Summer School 2022: Uniting Cultural Diversity
Rifdah Khalisha – Public Relations FEB UI
DEPOK – (9/8/2022) The Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia (FEB UI), in collaboration with OPHI Oxford University held “OPHI Summer School 2022: Multidimensional Poverty Measurement and Analysis” on August 1-12, 2022.
Operating across three time zones, Summer School 2022 allowed participants from various countries to experience face-to-face learning at the FEB UI Campus for two weeks to learn and explore the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). Some participants shared stories about the culture of their home countries and learning experiences during summer school.
Goldie, a participant who currently works for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, joined Summer School 2022 because she wanted to understand the MPI, having previously worked as a researcher on poverty issues but had never practiced its measurement.
She explained, “In this course session, we not only learned the steps to measure it, but learned about the definition of poverty and the philosophy behind the measurement, both conceptually and practically. The information is beneficial, I can advocate as an alternative to poverty conditions in Indonesia.”
“Currently, Indonesia has constructed five dimensions of learning. We can choose these indicators to create an index useful for designing policies. More than that, finding alternative policies that effectively affect or reduce poverty in Indonesia,” she continued.
Goldie admitted that she was very excited about meeting participants from different cultures. She learned many new things, both from the country and its people. For him, differences enrich diversity.
Then, Ignacio Germán-a 2022 Summer School participant from Argentina-said, “I decided to join the Summer School because I was working on multidimensional poverty policy in my project for my Ph.D. at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba.”
“During the course, I received comprehensive knowledge about MPI and implemented its basic concepts in the Working Group. The lecturers and instructors provided constructive feedback,” he said when interviewed at the 4th Floor Graduate Building, FEB UI Depok Campus, Tuesday (9/8).
Driesch Lucien Cortel works as a senior statistical specialist at the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). He said that his work focuses on collecting, compiling, analyzing, and publishing statistical information on the Filipino people’s economic, social, demographic, political affairs, and general affairs.
She sees the Summer School as beneficial to her agency as the PSA is publishing the official national poverty estimates as a solid policy. “I believe that learning directly from OPHI Oxford will be very helpful in the national MPI development activities.”
“I learned a lot over the past week, especially the Alkire Foster (AF) methodology. It feels very different when learning directly with the experts. The most helpful thing from this Summer School is identifying multidimensional indicators because previously I did not know the subjective and objective steps to identify them,” he added.
According to Cortel, Universitas Indonesia provided a memorable experience, the first country he visited after the pandemic cases decreased. The campus is in an easily accessible location to be close to nature. (mh)
