Internship Description
Nadine Bibawi, ’22SIPA; Hannah Clifford, ’22SIPA; Jessica Peck, ’22SIPA; Julia Tauscher, ’22SIPA; and Kevin Vu, ’22SIPA, interned with Imago Global Grassroots, a nonprofit that collaborates with entrepreneurs at the base of the pyramid and supports scaling their social enterprises. Nadine assisted the creation of Imago's first online social enterprise scaling course, and worked on developing a strategy to support dissemination of its knowledge products and services by leveraging technology. Hannah worked with the Washington, DC office on research, the creation of knowledge products, and supported active projects focused on gender and human rights. Jessica collaborated with the southern cone office in Latin America to scope potential partners in the region, and also developed a model for scaling RUDI — a social enterprise of the Self-Employed Women Association (SEWA) — leveraging a government program called the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). Julia worked closely with the Poverty Stoplight to design manuals to help organizations across the world to implement a tool to assess and address multidimensional poverty at the household level. Kevin worked with Imago's various clients to improve health care systems that provide affordable health care to high-need, high-cost vulnerable populations in Houston, and consulted in scaling up the SEWA project design.
"Over the course of my summer fellowship, I was assigned two clients and a summer knowledge project. My two clients were the Patient Care Intervention Center (PCIC) and the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA). My summer knowledge project was a thought piece on systems thinking and how it affects the development field. All three projects were great to work on together, as I was able to see how Imago used a systems-thinking approach to their consulting practice. PCIC is a values-based health care technology company that integrates data to allow cross-sector collaboration between health, social, and government agencies. During the summer, my main projects were helping with investment pitch decks for potential impact investors and working on a competitive analysis for the company's strategic team. On the other end, I worked with SEWA on their Project MOVE in conjunction with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. SEWA is one of India's largest women's labor collective, and Project MOVE is a grant project to build their Enterprise Solutions System. During my time over the summer, I worked on a needs assessment protocol that would be used to help replicate the scaling-up process for SEWA's various social enterprises under their umbrella. It was great to see these projects and learn how to consult under Imago's mission. IMAGO believes in the base (or bottom) of the pyramid stakeholders and how, at most times, they are not consulted in project design. The best part was co-creating the project design and theory of change with my clients.
It was great to apply my MPA in development practice coursework over the summer. In particular, I leveraged my Development Practitioner Lab course and used the development theory that I learned over the last semester. Applying Theory of Change, Gaant Charts, and DEI, I utilized these tools during my needs assessment protocol project and designed a deliverable that allowed for an effective scaling plan
The biggest challenge that I faced this summer was the remote aspect of the fellowship. Although our project coordinator did a fantastic job setting up learning opportunities for us, we still faced challenges when all work was done via Zoom and through computer screens. The most arduous struggle, in particular, was when trying to make recommendations but not being able to get context for what it is like on the ground day-to-day. Although Zoom calls and interviews helped, not being able to see first-hand made it difficult
The biggest takeaway from the summer was my knowledge project on systems thinking. Before the summer, I had a small grasp of the subject. However, the research I conducted over the summer allowed me to see how industries, companies, and individuals are all tied together through the concept. I hope to leverage my knowledge to become an effective program/project manager in the development space through this approach. It truly taught me that work and becoming a professional is more about just turning in deliverables. To be truly successful, one needs to constantly learn and improve their skillsets to improve their part in the company, project, and system as a whole. I hope to continue learning and improve project connections throughout my time in the field."