Former JPC Daniel Winstanley Talks Working with UNDP Bangladesh

From the beginning of August to the end of January, I participated in the United Nations Association in Canada’s, International Development and Diplomacy Internship Programme. My experience working with the United Nations Development Programme in Bangladesh was exceptional. I was placed in the Results and Resources Management Cluster (RRMC), a unit at the main office, separate from individual projects managed by UNDP. RRMC serves as the highest level of quality assurance at the office, providing technical support to all projects, while ensuring each complies with corporate reporting requirements. Additionally, RRMC coordinated activities outside the sphere of projects, such as planning the strategy of the office for the next five years (Country Programme Document) and reporting the aggregated results of all the projects to New York (Results Oriented Annual Report), of which UNDP Bangladesh currently ranks one globally for reporting quality among all UNDP country offices.

I had the amazing opportunity to work with a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist side by side throughout the entire six months. We compiled many data sets on all the projects (mostly in the form of Excel), worked with projects to refine their indicators for tracking performance, gave a co-presentation on Results Based Management at the Government of Bangladesh (I was a very small co-lead), and compiled evidence and wrote written sections for the Results Oriented Annual Report 2015. I also had the opportunity to organize several workshops for UNDP Bangladesh’s next Country Programme Document 2017-2021 and provide input into its development.

My experience working as a Junior Professional Consultant (JPC) in Bangladesh was extraordinary. I learned new skills, greatly enhanced existing skills, and made many friends, both within and outside of the office.

After taking some holidays in Myanmar in February, I returned to Dhaka, Bangladesh, and began working for UNDP, on a short-term contract. While I still sit in the main office, my responsibilities are mainly related to two projects.

The first, is a project coming to a close within a couple of months that has dealt with enhancing the effectiveness of managing aid flows into the country, including its main deliverable: building a digital platform where all development partners enter in aid data under a range of categories. The project has been running for several years and there are a few closure reporting requirements that have to be completed, such as a final project report and a terminal evaluation. While these tasks may not sound so glamorous, ending a project is a regular and meaningful process, which must comply with all reporting requirements from different stakeholders, including donors.

The second project, still has many years to go and is a partnership with the Government of Bangladesh to reform their social security strategy (i.e. welfare entitlements and other schemes). At the moment, the government has a strategy document, the National Social Security Strategy, which now needs to be implemented through actionable tasks. In support of senior programme advisors, I am working with the project to develop action plans for the relevant government agencies, explore the research gaps that currently exist, and develop strategies for monitoring implementation and for monitoring subsequent impacts from a results-based perspective. This work is incredibly interesting and requires careful analysis and logical thinking. It is common for documents of all sorts to go through numerous revisions before even being presented for approval.

My time working in Dhaka has been filled with countless positive experiences and I am so grateful that I have been able to develop my skills, make lifelong friends, and engage with professionals from a diverse range of fields. I don’t know where I will be one year from now, but I can say definitively, that my participation in the International Development and Diplomacy Internship Programme, has had a significant effect on my career direction and my personal confidence. While I plan to continue working in the development sector, I still have more education to pursue, and I also hope to open up a business in the near future.