25 students from Strathmore University (Kenya) visited the University of Navarra from March 27 to April 7 to attend a course on research in development economics organized by the Navarra Center for International Development (NCID) at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS). ICS researchers, along with scholars from the School of Economics gave the course.

Over the past several years, the program has been developed in close collaboration between NCID and Strathmore, as John Olukuru, Dean of Strathmore’s Institute of Mathematical Sciences, explained. "NCID’s director, Luis Ravina, has come to Nairobi several times and we have also welcomed presentations from Pedro Mendi, Luis Alberiko Gil-Alaña... All of this has opened the door for our students to come to Pamplona to work on development in Kenya, while also impacting Navarra," he noted.

Caroline Kariuki, an economics professor at Strathmore, said the experience is very positive for her students because "they listen to experts in their field and also in other areas they do not encounter in their daily studies, for example GIS or urban planning." She noted that seeing "different perspectives" and how they relate to the economy "opens their eyes."

On the other hand, she pointed out how useful the course’s content was, especially software like Stata, Gretl, Matlab... "Now they better understand how they can use econometric analysis in their projects," she added.

Help Kenya grow

Mercy Okoth, a participant in the course, stressed that the experience offers, "a greater perspective than the knowledge we brought, through a different lens." She also noted that she likes discovering "the practical part of the theoretical work we do in class.”

Her colleague, Andrew Odera, agreed with her on how useful it is to "learn the practicalities of economics and development" to get a good education and help their country “grow.”

Prince Muraguri found learning about programming for econometric analysis particularly valuable: "For many of us, this was the first time we used computer models to analyze economic and econometric data, which is very useful to economists."

Joan Kamau pointed out that they come from a developing country and they can best contribute to it by getting a good education as economists to better distribute resources among citizens. "Everything we bring home can be of great value to our society and can help Kenya move from being a developing nation to being developed," he concluded.