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¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Alum, Amna Memon, shares her career journey beyond graduation and gives an insight into her current role at the World Bank.

What is your current role and responsibilities?

I am currently working at the World Bank in my home country, Pakistan, as a consultant on climate change. My work mainly involves helping teams build climate considerations into World Bank-funded programs in Pakistan where possible.

We do this by encouraging climate co-benefits within programs, i.e. activities that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions or help people adapt to the existing impacts of climate change.

For example, making sure that any infrastructure constructed (such as schools or hospitals) can withstand heatwaves, flooding, or storms, and that renewable energy is taken up wherever electricity needs have to be met.

Describe your typical working dayÌý

My current role, in which I have been for about three months thus far, has been entirely remote as a safety measure against COVID-19.Ìý

I work flexible hours from home, and a week in my life is usually filled with numerous meetings on Microsoft Teams with my team, the different programs we engage with, and sometimes with government partners. There is also lots of communication via email, reading a range of proposals being developed, and coming up with suggestions on how to make specific projects more ‘climate-smart’.

To help myself focus while working from home, I take a lot of notes from meetings, update my calendar with deadlines, and develop checklists to make sure that I don’t miss anything.Ìý

How did you end up in your current role?

I graduated from ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº in 2018 with an MSc in Social Policy and Social Research. My time at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº helped me build my research skills, taught me the importance of using research evidence to inform policymaking, and gave me a sound understanding of how policies are made and the different factors that influence them.

Following this, I returned to Pakistan where I worked with UNDP on disaster risk reduction. My role here involved interacting with the government at different levels to improve their capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters. While I had internship experience in the development sector prior to my Master’s, this was my first job in international development.Ìý

I got my current job by applying at a link I saw on LinkedIn. I filled in an application form and submitted my CV. The next two rounds consisted of a short assessment to gauge applicants’ writing and analytical skills, followed by an interview. The entire process was online.Ìý

What isÌýthe best thing about the sector?

Pro:

Getting to see how international organizations, governments and communities work together to achieve development goals. There is so much communication that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to implementing any project – whether it’s building critical infrastructure or working with people to spread awareness about an issue like climate change. It is always interesting to see all the different bits and pieces and back and forth that goes on to reach a solution that works for everyone. I also work with brilliant colleagues who are committed to the cause of climate change.Ìý

Cons:

The red tape! To ensure transparency and accountability, large organizations (including the government) have a lot of checks and balances in place. This, coupled with the sheer number of stakeholders and teams working on everything, means that things often tend to take longer than you would expect.Ìý

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