Meet the 2022 Summer in the Field Fellows

The Boston University Global Development Policy (GDP) Center is pleased to present the 2022 Summer in the Field Fellows. These four outstanding Boston University students are currently pursuing graduate degrees at different departments across the university, including the School of Public Health, the Pardee School of Global Studies and the Department of Economics.

The GDP Center Summer in the Field Fellowship Program provides stipends to a select group of qualified graduate students to participate in unpaid internships or conduct field research for a dissertation project during the summer months. This program enables students to take advantage of unpaid internship opportunities or field research that would otherwise have been financially unfeasible.

Starting June 1, 2022, the Summer in the Field Fellows will spend ten weeks developing their skills, research and professional experience by participating in variety of research projects and internships, spanning topics from the impact of assignment of non-local officials on long-term development in China to working on women’s political representation in Meghalaya, India and developing a sustainability framework and policy recommendations for PEPFAR-funded initiatives in Kenya.

The 2022 Summer in the Field Fellows are:

Anisa Saleh is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at Boston University School of Public Health. For her Summer in the Field Fellowship, Anisa will be working with Palladium Kenya, a consultancy group working to formulate strategies and implement solutions that generate lasting social, environmental and financial benefits, and the Center for Disease Control Kenya to develop a sustainability framework and policy recommendations for PEPFAR-funded initiatives in Kenya. Her research is expected to benefit the Kenya Ministry of Health (MoH) and Kenya as a whole, as policy changes will strengthen the health system structure. This framework will also be instrumental for PEPFAR and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa with PEFPAR funded health information system (HIS) initiatives. The project will entail collaboration with the Kenya MoH, HIS donors and local stakeholders.

Since 2011, PEPFAR has funded the Kenya Health Management Information Systems (KeHMIS) Project with implementation support from Palladium Kenya. The goal of the KeHMIS Project is to support the Kenya Ministry of Health (MoH), Country Health Management Teams and Service Delivery Partners in developing and maintaining health information systems innovations in Kenya. Given that PEPFAR and other donor funding for Kenya’s health information system (HIS) will likely decrease in the future, it is critical to develop sustainability strategies of HIS initiatives in-country.

Yuheng Zhao is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics at Boston University. He received his B.A. in Economics and M.A. in Economics from Peking University. His research focuses on development and labor economics.

For his Summer in the Field Fellowship, Yuheng plans to explore how the assignment of non-local officials may influence the state capacity and the long-term development. China’s Southbound Official program in the early 1950s provide a unique natural experiment, which sent around more than 80,000 cadres to the newly liberated south China. Those southbound officials formed the largest migration of officials in the world, and were believed to have greatly shaped the local development policy. Yuheng plans to collect information on social-economic development and policy implementation at the county level. At the same time, he will cooperate with a survey team and collect information on individuals’ identities, trust in government, and attitudes on redistribution programs.

Anjali Kini is a graduate student in the Global Development Economics program at Boston University. Her main research interests are infrastructure, energy and development finance. She is also works as a Research Assistant at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center on tracking Chinese overseas development finance.

For her Summer in the Field Fellowship, Anjali will be working on the Women’s Political Leadership project in Meghalaya, India, commissioned by the Government of Meghalaya, India’s State Capability Enhancement Project (SCEP) team. Meghalaya is home to one of the few existing matrilineal societies in the world and is one of the few states in India where the sex ratio is not skewed, and female voters have exceeded male voters in recent years. Women, however, have a very limited say in local decision-making and governance. As of August 2020, the state of Meghalaya began a version of quotas for women in elected government. The project goal will be to help the state begin to evaluate this policy and design subsequent, complementary policies to effectively improve women’s political leadership.

Julia Maselli is a graduate student at the Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies, specializing in global policy and sustainable development who is interested in making a difference by developing policies that are community-centered and sustainable.

For her Summer in the Field Fellowship, Julia will conduct field research for a Capstone project in Meghalaya, India, during which she will be surveying and data mapping the area commissioned by the Meghalayan government. The primary objective of her research is to help the state evaluate its policies for improving women’s political leadership in Meghalaya, India and design subsequent complementary policies or projects. The first step of the project will be qualitative research, including preparation through review of existing memos, reports, newspaper articles and scholarly research. The final stage of the research project will be analysis of all the data collected (qualitative and quantitative) to evaluate the impact of existing policy (quotas) to increase women’s political leadership in Meghalaya, and to identify areas for revising existing policy or building and evaluating additional, complementary policy to effectively improve women’s political leadership in Meghalaya, India.

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