V. Week 3 and La Fête de la Musique
La troisième semaine
With the UN Women proposal submitted for the project in Afghanistan, we now needed to fix our attention on ensuring we were in good shape for Thursday’s visit from the US State Department. Preparing for the visit included multiple parts. After Abi and I reviewed the checklist the State Department gave us, we met with our office’s International Program Director and the program director of our project funded by this grant with the outstanding questions we had. 2 CFR 200 is the regulation that controls grants given by the US government. Since the US state department gives IBJ a grant to support one of our international projects, they periodically check in to ensure we are complying with the regulations outlined in 2 CFR 200. After several zoom calls, meetings with the office staff, and collaborating with Abi, we concluded the visit with the State Department. They indicated that IBJ was in significantly better shape than the last time they visited, but they will likely give us a checklist of items to complete so we can increase our compliance with 2 CFR 200.
I had a unique experience operating on this project. I became familiar with parts of the US regulations of grants and how the grant is to be managed and allocated. Through this process, I also gained a much better understanding of how IBJ operates, what they do with their funding, and how the funding allocations directly affect the positions of the office employees. Most employees receive their salary through multiple grants and the expectation is that however much a grant funds their salary (20% of their salary is funded by the UN, for example), that same amount (20% in this example) is to be spent on their work on that project. So, if the US government funds a project in Country X, and that grant makes up 20% of Employee Y’s salary, 20% of their time at work is to be spent supporting the project taking place in Country Y. This is very difficult to measure, however, and there are different ways to support that particular country. There are administrative tasks that can take place, but also looking for funding proposals and drafting proposals for grants that would support that country are a few examples of ways an employee could support that country. These percentages are expected to be on the employee’s timesheet and should reflect the amount of work allocated to each grant that funds their salary.
La Fête de la Musique
Every year, Geneva holds a festival called Fête de la Musique. Roughly 30 stages were setup throughout Old Town Geneva accompanied by local tents selling food and drinks. While eating a kabab and sipping on a local brew, one could bask in the Swiss culture portrayed through local musicians, choirs, and bands performing on the stages. I attended the fête by myself, but I met up with other Genevois interns that I met my first week in Geneva through GIA (Geneva Intern Association). I was able to meet and speak with interns from around the world, including Indonesia, Germany, Ukraine, Brazil, Russia, Egypt, and many other countries. While I enjoyed the music, my favorite part of the night was meeting international interns.