De bene esse

This week marks the halfway point of my internship with NCSC. It is amazing how quickly it is going. 

This week was not flashy or exciting. There were no field trips. No conferences. No AUSA presentations with Samoan men doing the Haka (yes, that did really happen). In fact, a handful of people were out of the office, so it was quite quiet.

The quiet was sort of nice. It was an opportunity to focus on work and get a lot accomplished. 

First, I finished editing a couple of very interesting reports. I started with a report on the Justice For All program in Bangladesh. After finishing the report, I wrote a memo detailing the most important facts from the 92-page survey. The memo highlighted notable changes over time, areas of significant improvement and areas where it looked like the program might have stalled. I also got to edit the English translation of the Trainee Evaluation Guideline for the Judicial Administration Training Institute.

Second, Tim, Emma & I revisited the GDPR and discussed various scenarios where it might affect us. We tried to flesh out where the potential boundaries might lie. We sort of went down a hypothetical rabbit hole that ended with a vibrant debate on jurisdictional issues and a comparison to the Alien Tort Claims Act and the effect of Shell Oil's activities in Nigeria. [Sidebar: if you're curious about this, you can read the Kiobel v. Shell opinion or listen to the More Perfect podcast episode "Enemy of Mankind"].

Third, I reviewed the new closeout procedures for NCSC's Subaward Agreement and compared them to USAID's Guidance on Closeout Procedures for A&A Awards.

Last, I wrote a memo summarizing the key findings of the USAID's & the International Foundation for Electoral Systems' report titled "Elections on Trial: The Effective Management of Election Disputes and Violations." It was very illustrative on the importance of free and fair elections for the exercise of the rule of law. Being able to contest an election and raise disputes in integral to the credibility of elections and the acceptance of election results.

Additionally, Emma and I discussed the concept paper we are writing on Serbia. To help us understand the process of building and submitting program proposals for government aid, Tim has given us an old Notice Of Funding Opportunity and told us to work collaboratively on it. This gives us the opportunity to work from start to finish on program design. We have to decide what problems to address, which communities to address them in, what counterparts we might work with on the ground, how we will implement this over time, and how we will measure and evaluate it to ensure a sustainable program. It seemed daunting at first. So many moving parts and no way to know if we are headed in the right direction. But that's the benefit of this exercise. It's okay to screw up. We won't really look $5 million dollars and three years of valuable time. 

So this week was quiet but it gave me the time and freedom to explore so many different kinds of work. I feel as if every time I turn around there's something new to read and learn and a new experience to be had. I'm halfway through but that means I still have five full weeks to learn and explore more. 

I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer brings.