Mastona Khalilova, Tajikistan
MPA student,
Class of 2017
Intern, UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States
I am doing my internship in the most diverse city in the world: Istanbul! I am working with the Governance and Human Development Teams at UNDP's Regional Hub, which covers CIS, Georgia, Turkey, and the Balkans.
I am assisting the Governance Team by leading a small research project looking into how the state budget is linked with national development strategies in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Turkey. The scope of the research includes identifying the gaps between budget processing and the implementation of strategies. I have been asked to come up with policy recommendations for how state budgets could be better linked to the implementation of national development strategies.
The timing of my internship has been great. When I arrived, the Human Development Team was writing sections of the Regional Human Development Report on inequality. I was tasked to review the literature on inequality in the countries that fall under the umbrella of the Regional Hub. It was a fascinating experience for me. I learned, for example, that although there are officially recognized indicators of inequality, the nature of inequality and the perceptions about it differ from one country to the next. The team meets regularly to discuss the quantitative methods and approaches that we should use in the report to ensure that we capture the nuanced data we are gathering.
Another lesson I have learned during this internship is that some policymakers spend all of their time working on papers, reports, research, recommendations, etc. They never get the chance to meet people or to see the impact of what they do. It is important that policymakers not lose sight of the purpose of public policy, which is to make the world a better place to live.
I am very grateful to SPP and to UNDP for offering me this opportunity to see how initiatives and actions can inform regional and global policy to improve the lives of people.
I chose to live in a more traditional area of Istanbul, where most women stay at home and look after their children. Although I do not share a common language with my neighbors, we still manage to communicate. I have become very good friends with one of my neighbors, Gulsan. Last weekend, we traveled to Trabson to visit her parents. They have a large garden and support themselves primarily by selling whatever they can – peanuts, cucumbers, corn, tomatoes, peppers, etc. The pace of life in Trabzon is dramatically different from life in Istanbul. It is also quite beautiful. Getting to know Gulsan and being able to meet her family has been wonderful.
Read more student internship profiles here.