23 July 2012

Four of our students have been awarded Professional Development posts at the Evaluation Office of the Global Environment Facility (GEFEO) on completion of their MAs in September this year. They are: Ruchi Suhag (MA Governance and Development), Jaekyun Kim (MA Development Studies), Sophie Edwards (MA Development Studies) and Gloria Cheche (MSc Climate Change and Development). We thought this was the perfect opportunity to catch-up with one of the Associate Development Professionals from last year.

Anup Choudhary, who studied MA Development Studies in 2010 – 11, was selected by the GEFEO to work in the Country Portfolio Evaluations team from September 2011 – January 2012. He explains that what he will take away from working at the GEF is, ‘first-hand practical experience of global perspective on environmental issues in a multicultural fast paced work setting’.

He was extensively able to apply skills learnt in his MA. When given the task of assessing the level and extent of Civil Society Organisations involvement in the GEF global portfolio, Anup says, ‘I found myself adequately equipped for undertaking assigned analytical research and synthesis work banking on my valuable experience gained at IDS (term papers and most decisively MA thesis).’

He believes his experience has shaped his career, ‘I was looking for opportunities to gain experience in missing the ‘E’ part of M&E in my profile, which GEF has provided me with evaluation functions that I performed and am still performing at GEFEO. Also GEF tenure provided international work experience at global scale that I believe would go a long way in shaping my career path.’

Anup has been offered an extension of his contract by the GEFEO for another six months with the Impact Evaluation Team, starting July 2012.