Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Global Internship: International Development Organisations


When I was in M.A. programme I hardly thought of doing internship with international development organisations. I could see the similar situation with almost all of the friends in my batch. I was looking up for best possible Indian origin organisation that suits with my area of work of my internship is, as everyone does.
I went with my own research design but it was not able to fit exactly into their system with what I wanted to. Agencies cannot attend me with my own set of work in case that is not useful or directly related with their ongoing work. So, I had to follow their verdict. No matter what happened what I want or not, the credit and experience is there still. So, no matter you make your design of work for internship its better you choose the best agency relevant with your area of study. When I mean best agencies I would consider international agencies. It doesn't mean they are always better than Indian origin ones. As per my experience I would suggest for international agencies either based in India or abroad.
Yes, understanding the Indian grass-root context is also very important for which you can do in the first internship, called as Field Immersion. The rest second and third internship should be focused in the areas of the sector your future is. Coming to the point, there are two most important things which you gain best from international agencies, which is also the purpose of internship is, that is the reputation of the agency that will give weight to your profile and the personal learning in terms of theory and practices.
In international agencies I am sure you will gain high quality knowledge of practices of your academic tools and new theories you didn’t learn from your curriculum. They generally follow the theories and practices of International Development course structure out of which we cannot find some in Indian curriculum, both in UGC curriculums of MSW and M.A. Development in Azim Premji University. The purpose of pursuing an academic degree is to gain the perspective while your practical aptitude gains from the field or outside the class. From international agencies I am sure will get quality practical aptitude. I have learnt high quality result oriented reporting style of big project which I never learnt in my class, as an example of my case. In theoretical front international agencies will give you a scope to learn globally used methods and tools that are not taught in Indian curriculum.
Say, in development effectiveness I have learnt only few specially the LogFrame and few more like project cycle management and measuring development. When I am exposed to UN system I am also exposed to new stuffs like Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) at higher level and Results Framework and Result Base Management (RBM). Result Framework (RM) is another similar tool of LogFrame, but we generally ignore this tool, because we bother more of successful operation and process of a project rather than results of the project/intervention. In UN and other international system results are priority of their intervention. And RBM is the supplementary of RM. These are quite relevant to systematic review of effect and impact evaluation which I am also exposed to. Had I with some Indian agency I would not have exposed to these theoretical and practical tools. 
Apart from the practical tools, for development practitioner professionals a high level of professionalism is one of the soft skill asset added in your profile. Professional behaviour and ethics are few of the most demanded in reputed international agencies apart from the functional capabilities. These are hardly checked in small development organisations. Professional behaviour has lot of impact on the overall system of the institution and hence affects the objective of the institution. I found very unprofessional ethics in many Indian development institutions. I never want you work under any project/programme manager who sound you know more than her/him. I never want you to land on those organisations, where your presence is just reduced to a mere student rather than a staffs which is not an uncommon in many Indian organisations.
It is more or less easy to find a right match of Indian organisation either yourself or with the help of relevant faculties. But it is not the case for international organisations. You are not to get discourage saying this because there are lot out there for internship and every organisation has space for internship.  To start, you need to keep researching in the category of agency working in the sector you wish to do internship. It takes time and hence it is better you start as advance as possible, like just at the beginning of the semester. In this internet world I guess don’t need to suggest. You can do just by typing your key words, e.g. ‘’international organisations working in India in transparency”, or “internship in UN in India” and so on. Or you can get notifications about internship of international agencies at www.devnetjobs.org, for example. I would not suggest you always stick only within the territory of Indian for internship. You may even try for abroad given that you have necessary stuffs like Passport (and Visa).
I would always suggest everyone have Passport at the beginning of your Masters Programme. Indian students always tend to stick in India only with the thinking that India is poor and why should I go to other country. Yes, correct! But the idea of internship is not for work but for temporary work experience. Getting an international exposure is not an easy job. Getting this for the purpose of internship is far easier than any other way, I guess, during student hood. Generally internships are not more than three months, so there is no worry for loss of classes. You may first make up your mind about finance; it is generally paid even though they mention it is unpaid, although you should try to find paid ones. Just types in Google as you are handy with to search.
After all, to conclude, why I want you to be global is that I want your perspective to be global and your tools to be international standard. I never meant you go and work there. When I was in Manipur I didn’t know anything about Manipur at top level of the system but I know all these when I started looking from Delhi, capital of everything of India. An exposure and having a hawk eye over the issue seems more effective, for me. So, having such global experience and international standard of functional tools and professionalism will definitely help you work better when you go back to you native soil to become a meaningful change agent who can bring smile on the faces of the community.