Exchange to Change January 2018 E2C January 2018 web | Page 15

a l umni
Lamin O. Touray
GLOB 2007-08 | Gambia
Where do you work? University of the Gambia, Lecturer,
Development Studies Unit.
How did IOB experience affect your
life/ career? My IOB experience
impacted and transformed my life/
career in so many positive ways. During
my studies at the IOB I learned a lot
and developed so many skills which
have in the first place helped me get my
current teaching job at the University of
the Gambia, enhanced my performance there
while also opening many other career opportunities for me.
The rigorous training at IOB that pushes students to think
beyond not just understanding but equally to be able to make
constructive criticism prepared me to work under pressure
and developed critical and analytical ways of unpacking
issues.
One of those great things at IOB which stand out the most for
me is that it provided me that rare opportunity to meet diverse
and beautiful scholars from around the world – students
from Peru, Palestine, Uruguay, Vietnam, Philippines, Zambia,
Bangladesh, just to mention a few because the list is longer
than this. This is indeed an opportunity hard to come by!
If you were the director of a research fund, what is a
research question that you would agree to finance? A
topic I would like to see being thoroughly researched is
one which I’m currently developing my PhD Proposal
on – ‘Social Cohesion in Africa’s ‘New’ Cities: Case
of the Diverse and Globally/Digitally Connected
Neighbourhoods in the Gambia’. ‘In the Gambia, the
peri-urban dynamics of the past decade and a half
has been marked by a fundamental transformation of
housing and subsequently the settlement landscape.
From year 2000 onward, there has been an unprecedented
surge in real estate housing settlements. About 10 new
housing estates/neighbourhoods have been built. These
new neighbourhoods/homes provided through real
estate seemingly pose formidable threats to the social
glue that holds Gambian society together – not least
because frequent socialisations and interactions appear
to be restricted but also from all indications these new
neighbourhoods are home to above average Gambians’.
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Leila Arnold
GLOB - 2013-14| South-Africa
Where do you work? Program Manager for Medical
Supply Chain at Clinton Health Access Initiative
(CHAI). I am currently working on a program aimed at
improving access to essential medicines for pregnant
women, lactating mothers, and children under 5 in Sierra
Leone, part of a national Free Healthcare program. We
are working to assist our government counterparts in
improving the supply chain of Free Healthcare drugs and
medical supplies in reaching the populations that it is
intended to serve.
How did IOB experience affect your life/ career?
My time at IOB broadened my international experience.
It gave me exposure to a multitude of different cultures
and people. It also gave me the opportunity to learn more
about the way global supply chains function and affect
developing countries; an interest I am building on in my
current role!
If you were the director of a research fund, what is a
research question that you would agree to finance?
An issue that is relevant to my current work which I’d like
to see researched; what are the key factors, that could
be targeted, affecting medical supply chains ability to
ensure that drugs are able to reach patients when
needed and as intended, in order to improve
maternal mortality rates. Sierra Leone
currently has one of the worst maternal
mortality rates in the world, by some
sources, the worst.
E xchange to change J anuary 2018