Why are you interested in working for the World Bank as a Fellow?

In Professor Philips Jones’ preface to his book, “Education, Poverty and the World Bank” he asserts that the World Bank continues to be under fire for its policy prescriptions and its modes of operation. Not only that, the bank is also a major target of discontent and at the same time misunderstood and misrepresented. Subsequently, he provides an interesting insight into the workings of the bank on how it is contributing to fight poverty and improve educational standards across continents. This he does so well because according to him he has been privileged with in his words “a unique access to the bank – its files, staff and working documents – over nearly 20 years.

Tanzania where I come from like many developing countries, have had a long standing relationship with the World Bank, working together to address a gamut of developmental issues including poverty alleviation, education, infrastructure and service delivery. In-as-much as there exist a level of unease between the bank and many developing countries; there is no denying the fact that many achievements have been chalked over the decades in addressing important goals especially within the framework of the MDGs. I believe therefore, that it will be in the interest of developing countries and especially least developed economies to work even more closely with the bank in not only assessing their needs but also proposing innovative, unique and stronger policies and actions to address these needs. It is gratifying that the bank recognizes this need and seeks to create the avenue to citizens of developing countries to operate from within the organization.

I am particularly interested in the fellowship program because I am currently doing my doctoral research on how national policies impact on FDIs in the Tanzanian energy sector in light of its recent discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity. I believe in the decades ahead, the bank’s focus on Africa, particularly, will be on the energy sector as a driver for poverty reduction. This will especially be important in light of the fact that, so far, there is no blue print on how recent oil discoveries in Africa are utilized to address developmental challenges it’s faced with like the Norwegian model. Therefore, not only will my research and experiences contributes to the banks work, but I will also gain valuable hands-on experience in development work including knowledge generation and dissemination, design of global and country policies and the building of institutions to achieve inclusive growth in developing countries to paraphrase the group’s call for application.

As a young enthusiastic African lady, with academic and working experience in the area of law, international trade, and economics; and having gained such valuable working experience in a developing country but also having studied amongst diverse cultures I bring to the program fresh insight and energy to whichever team I will work with within the bank.