Exchange to Change May 2017 20170524 EtC mei 2017-web | Page 17

in the picture
Paola Andrea Vallejo Patiño
DEM 2013-2014 | Colombia-Belgium
Where do you work? I’m about to start a new job
as a new team member of the federation of Flemish
development NGOs. This federation represents the
members to the government, develops capacity
building activities and provides advice for its
members. I will be covering the subjects of integrated
financial management and transparency. A very
interesting new challenge!
How did IOB experience affect your life/ career?
Stepping on the ‘high speed IOB train’ was a tough,
but very enriching experience. I met wonderful
people from many parts of the world and made
friendships for life. On a more professional note, I
acquired knowledge and skills that allowed me to
greatly improve my contribution to development
work. I look into development problems with a
more critical and (scientifically) informed eye,
and am more aware of the assumptions with
which development practice often happens. I’m
also better able to assess/improve processes on a
methodological and analytical level.
If you were the director of a
research fund, what is a research
question that you would agreed
to finance? I would like to see
more research done (and largely
disseminated) on coherence
between development policy and
other policies such as trade, foreign
affairs, defense, etc. Development work
is all too often countered by decisions made by
governments on other levels. Different interests by
several actors (individuals, states, institutions, big
private players) often prevail and put development
work in a very fragile position. Also, I would continue
supporting the research work on how development
actors use (or don’t use) lessons/knowledge from
evaluations and scientific research.
a l umni
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Mateo Porciúncula
DEM 2014-15 | Uruguay
Where do you work? I have recently started working
as a Senior Design Monitoring and Evaluation Officer
at the International Center for Transitional Justice.
How did IOB experience affect your life/ career?
The most significant “impact” of IOB’s “treatment” in
my life has been the great friendships that developed
from it. I am privileged in that I met the most talented,
kind, most interesting people from all over the world
during my stay at IOB and I have been lucky enough
to become friends and partners with some of them. I
learned a lot from different cultures, and that
has been incredibly helpful in making
me a better professional and a more
open minded person.
I can say without a doubt that
what I learned at IOB was key in
giving me an edge to get gigs as
evaluator and for my current job.
-I had to take a technical test as
part of the selection process and I
have no doubt that I did well because of
what I had learnt.
If you were the director of a research fund, what
is a research question that you would agreed to
finance? Sure. Here it comes: “How can you measure
impact in transitional justice processes?” This is the
question I am chipping at right now at work. I certainly
would love to have more people work at it to develop
a common understanding of the most appropriate
methods and instruments to assess impact in fields
like transitional justice or democracy building, in
which progress is never linear, but rather often takes
unexpected turns, deeply influenced by broader
political and social processes.
E xchange to change M ay 2017