by: Maria Zaharatos
Maria Zaharatos (MPA ’23) details her practicum experience at the UNICEF East and South Africa Regional Office (ESARO) in Nairobi, Kenya.
During my practicum semester, I worked with UNICEF’s East and South Africa Regional Office (ESARO) in Nairobi, Kenya, to support the region’s Country Offices with implementation of the Yoma program. Yoma is an innovative multi-partner initiative that seeks to address youth unemployment through an ecosystem and digitally-enabled solution (currently implemented in 8 countries). While young people across the globe and particularly in Africa have immense potential, opportunities for upskilling and developing employability are often fragmented, and access to earning remains incredibly challenging.
I worked as a Fellow on the Green Yoma team, which creates pathways for youth to develop skills for the green economy and engage in local projects that can create environmental and climate impact in their communities. In this position, I was exposed to a variety of responsibilities, from business development to stakeholder engagement.
In terms of technical skills, the work I did honed my abilities in proposal writing, stakeholder engagement, and research, but my biggest insight was actually the rich organizational and soft skills I developed. For example, being part of a hybrid, multi-cultural team and a multi-stakeholder ecosystem that spanned almost every continent, I am now confident in my ability to work in diverse teams and within public-private partnerships.
A personal highlight for me was getting to lead on a few partnership development assignments and meetings, gaining confidence in my stakeholder engagement and leadership skills.
I also drew upon what I’ve learned at the MIIS by conducting rigorous research and applying a critical lens to the Yoma program. My practicum project, an Implementation Science Report to identify “what works” when rolling out Yoma in various countries, also resulted in a useful tool for scaling soon-to-be shared with the various country offices to guide implementation.
I am so grateful for this internship and professional development experience, which has exposed me to industry trends and a dynamic working environment within UNICEF’s start-up-like Yoma ecosystem. It allowed me to foster a thematic expertise in education technology, green economy and citizen science, skills and employability education, and youth development among many other interesting topics. A year ago, I never would have thought I’d be working on projects that combine education with things like blockchain and impact finance through NFTs!
Ultimately, the internship has helped me narrow down a niche in terms of youth skills development with an environmental justice lens, as well as opened up career opportunities with UNICEF as I explore jobs in the NGO sector after graduation.
Coming in as a young professional with limited international work experience, I can say that my practicum semester abroad was a whirlwind of accelerated development and unique organizational and cultural learning. Every student should lean into it and give the work their best shot, because you never know where it will lead you!