Milou van Rooyen
Former Intern (Sept. 2001)
Student of 'Public Administration'
Leiden University
The Netherlands

As a student of 'Public Administration' at Leiden University, I was very interested in fulfilling an internship in an international organization. During the last two years of my studies I have been specializing in Organization and Management. An institute for training and research seemed to be matching my aspirations. Because of an interest and proficiency in economics and finance, I applied to the Debt and Financial Management Training Programme of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.

I am most thankful to have been given the opportunity to work at this Programme. The projects, that were assigned to me, have given me not only a good insight in the day-to-day running of the Debt and Financial Management Training Programme, but also exposed me to the more substantive issues involved in the related projects, such as learning more on institutional and legal aspects of financial management in developing countries, creating an understanding of e-learning technologies, raising funds, drawing up documents, researching topics related to areas in the field of debt and financial management and locating resource persons. Since I have been given much independence and flexibility in completing the assignments, I was able to gain substantial experience and knowledge related to these issues.

In short, working for the Debt and Financial Management Training Programme of UNITAR has been a valuable, educational, interesting and most of all pleasurable experience. I am most grateful to Mr. Kamal for letting me work for him for four months.