Exchange to Change June 2018 E2C-may18-web | Page 16

16
a l umni
Nadeem Abu Shaikah
GOV 2011-2012 | Palestine
Where do you work? I am a protection Officer
at ACTED organization, West Bank, Palestine,
working in humanitarian assistance program
targeting the affected Palestinian population in
conflict areas, including emergency responses
to the affected people, groups and families. I
am also in charge of conducting community
protection assessments, identifying the vulnerable
communities and affected groups, and designing
humanitarian response plans for humanitarian
interventions.
How did the IOB experience affect your
life/ career? My study at IOB has significantly
contributed to my career development and
especially to my current work as
humanitarian protection officer
at ACTED organization. It has
provided me with relevant
knowledge and skills to
accomplish and perform
the tasks that have been
assigned to me in a very good
manner.
Which country are you
supporting during the Football
World Cup? Spain, Belgium or France will win.
If you were the director of a research fund,
what is a research question that you would
agree to finance? Palestinian-Israeli conflict
from human rights-based approach and justice
perspective.
Chrispine Botha
GLOB 2015-2016 | Malawi
Where do you work? I am working in a consortium of International
NGOs. The goal of the programme, “Breaking the Cycle of Humanitarian
Assistance and Enhancing Shock Responsive Capacity in Malawi” is for
43,091 households to be more resilient to climate-related shocks such as
droughts and floods. My role is to provide overall technical leadership
and capacity building to partner organizations in implementing resilience
activities to improve household productive capacity, reduce negative
coping strategies and increase the household asset base. I coordinate
commodity market price assessments to determine the food basket
value for the unconditional cash transfers, manage cash transfers
delivery service providers and ensure that households and communities
implement climate smart agriculture and catchment conservation
practices to qualify for the conditional cash transfers.
How did the IOB experience affect your life/ career? I recognize
IOB as a turning point in my life and career because since
I left IOB I always stand out everywhere I compete.
IOB trained me to always recognize heterogeneities
even when dealing with homogenous situations; to
always look for polycentricism while also keeping
an eye on the context. IOB made me a complete
brand, whose edge is built around being the
extra-mile thinker. I amaze my team with my high
regard for gender, my emphasis on evidence-based
programming, my ability to recognize local institutions
and their indigenous knowledge and my blending of global
perspective with local solutions. I have had the privilege to have very
attractive job offers from five international agencies since I left IOB.
If you were the director of a research fund, what is a research
question that you would agree to finance? Main question: “To what
extent do beneficiaries of resilience-building support, as part of the
emergency response, achieve positive gains in terms of sustained food
production, reduced negative coping strategies, increased assets,
and adaptive/recovery capacity in comparison to those who receive
just the emergency support?” Sub-question: “Is the investment in
complementary resilience activities worth it in the sense of reducing the
cost of humanitarian operations over time?”
Which country are you supporting during the World Cup Football?
I am supporting Belgium.
E xchange to change J une 2018