After graduating from high school in Paris in 2018, I moved to Montreal to pursue a Bachelor of Political Science, Economics and African Studies at 捆绑SM社区 with the ambition of working in the development field. Throughout my studies, I have received an indispensable view of the many, and sizeable, governance, democratization, conservation and growth challenges facing the African continent. Aware of the many political, economic and resource constraints blocking the application of clean-cut theories, I was keen to obtain more practical experience and to consider how these theories could be applied in a real-world context.
In January 2020, I was lucky enough to be considered by I-CAN for an intern position. The Institutional Canopy for Conservation is a research project between 捆绑SM社区 and the African Conservation Center which aims to identify effective community-based practices that help preserve East Africa鈥檚 biodiversity and enhance local livelihoods. Since environmental conservation is a sensitive topic in Africa, often synonymous with corruption and loss of land rights for local communities, I found I-CAN鈥檚 approach incredibly important from the beginning. Moreover, the project comprised many of my personal interests like good governance, sustainable actions, development and indigenous communities. By making it to the field, I also hoped to grasp a better glimpse of the dynamics of power taking place in small-scale development projects.
As an I-CAN intern, I was selected to work for one of its partners based in Narok County (Southern Kenya), a non-governmental organization called ILEPA, researching and advocating for local communities鈥� rights in environmental conservation projects in the Maasai Mara. A month and a half before my departure to Kenya, with plane tickets purchased, visits and research organized in the area, the internship was unfortunately cancelled due to the global pandemic of COVID-19. After some reflection, however, I-CAN reconsidered and decided to maintain the internship remotely.
I still had to face the harsh reality that some of my expectations regarding this internship, which notably included living onsite with local researchers, were gone. My supervisors, based in Montreal, were transparent and supportive, telling us that they had no clear ideas on how exactly these remote internships would evolve. In Narok, ILEPA was overwhelmed with dealing with the impacts of COVID-19 on Maasai pastoralist communities, so the first task for my co-intern and I was to build an online platform to raise funds for their emergency response to the pandemic. This included food relief, awareness campaigns, and the provision of sanitizers and masks. Progressively, I started to reflect on the potential ways to benefit from this constantly evolving internship structure.
On their annual reports, I had noticed that both I-CAN and ILEPA were lacking data from a wildlife conservancy called Nashulai. However, Nashulai had the particularity to be run and managed by Maasai peoples, something exceptional in the region, so I decided to focus my personal research on their work. My job consisted mainly in data collection from various articles, websites and Facebook pages before I decided to reach out to them via e-mail. I rapidly received an answer from the founder of the conservancy: a Maasai elder named Nelson Ole Reiyia who turned out to be very cooperative and interested in my project (the fact that he knew ILEPA鈥檚 work in the region largely facilitated my task). We exchanged regularly through WhatsApp calls to discuss the conservancy鈥檚 management and impacts in the region. Nelson always took the time to explain some of the Maasai customs and beliefs that justified specific management decisions, which led to very interesting conversations.
Later, encouraged by my supervisors, I was able to recruit a research assistant based in Kenya who would conduct fieldwork on the Nashulai conservancy and support my paper. Interviewing the Nashulai inhabitants was crucial since it allowed me to compare Nelson鈥檚 statements with others and make the product of my research less biased. My responsibilities included estimating the logistical costs (gas, food and lodging) of the mission, elaborating an exhaustive questionnaire for specific groups of the community along with coordinating the fieldtrip itself with the research assistant. The interviews lasted four days and inspired the title of my research paper: 鈥淓xploring new paths for the future of conservation and indigenous development at the Nashulai conservancy鈥�. I am not receiving credits for this internship.
All things considered, enjoying this much freedom and responsibility as an intern has been truly rewarding. Even though I did not make it to Kenya, researching the region, following national news, and speaking with locals every day have taught me a great deal about the cultural norms and the current political and economic stakes. Working remotely for I-CAN pushed me to be creative in undertaking my job, notably to consider social networks like Facebook and WhatsApp as useful professional platforms. This deeply enriching experience would not have happened without the generosity of the Tania Zouikin Arts Internship Award. For this reason, I would like to sincerely thank Ms. Tania Zouikin. As a recipient of the award, it allowed me to fully embrace my internship experience, exempt of financial worries: a rare chance in the midst of an unprecedented global health and economic crisis. Overall, I am confident that this experience will serve to sharpen my future goals and career ambition in the development field, as it has challenged my flexibility, fostered my personal growth, and made me discover a new way of thinking social impact.
