As a dual degree student with SNRE [the School of Natural Resources and Environment] and Ford, I am interested in pursuing a career in international development within the context of climate change as a complex environmental, social, and political challenge.
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The internship partnership with the World Bank’s Global Climate Change Policy Team (GCCPT) immediately caught my eye because I knew that it would offer me a chance to immerse myself in the area of climate adaptation and resilience and would allow me to develop my technical knowledge, analytic skills, and policy expertise.
The team that I’m working with under the GCCPT works on climate change resilience monitoring and evaluation by examining how effective projects and policy initiatives at the Bank are at improving resilience to climate change. My project for the summer has been to perform a review of resilience results indicators used by other multilateral development banks and development partners of the World Bank. Essentially what this means is that I’m looking at how these organizations are keeping track of the work they do and making sure that their projects are having the intended impacts.
This is very important work because monitoring and evaluating the outcomes of development projects is essential not only to the World Bank’s operations but also to ensuring that the impacts of these development projects are sustainable and resilient to the threats of climate change. The GCCPT is also working to harmonize their resilience monitoring and evaluation approaches across the various sectors and departments at the World Bank in order to formulate a more holistic and cohesive approach to this work.
I have really enjoyed being able to explore more of the technical side of climate change policy and observe how the institution operates as well. I have been able to attend a number of talks on various topics and have had several lunches and coffees with people around the Bank who work in areas I am interested in. While the learning curve has been steep, I have really enjoyed my experience here so far and look forward to the remainder of my time!
Nadia's internship with the World Bank is made possible through the generosity of the Ford School's Alumni Board. Each year, current and former Alumni Board members donate to the Ford School to support policy-relevant internship experiences around the world.