25 students from Strathmore University (Kenya) visited the University of Navarra from March 27th to April 7th to undertake an introductory course on development economics, organized by the Navarra Center for International Development (NCID) from the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS). Experts from this institution as well as from the School of Economics were the ones who taught the sessions.
The workshop is part of the close collaboration that the NCID and Strathmore University have carried out for years. As specified by the Lecturer of the Instite of Mathematical Sciences and the School of Finance and Applied Economics of the University, John Olukuru, “Luis Ravina has been coming to Nairobi several times, and thanks to that, we have had the chance to have lectures from Professor Pedro Mendi, Professor Luis Alberiko (Gil-Alaña) in Kenya… all this has opened up the opportunity to bring our students to Pamplona, to the University of Navarra, where they have learned development techniques that they can apply back at home.”
Caroline Kariuki, Professor of Economics at Strahtmore, pointed out that this experience has been very positive for students: “they have had the chance to hear from experts in their fields, from econometrics to development, to topics they don't usually hear about in their everyday studies, such as GIS or urban planning.” She noted that observing “different perspectives” and their links with economics was an “eye opener for them.” Caroline pointed out the utility of the sessions on software such as Stata, Gretl or Matlab…“they now have a better idea of how they can use those tools for their econometric analysis.”
Helping Kenya Grow
Mercy Okoth, a student that participated in the course, underlined that this experience has offered her “a greater perspective of the knowledge we possessed, through a different lens”. Moreover, she has enjoyed learning “the practical part of the theoretical work that we are doing in class.”
His classmate Andrew Odera agreed on the fact that “learning the practical aspects of economics and development is very useful” in order to educate well and help his country “grow”.
Prince Muraguri found the technical programming seminars for econometric analysis specially useful: “For many of us, it is the first time we have used computational models to analyze economic and econometric data, something that is very valuable for economists”.
Joan Kamau pointed out that coming from a developing country, the best thing they can do to help Kenya is learning and educating as economists in the best possible way to redistribute resources in a more just way among citizens. “Everything we take back home can be of great utility to our society, and it can help us make Kenya evolve from a developing country to a developed one.”