1 / 12

Working in Development Cooperation

Working in Development Cooperation. Afonso Mendonça Reis. Founder and Mentor of the Mentes Empreendedoras Project Nova School of Business and Economics (NovaSBE) Lisbon, September 2012. Presentation Roadmap. Why think about international organisations? Who are they? What do they do?

donny
Download Presentation

Working in Development Cooperation

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Working in Development Cooperation Afonso Mendonça Reis Founder and Mentor of the Mentes Empreendedoras Project Nova School of Business and Economics (NovaSBE) Lisbon, September 2012

  2. Presentation Roadmap • Why think about international organisations? • Who are they? • What do they do? • What opportunities do they present to you? • My experience: • Joining FEUNL (2001) • Erasmus in Lausanne (04/05) • Back to Portugal - now what? • Joining and working at the OECD • Next, joining and working at the ILO - Skills department • Some lessons learned

  3. What do they do? • Bilateral and Multilateral organisations: • USAID, CIDA, SIDA, NORAD, IPAD • UN, OECD, EC • Different mandates: • Research & Knowledge production - OECD • Regulation - WTO/ILO... • Carrying out projects in the field - WB/UNDP/ILO... • What do we learn in these organisations?

  4. Joining FEUNL - 2001 • The importance of setting standards – recalling Dean Neves Adelino’s welcome speech: students in top schools will: • Seek Internships - an average of 3.5 by time of graduation • Do voluntary work – give back to society • Establish contacts at university (beyond core technical skills) that are essential for future career development • Exploring GAFE and FORTUNA -» Pedro Freire • Novactiva – Successes and Failures -» Experience • Youth Programme -» International Experience

  5. Erasmus Lausanne - 2004/2005 • What did I take from my exchange? • Started in Finance and ended in Development • Meeting people with different experiences -» other perspectives • Soft skills - (Theatre, Languages, 1st Research Project, inter-disciplinary seminar, and lastly Career Vocation) • Larry Weiss - “Look for Portuguese” • Goal: practice + research skills = AKF + CG&G • More demanding but less risky • FEUNL -» needs to improve “campus” culture -» Challenge • Core skills (economics) Vs Soft skills (campus)

  6. Back to Portugal – now what? • • IMVF, IPAD, NORAD, CIDA, SIDA, KEPA, DANIDA… • Aga Khan Foundation • • Projects in Education and Social Exclusion • Center for Globalization & Governance • • Initiative – Carry out research on development issues • Working with Experienced Researchers on a “win-win” basis • Learning “how to do” and dealing with responsibility – Mentoring and autonomy • Presented (AfDB & UNECA, Ethiopia) and published Paper “Measuring EMP across five African Countries” in Open Economics Review -» Output + Signaling

  7. How did I join the OECD? • When googling for masters... “jose.silva@oecd.org” • OECD sound nice but: • Is it relevant? Do we match? • “Jose” worked on a Macroeconomic Analysis on Chile • I have a paper -» Good match -» Apply • “Jose” offered an intership on an Education Indicator • AKF (education) + master in econometrics -» Good match • I took an internship in Statistics/Education (2nd best) • Moreover OECD has DAC and DEV (working in Development) • But other directorates too: ECO, DAF, TRADE, ELS

  8. OECD – Experience • Exposed to high quality people -» learning opportunities • Good mentoring + building on colleague’s experience • The “untouchables” myth -» Focus on quality • Right for me? -» No field work and only rich countries • While working for EDU found a potential match in the ILO • Vladimir Grasskov ILO Skills Department - Good match? -» Apply • Before leaving what did I learn? • Sharper analytical skills • Improved Education and VET background • Wider knowledge and experience network • Excluding possibilities -» OECD’s DAC and DEV directorates

  9. ILO – United Nations - Skills • I applied for: • a project financed by Portugal on PALOP countries • Skills department -» The best match worked • Since at the ILO what did I learn up to now? • Training on Rural Economic Empowerment • Employment Services - International Financial Crisis • Informal Apprenticeship in Africa • Additional Soft Skills • Fluent in Spanish + progressing German • Poorer countries experience + potential field access • Wider knowledge and experience network

  10. Some Lessons Learned • Initiative – Do it and do it well, covering unexplored niches • Output - Show visible work and/or experience • Coherent profile – Flexibility with some degree of field “specialisation” on a topic you like (moreover PhD approach) • Always do your homework -» Make professional offers • Be humble but sharp-» e.g. secretaries are the key figures • Learning and Improving -» use every opportunity! • Develop and work within your network – Alumni, Portuguese, Lusophone, Latin… • Long term institutional network – connect back with Portugal • Your competition is not other Portuguese... but the World

  11. Some Lessons Learned • Barack Obama: “You will be judged by what you can build”

  12. Thanks for your attention More information: Email: amreis@fe.unl.pt Websites: Swisscontact – www.swisscontact.ch CG&G – http://cgg.fe.unl.pt

More Related