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About IDS Alumni

M o n d a y, 2 4 M a r c h 2 0 1 4

About this blog

IDS: From business card to business partner

This IDS Alumni blog is no longer used
but has transferred to the IDS website.

For the past five years after my departure from MA in Poverty, I have been luckily interactingwith IDS. In this post, I will look back into my work experience and share how it affects mywork.

IDS is a reliable ‘business card’“I am Ippei Tsuruga, working forJapan International Cooperation
Agency, and I am also an IDS
graduate.” That is how I introduce
myself when I meet new people,
and it works much better than justgiving a boring business card.
As a staff member of a bilateraldevelopment agency, I often meetsenior government officials andpractitioners in developing
countries. You could imagine howchallenging but important the firstmeeting is to build up good relationships with those experienced people. Talking about IDS isalways a good start for a friendly conversation. In my experience, people in the development
community somehow link to IDS. Even though they are not IDS alumni, they likely havefriends or colleagues from IDS or work together with IDS. All of them have a good impression
about IDS and its alumni.

IDS is a powerful knowledge bank
Whenever I need information about poverty related issue, I rely on the source of IDS. In 2011,
I was in Kenya to conduct a stock taking survey for formulating an assistance portfolio in
response to the worst drought in 60 years. Our agency had not been involved in any
interventions in arid areas. So we had no experience and no networks. I had only one week tomap who was working for what projects, to find out needs, and gaps for further investment.
Where should I start? That was my first reaction when I got this task.
What I did was to go to the IDS website and Eldis catalogue to learn about existing social
protection mechanisms and key players for the issue in the country. I then found that theHunger Safety Net Programme, a cash transfer scheme, was a flagship social protection
scheme, and IDS’ Centre for Social Protection was involved. Having a contact, I visited theministry in charge of the programme on the first day. It was completely successful.
Beginning with the introduction mentioned above, we started very friendly discussion and I
got a lot of information about the project, the overall framework of social protection in thecountry, and focal points at other agencies. Our mission ended up with a comprehensive
assistance package at the end.

IDS alumni are located all over theworld and after studying at IDS go on
to a range of careers in development.
This makes the Alumni Blog uniquelyplaced to represent opinions on
development from a diverse range ofexperience and professions, all ofwhom have IDS in common.
The posts on this blog reflect theopinions of each individual, and notnecessarily those of IDS.

IDS Alumni on Facebook

IDS Blogs
Development Horizons byLawrence Haddad
Geneva: global development’s best
kept secret?
3 days ago

Globalisation and Development
Modi's Clean India campaign ‐ don’t
waste the opportunity
2 years ago

Governance and Development
Participatory methods in mixed
methods research
1 month ago

Impact and Learning
Impact and Learning blog will nolonger be updated but you can read
all the latest opinions from the IDScommunity on our website
1 year ago

Knowledge, Technology andSociety team blog
Knowledge, Technology and Society
blog will no longer be updated but
you can read all the latest opinionsfrom the IDS community on ourwebsite
1 year ago

IDS is a partner

Participation, Power and Social
Change Research at IDS

As Lawrence Haddad summarised in his blog Development Horizons, we are working on ajoint research project on Quality of Growth. I join to coordinate this project and contributeone paper. I particularly like this project because of its critical perspectives.

Participation, Power & Social
Change blog will no longer be
updated but you can read all thelatest opinions from the IDS
community on our website
1 year ago

When talking about growth, one of the biggest questions is what we expect from growth.
Why do we want growth? It may be for money, savings, or wealth. Development practitioners
might say for helping the poor out of poverty. Then another question comes. Growth forwhom? Policy makers and development partners still tend to quickly translate ‘growth isgood for the poor’, trickle‐down theory. Even though they further think of the question inThe side roomChallenging the norm of rabies
control in Tamil Nadu
4 weeks ago

Sign Indepth, they might be stuck at pro‐poor growth discussions. Is it enough to cover the issues
that we are facing today?
My passion is to work for poverty alleviation throughout my career. That is something I
learned from IDS. When I left IDS in 2009, one of my dreams was to work with IDS. It hascome true. IDS has given me a lot even after my graduation. I believe that my responsibility
is to devote my career to poverty reduction.

Vulnerability and Poverty
Povertics blog will no longer be
updated but you can read all thelatest opinions from the IDS
community on our website
1 year ago

Blog Archive
This blog is by IDS alumni Ippei Tsuruga and has also been posted in The Povertist.

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