Host Organization: Foundation for Ecological Security & International Food Policy Research Institute
First Year Placement
Anand, Gujarat, India
Isis is currently in Anand, India, working with the Foundation for Ecological Security as a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. As part of the study group, Isis is assisting FES with their Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Impact Assessment work. Currently, FES works in 31 districts across eight states, positively impacting 11.6 million rural people across 8 states of India. However, FES is in the process of scaling up, aiming to restore 30 million hectares of degraded common lands by 2023. To this end, Isis is working with the study group to conduct an impact assessment of the FES method, helping to develop protocols for household and village institution assessments. Furthermore, she is also exploring opportunities for data to be collected through participatory data collection methods.
Second Year Placement
Washington, D.C.
Based in Washington D.C., Isis will work with the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Environment and Production Technology department, remotely supporting the Impact Assessment of the Foundation for Ecological Security’s Promise of Commons initiative. As a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Isis’ duties will involve exploring how to safely conduct evaluation assessments during a pandemic in addition to developing mechanisms to ensure that the data collected is used for learning.