Mohammad Elfeitori is a graduate student at McGill, completing a Master of Arts in Economics with a concentration in Economic Development. I am expected to finish my Masters in December 2022. I have spent most of my life living in developing countries due to my family’s work. This experience has inspired me to explore why certain countries are more prosperous than others and how the world can collectively lift itself out of poverty. My master’s thesis is centered around the role of infrastructure in development, specifically examining the macro and microeconomic consequences of connecting remote villages to electricity. Specifically, we monitor how unemployment, inflation, consumption decisions, and income are affected in Kenyan villages as electricity is installed. I hope to continue my research at a Ph.D. level as I aspire to start a career in academia. I was unfortunately unable to travel to Kenya in person due to extreme personal and familial circumstances that were communicated with Elimu in Kenya. However, I completed all my tasks from a distance thanks to the very capable team of Angela, Neome, and Kennedy on the ground.
The Arts Internship was an unmatched opportunity at McGill tailored to my interest. The training allowed me to work for a Kenyan NGO that studies infrastructural effects on development. More importantly, I was keen on doing the internship when I started at McGill due to the outstanding career development opportunities it provides. Their excellent resources and support facilities made me comfortable to work for an NGO from a country I knew very little of. However, I was confident in that value I was able to offer as I was backed by the unparalleled support and resources offered by the Arts Internship Office. My learning objectives during the internship were to understand the process of collecting, cleaning, and utilizing big data that Elimu gathered in the field. The second objective was to learn how researchers use field data to write economically valid papers that add value to the literature. I have pursued this professional and research development internship and will not receive academic credit for it.
The biggest highlight of my internship was experiencing first-hand how tedious and challenging it is to clean data retrieved from the field. Previously, I used to quickly criticize academic papers with minor faults in measurement errors or data collection. However, as I have personally been a part of this exercise, I see how researchers encounter scenarios where there is little they can do to enhance the quality of the data collected and must produce results based on mediocre data quality.
During my internship, I worked with an organization called Elimu Impact Evaluation Centre from home. However, we had initial plans to complete the internship on the field. Elimu was launched in 2006 in Kianyaga, Central Province, Kenya. Elimu researches the impact of different poverty alleviation initiatives such as rural electrification, microinsurance and legal aid. Elimu’s methodology is centered on randomized experiments (RCT), which is the golden standard for empirical economics papers due to its evident internal validity and sound statistical inference.
My responsibilities as an intern were centered around supervising the field data collection to ensure consistent data structure. Given that I was doing this task from a distance, I had to have live calls with the team in Kenya to ensure the tasks were going smoothly and to support the team if they experienced any technical glitches. Moreover, I was also responsible for cleaning this data after collection by coding on a statical software named STATA. Lastly, I was a co-responsible to design surveys for the legislative team and import them on their tablets for data collection.
The biggest challenge I faced during the internship was trying to execute my roles while I was away from the field. The role needed the project manager to be in person. Therefore, I had to form a WhatsApp group and have constant calls throughout the day with the team on the ground to ensure tasks are done smoothly. Overall, I think that my productivity would have been much higher if I worked from the field. However, I am nevertheless grateful for the experience as it made me keener to contribute to the field of development economics and poverty alleviation.
This internship substantially uplifted my graduate school experience at McGill. Most economics graduate students that are interested in development are exposed to the field through papers and seminars from development economists. However, this internship exposed me to the field by dealing directly with colleagues living in a developing nation. I am hopeful that I have contributed towards the development projects I worked on and hope to start a career in a similar role to the one I experienced in my internship.
I am grateful to Mr. Jonathan Hodgson and Mr. Allan Hodgson for my time working for Elimu. The award covered my travel expenses, accommodations, and groceries during my internship. Without Mr. Hodgson’s generosity, I would not have been able to afford this life-changing professional and personal experience.
