Intergenerational Exchange in Global Societal Changes
In the context of the third week of the module Global Societal Changes, we had the opportunity to meet a high number of experts working in international organizations, development banks, and German ministries. MEG alumni were amongst the speakers which created a special opportunity for intergenerational exchange. In the pictures, we are saying 'thank you' to the speakers in our mother tongues, and below we have gathered our reflections from the meetings.
"Our guest speaker Ana Bachurova represented the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, where she works as a part of the Energy Efficiency and Climate Change team. Besides EBRD, Ana has work experience in big organizations such as GIZ, World Bank, and EMIS. Her presentation focused on Green Economy Transition at the EBRD where Ana elaborated on the bank's incentives and policies of implementing Green Economy with its clients. Later, she answered our questions about the working environment in EBRD along with the bank's Green Economy policies.
My takeaway from the meeting was that EBRD prioritizes the environment, at the same time it cares about its clients' economic improvement processes along with regional development. Perhaps, a more important take away was that the MEG Programme helps to have an impact on the earth and allows people to chase their dreams, through its multidisciplinary, multinational and high-quality framework."
Sarp Ünsal
"Paulina Campos, a former MEG student (2006-2008), shared her experience from working for more than 12 years in GIZ. Her presentation focused on Cooperation and Leadership where she first discussed the challenges for development cooperation and how the GIZ is addressing them. She later explained and we had a conversation with the MEG class about the new GIZ principles on Cooperation and Leadership which are 1) Co-create Meaning; 2) Cooperate in Diversity; 3) Practice Adaptive Leadership; and 4) Experiment & Innovate.
In the end, the class could take away that working for GIZ is not only about working for development projects but, as an organization, they also encourage and care about the employees' own professional development."
Carlos Molina
"Sunae Kim is also a MEG alumni. She has worked for multiple international organizations, including UNESCO, the FAO, the IFAD, and UNOPS. Currently, she is a Natural Resources and Development Specialist at the Asian Development Bank. Sunae had the longest presentation of the week and also designed a preparation exercise. Based on a real case, we were asked to design an investment project for the region of “Happyland”. The exercise was quite challenging, but also a lot of fun. It was great to come together with some fellow students to play around with an exercise like that without having to worry about grades. My group and I were quite motivated and managed to put together a decent presentation.
Due to the project exercise, the insights we gained from Sunae during her presentation on project design and implementation in the context of the ADB appeared even more relevant and tangible to me. Sunae also took a lot of time to discuss with us and answer questions, for example, related to the participation of multiple actors in a project design process, or geographic specialties of the region that might have to be considered in the program design. Now, I feel more able to explore and critically reflect the possibility of working for a development bank because of the insights Sunae provided us with."
Kirstin Herbst
Text: Kirstin Herbst, Sarp Ünsal, and Carlos Molina
