International Rescue Committee

Intern, Summer 2017

This summer I am interning with International Rescue Committee HQ as Outcomes and Evidence Framework intern. Before I reflect on my experience with IRC, I want to give a brief background into the team and the program I am working with to give more context:

I work with the virtual team, Research, Analysis and Learning. RAL – Research, analysis and learning promotes and facilitates the use of research, evidence, data and learning in US programs to improve the quality of programs and in doing so, increase the impact for their clients. Team members are researchers who are building the US programs agenda, experts who oversee the database system and experienced trainers who focus on learning initiatives. The team also includes monitoring and evaluation team who provide M&E expertise.

I report to Kristy Gladfelter, the director for RAL team and Carrie Mann, the program officer, Outcomes and Evidence Framework(OEF). IRC has a new strategic plan for 2020 to answer the number and intensity of humanitarian crises across the globe. At the heart of this new strategic plan is outcomes and evidence based framework.The interactive Outcomes and Evidence Framework supports humanitarian and development professionals to design effective programs. The IRC has defined five outcome areas–health, safety, education, economic well being, and power–that within them contain 32 outcomes. OEF delivers key information on these outcomes, provides evidence for interventions that work or don’t work to achieve the outcomes, and includes guidance on how to measure progress. IRC believes the beneficiaries of their programs deserve evidence-based interventions that bring real change to their lives and that is what IRC is determined to deliver.

There are two parts to my internship: I assist the program officer with developing instructional and reference material for the outcomes and evidence framework workshops. In other words, I have to do research on outcomes and evidence framework. I have guidance that I use IRC international guidance notes and indicators as a guidance for this. As IRC USA wants the framework to align with IRC international as much as possible. A few of the tasks I have completed have been designing results framework for IRC “safety” outcome area, developing guidance notes for safety outcome area. The guidance notes contain direction on measuring of the core indicators of safety. These materials have been used by my supervisor for OEF workshop in IRC – US programs.

In addition to that, I assist Kristy Gladfelter with workshop logistics and budget management. In terms of workshops logistics and budget management, I have been assigned a wide range of activities. For example, coordinating communication between workshop facilitators and participants, compiling travel expense reports, and inputting expenses for workshops to see where it stands against the estimated RAL budget.

I must mention that working with a virtual team has its challenges as well. This is especially true as RAL team members are based in different time zones across the US. For example, I need to schedule skype/phone calls with my supervisor to go through my assignments. During the third week of my work, for 3 days we were not able to schedule a call as she was in NY and during the day she was facilitating a workshop and after hour, it was too late for me in CA.

I was able to meet with my immediate supervisor in person to go through my assignments, but otherwise there are endless email threads exchanged assigning/explaining each task. But as I continue working with IRC, I feel more comfortable with my tasks as I gain experience and learn.

Working with IRC so far has been rewarding and challenging. Aside from professional experience and insight into IRC programs, it has also given me a chance to grow personally through exposure to refugee resettlement process, its challenges, and opportunities. A major takeaway for me is definitely exposure to outcomes and evidence based framework for program design. Evidence based intervention will not only be well informed but also function as a guide to measure progress through the course of the intervention.