Ravneet Singh has been working as an assistant programme manager at the EBA’s secretariat since April. She comes most recently from Sida and has previously been a trainee for the medical mission in Uganda.
Tell us more about yourself and your motivations
‘During my time in Uganda, I saw how climate change affects the people there, and the difficulties of adapting without resources or information. I also realised how important it is to see the reality on the ground for those who live in the contexts that the aid is intended to lift. I think it is important to see the people behind different life stories. I don’t want to dwell on the abstract, but spend time seeing the individual people and their situation. Behind every number there are people with stories that need to be told. I want to do that.
Why have you chosen to work at EBA?
I have always had a keen interest in the world around us and a particular interest in development issues and aid, something I inherited from home. Therefore, it felt natural to choose development studies as the focus of my master’s programme. My interest in understanding connections means that I like to work methodically and analytically, so EBA was an obvious choice for me. Here I get to combine my personal interest with how I prefer to work.
I see myself as a generalist and feel that I am still quite new in my role. Therefore, I want to absorb as much knowledge as possible from my colleagues and from the industry. I find it very rewarding that the EBA approaches development cooperation from so many different angles.
I also appreciate the EBA’s role as an independent actor, scrutinising aid regardless of who is delivering it and daring to take on the uncomfortable issues. There are better and worse interventions, and the role of EBA is to highlight this so that we can learn and improve.
What are you doing at EBA and what do you want to focus on in the future?
I am currently working on a literature review on the state of knowledge on the effectiveness of core versus project support to multilateral organisations, in collaboration with our sister organisation in Germany, DEval. I am also working on a baseline study on Sweden’s reform agenda together with my colleagues at EBA.
In the future, I would like to delve more into land rights from a gender perspective. I’m interested in women’s empowerment and in the decolonisation of aid. Who delivers aid and who has power over it. I also find it interesting to look at the links between humanitarian aid and development cooperation and how it can be better coordinated. The gap between the two forms of aid is increasingly narrowing as humanitarian crises are more far-reaching. To create more long-term and sustainable development cooperation that lifts people out of poverty and oppression, development efforts need to be more integrated based on local conditions. This is not a new issue, but it is constantly relevant and something I want to immerse myself in.
Read more about Ravneet and her colleagues at the EBA secreteriat.