Internship Organization and designation: United Nations World Food Programme, Performance Management Strategic initiatives intern. Rome, Italy.
Roles and responsibilities: Im involved with the RMP unit, which is the Performance Management and Monitoring Division. RMP provides robust and independent technical support to Country offices and Regional Bureaux to facilitate all the phases of the performance management cycle: planning, monitoring and reporting. My current role consists of me undertaking impact evaluations of WFP beneficiaries across the globe. Furthermore, Im collaborating on the design and improvement of Performance Management guides, by regularly communicating with country offices and providing on-distance support for the planning exercises. Lastly, I act as a resource liaison to contribute towards data analysis of the standardized organization wide- KPI and metrics.
Whats Next: In the famed Jack Dawsons own words, I feel like Im on top of the world! Having secured an internship at one of my dream organizations, its really hard to pin-point at a certain direction I think I will head onto from here. Id certainly like to leverage my current opportunity to work with other UN agencies worldwide, and at different levels, i.e., at the HQ in NY, maybe in the field at grassroots level in Egypt, or with the Secretariat in Canada! Id also very much like to imbibe my interest in communications activities in my current and future roles. That is quite an emerging area in the field of economic development, where economic analysis is combined with visual analytics.
How MEDI Helped: Before I answer that, Id like to acknowledge the insane support of my professors, colleagues, and peers. They were always approachable and were always on the lookout for the best roles opportunities, catalysing knowledge base, I never knew I had. The MEDI programme provided me with an understanding of the core concepts of not just economic development, but also of international development by providing me an opportunity to take electives in those areas. With a strong knowledge of international concepts of building resiliency, and creating sustainability, coupled with the on-hands knowledge of EcDev concepts, both in theory and practice, I was able to get this amazing internship at the UN!