Research Reflection Post

In applying to this program, I so many expectations for what this program would be. Throughout the semester however, although we learned more and more about Lusaka and were taught about what we would be doing, my perception of the research became less and less clear. When we finally got our topic “social protection and other,” I was really unsure what this research would turn out to be. Looking back on when I applied, research on social protection would not have been what I envisioned; however, I have come to enjoy this topic.

In the beginning of the program 8 weeks to conduct the research seemed like a easily manageable task however, as the weeks went on I realized how short this time frame is in reality. In the beginning, it was easy to keep busy reading and reviewing all the literature. I assumed that I had so much time until the research ended and justified my progress through my diligence in reviewing the literature. As the weeks went on, I realized how short this time frame actually is especially for conducting research. I began to realize what an undertaking we had signed up for in doing a comparative study on Zambia and Namibia. The hardest part in my opinion was making sure we were on the same page in researching two different countries. The most difficult part came when we began writing; it was hard to finally take all of our information and synthesize it into significant findings. Initially I felt very overwhelmed trying to figure out how to take all the information from Namibia and turn it into useful information in the context of how to improve social protection in Zambia. It felt as though I was trying to play connect the dots to draw parallels and differences between the two countries. In the end, I was really happy with the results.

The most gratifying part of this research was being able to see the beginning and the end product of something meaningful. At school, I have written research papers and while I am invested in the end product, it is just for a grade. I enjoyed writing this paper because I knew how it was going to be used and that my research would be of greater use than just being read by a TA or professor. While I initially did not think that social protection would be an interesting topic, I was proved wrong. I learned that anything can become interesting when you invest a lot of time researching something. I found that the more I researched and the more knowledgeable I became, the more interested I became in the topic. From here on out, I look forward to seeing where this paper goes and am grateful for this experience.