"Get Off Your Donkey": How to build a career in social entrepreneurship and international development.
"Working with communities", "social entrepreneurship", "consulting with the UN" are all terms students in International Development have heard and use. But how to get started? In this episode Soudeh Jamshidian joins Dr. Bob to chat about how she has worked on various social entrepreneurship initiatives as well as with the United Nations, and founding her own organization "Peace Geeks"? How to engage in global development through social entrepreneurship? It's easy, according to Soudeh. "Just get off your Donkey"....you'll see what she means. Soudeh (B.Sc., M.Sc. in Natural Resources Engineering) is a social entrepreneur and environment expert, currently doing her PhD at the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. Soudeh’s professional life started at the age of 19 when she founded an environmental NGO called Daumoon in Iran, which continues to operate today. She has an extensive experience working on co-management and community development as well as policy making and awareness raising programs for environment management. She has worked as a project manager, designer and consultant for the United Nations Development Program’s Global Environment Facilities. She has also worked as a project manager and facilitator for various IUCN and IIED projects. Soudeh's experience has taken her to Iran, India, Afghanistan, Mali and Canada to collaborate with local communities, policy makers, international organizations and academics in various topics related to resource management. Soudeh's passion for working on development grew substantially after she worked as Environmental Education and Outreach Expert for the United Nations Environment Programme in Afghanistan in 2009-2010. Soudeh is a co-founder of Peace Geeks and a moderator for Vancouver Peace Talks. She is also a member of the Board of both PeaceGeeks Society and PeaceGeeks International. Her PhD research is on multi-stakeholder processes and various policies used for public participation in resource management in India, Iran and Afghanistan.