different perspectives, and then help find a practical way forward.

I also like the word ‘development’ because ultimately that’s what connects everything I’ve done – from monitoring and evaluation in government to urban resilience, infrastructure and just energy transition within ASI.