Testimonials about the field-based internship course

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• Testimonials from 2022
• Testimonials from 2021
• Testimonials from 2020
• Testimonials from 2019
• Testimonials from 2018
• Testimonials from 2017
• Testimonials from 2016

Testimonials from 2022

IFRC/SRC Stockholm – Grace 

"I was able to systematically bring in the knowledge I had attained from the DRMCCA programme into my tasks and adopt a critical lens on key issues I came across in the applications of DRM & CCA within the Movement.

Nature-based Solutions (NbS) as a topic was more complex than I had first anticipated, with many overlapping elements in how it could contribute to risk reduction. Working with NbS thus enabled me to utilise my knowledge in both DRM & CCA, and it was interesting to see how it could be used alongside other measures to form a productive programme to increase community resilience to recognised threats."

IFRC – Keir

"Overall, I learnt a significant amount, and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity, for it encouraged me to search for linkages between large humanitarian organisations and the private sector. I genuinely believe the DRMCCA course is a novel and extremely useful degree which has changed my life. It has given me a critical lens to analyse broader climate and disaster topics and has provided a window of understanding for a potential future in this field."

Skåne County Board – Tomas

"I think that this programme's approach to internships and the preparation for them has been fantastic. I do not know of any other programme in Sweden that helps their students this much in finding internships, recommending and collaborating with organisations, or starting the process this early on."

Ängelholm Municipality – Victoria

"The first learning outcome regarding what DRM and CCA may include in practice and how this relates to the theoretical front I have continuously taken on tasks that have prompted me to return to theories previously addressed on the programme, for example applying theories from risk communication in the crisis preparedness week when having dialogues with the public on how they can prepare themselves for uncertain times, where I needed to spread information and highlight the importance but without spreading a sense of panic.

I have needed to very often do tasks without understanding the full structure of the system I am working in and learn how to deal with that ambiguity."

Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT) Heidelberg, Germany – Kimon

"My previous research about the Forecast-based Financing model, carried out for the individual course papers in 'Disaster Preparedness and Planning' as well as 'Climate-Smart Risk Reduction', was very helpful to understand the required step of gaining risk knowledge to set up an early warning system."

IOM Vienna Austria – Marija

“I think that all the courses I have attended during the first year of the Master’s programme have laid a good foundation for an understanding of how big humanitarian organisations, such as the UN or IFRC are functioning which prepared me well to enter the IOM’s work environment.

Courses like Capacity Development and Introduction to Disaster Response Management introduce many terms, models, and theories (e.g. Theory of Change, Response to L1, L2, L3 emergencies, etc.) that I saw being used in practice in IOM. It was helpful because from the start of my internship, I was already familiar with several specific models, theories, and terminology.”

DPPI SEE – Tjorben

“My key learnings from this internship are the ability to work in an international environment. It is crucial to be opened minded to understand the different perspectives of several participants in those projects. Different stakeholders bring their agendas and opinions to the project, trying to influence it to match them.

While working on the INFORM risk index, I have learned to analyse complex international indexes and be able to grasp the underlying methodology of complex frameworks. I was able to make several connections to the content we discussed within the master’s program. It enabled me to quickly understand the complexity of evaluating risk from a multidimensional perspective.

Societal resilience taught me to perceive the complex system more holistically and connect vulnerability aspects with physical exposure. This general understanding of the complexity and interconnectivity in the master’s program was crucial to better understanding the interdependence of indicators and their influence on the broader picture.

The simulation of a SimEx we had last semester taught me the structure of SimEx, especially tabletop approaches. I was able to understand the idea of the SimEx from the start and could make several connections to our course in Lund. From a retro perspective, this class truly helped me to understand the situation in reality by giving me a tool I could use in the field. Hence, I was able to understand several roles in both SimEx, without a proper briefing in the internship.”

Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC), Thailand – Paula

"Having an understanding of DRR concepts, incident management systems, vulnerability and the connections between DRR and CCA allowed me to better incorporate these concepts into the research and policy analysis work I completed.“

KomRe AG Berlin, Germany – Sophie

“I recognized how important the DRMCCA master was for developing my soft skills and discovering new perspectives. I learned or improved skills like holding presentations, improvising if I do not know the exact answer, backing up my arguments, understanding other people’s arguments, knowing that there is something between true or wrong, giving and asking for feedback and accepting that everyone is doing mistakes. Those skills might all sound quite obvious, but after a bachelor's degree in engineering without any presentations, discussion or feedback, I am very glad that I became a part of DRMCCA and got to know these things, too.”

IFRC Nepal – Tabitha

“I found many of the DRMCCA master’s courses very relevant to my internship experience. First, I was able to quickly understand most of the DRM and CCA terminology and concepts used in the IFRC, which can be one of the barriers to starting to work at a new organisation. I was also familiar with the range of different approaches for DRM and CCA, ranging from different capacity development activities to disaster response and land use planning. Having a grasp of these different approaches helped me to support various projects and provide a higher level of critical thinking. While the context and specific work I conducted as part of the internship was quite different than what we focused on during the master’s courses, I found my base-level knowledge to be a great starting point.”

Testimonials from 2021

IOM Sudan – Magdalena

"I believe I have gained a lot of knowledge throughout our DRMCCA programme: the theoretical one, in particular the understanding of the capacity development principles, challenges, tools and theory of change thinking and further various hazard, vulnerability, capacity and overall risk perceptions; as well as the practical ones gained through the group work discussions, listening and negotiations definitely helped me to carry out certain parts of my internship tasks. Both the theoretical and practical knowledge mentioned helped me to create the Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA) methodology tools as well as conduct the participatory community workshops building upon the community knowledge and challenging my Western thinking of all the disaster risk components.

I would stress the importance of the ethical 'dilemmas' discussed throughout our programme, which I experienced in the field, e.g., (1) the selection of the communities to respect for the cultural aspects of the community e.g., in particular, no participation of women and disabled allowed or promoted vs. the group balance desired for an inclusive data outcome and (2) the questioning of own approach and thinking from gender sensitivity to conflict dynamics in every new activity workshop conducted."

Coviaux SRC/IFRC – Claire

"The regular assignments throughout the Master's also helped me to sharpen my analysis and research skills, in a systemic long-term perspective on vulnerability,  resilience,  capacity-building,  bridging silos,  and interconnected complex issues, which are the heart of climate finance."

IFRC Budapest – Sára

"During the three days mission, I  could also identify core challenges that arose in regards to delay of funding, lack of state support and resources, problems with coordination among departments and state as well as non-state actors. The Societal Resilience, Capacity Development and Preparedness and Planning Courses definitely served as a great knowledge base to become aware of these issues.

I was very happy to see that every course I completed during my first year has enriched me with valuable theoretical knowledge that I could use at IFRC in practice. Even though the DMCA course does not provide with an in-depth understanding of one specific area of interest, it certainly teaches you about every aspect of DRM and CCA, which basically means that you have an idea of what to do no matter what practical tasks you are responsible for."

GIZ – Christine

"A key learning was seeing how theory and practice meet and reflecting on how challenges touched upon at university become alive:  While the discussions at university covered a lot of what I have experienced in the last four months, I underestimated the actual complexity and difficulty to overcome them.

I have been able to critically integrate the knowledge of  DRR  and  CCA,  especially in situations with limited information.  Strength has been the high independence and diversity of tasks that I was given; leading a lot of learnings. While my internship was focused on transitional development assistance as only one aspect related to  DRR  and/or  CCA, I believe that a big share of what I learned is transferrable to any other aspect of the field. 

Looking at the impact that the master’s programme has had on me concerning my ability to fulfil the internship tasks, I would like to point out how extremely helpful most of the courses we have had throughout the first year of the program were.  Especially the course  Capacity  Development was useful in terms of practical skills:  Project proposals,  problem trees and  “project logic”; the STAPLES method and LFAs were discussed and helped me to understand better what I had to do during my internship and how to do so, too. It was really good to be prepared in terms of systems thinking. Both the course Societal Resilience and Climate Smart  Risk  Reduction were good preparation for my ethical reflections during and after the internship in terms of how to think (and talk) about linkages between climate change and conflict/ migration as well as general power and accountability issues in the humanitarian and development sector. I think we further gained a  lot of helpful soft skills such as listening, group work skills, knowing and discussing communication and coordination issues, working with complex tasks and problems, working independently, fast and efficient under time pressure in all of the courses from the first year of the DRMCCA program."

SRC/IFRC – Mikaela

"In general, I found the contents of the course to have helped me through many of the concepts I was working with during my internship. I found that the programme has provided me with a solid foundation of key concepts used in the DRR and adaptation field as well as a holistic way of viewing and solving problems."

Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation – Lara

"I believe, that the courses most importantly gave me the confidence that I have a lot
of valuable expertise the organisation can benefit from. In this way, I did not shy away
from expressing my opinion and wanting to improve and break up certain organisational structures."

Danida Market Development Partnerships – Sofie

"Regarding how the Master’s programme has helped me fulfil my internship tasks I will say that it has supplied me with an overall understanding of the field and challenges within the field. One course that stands out is the course Capacity Development where we learned how to apply the Logical Framework approach and Theory of Change in capacity development projects. It has been very interesting to see how this is being done in a real, practical setting and it was very helpful to have a theoretical foundation to build on."

Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) – AnaCapri

"Through my research process and report writing, I demonstrated the ability to take concepts that we learned in the courses and critically apply them to a  tangible project.  This was especially relevant in my weeks focusing on how Djibouti’s laws, policies, and national strategies incorporate the SFDRR  and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Because part of my report writing included making recommendations regarding national disaster management and climate change adaptation strategies, I was constantly needed to think critically and systematically about how to accurately represent the complexities of the different relationships within the Djiboutian government without the ability to directly communicate with government stakeholders.

The DRMCCA programme provided a  theoretical background that was helpful for this internship. Because most of my work was focused on the Disaster Management Analysis (DMA) side of the NDPBA, I felt that DRMCCA’s emphasis on complexity, holistic approaches,  intersectionality, power relations,  and integration of the  SFDRR  and  SDGs  (among many others)  were often represented in my work.  Further, the exposure to the logical framework approach  (LFA)  in capacity development helped me to more easily interpret the massive amounts of development projects I was analyzing, and the overall emphasis on shorter written reports in the program was helpful as I sought to write concise and helpful weekly briefs."

SRC/IFRC – Jovana

"The critical approach to gender and inclusion taught in the program proved to be extremely helpful, since I felt like I already was trained to apply such worldviews in analysis."

SRC/IFRC – Inka

"This Master’s program definitely helped me fulfil my tasks. I received a good foundation of knowledge from the different courses I had taken before starting my internship. Being familiar with early actions helped me tremendously when conducting research and collecting data on them. Analysing the data and writing a report felt easy after having written a lot of academic texts for the courses. Presenting the data and analysis to colleagues was less challenging than it would have been if I would not have done multiple presentations both in person and remotely in my studies. I was also able to provide constructive feedback to my supervisor on his part of the analysis due to the experiences I had with giving feedback to my peers in class. Possibly the most helpful aspect that this master’s program offered during my internship was understanding complexity within organisations as well as within the topic I was working with."

SRC/IFRC – Sofia

"I would say that I definitely gained deeper knowledge and understanding of what disaster risk management and climate change adaptation entail in practice. Especially the debriefings that I was able to join were very interesting and insightful. Also, I was able to make the connections with the theory that we had learned, for example in the Disaster response course, the Preparedness and Planning course, as well as the Climate Smart Risk Reduction course and the Capacity Development course."

Day of Adaptation – Minja

"The DRMCCA programme provided me with various mental frameworks and concepts that I believe were crucial in managing this internship position. For instance, I drew a lot from complexity thinking and quantum social change theories as they are closely aligned with DAYAD’s organisational theory of change. Meanwhile, while facilitating CCA discussions I noticed the usefulness of preparedness and planning, especially concepts such as contingency planning and the difference between plans and planning. For my research project, the most significant link between the programme and my work was the concepts of risk perception and psychological biases. For instance, the communication project from the risk perception course was a useful bridge into environmental psychology and climate communications. Initially, the more general theories on resilience and risk were important in providing language I could relate to in the internship."

Testimonials from 2020

Swedish Red Cross, Sweden – Maria

“I have been able to apply and confront theoretical knowledge in practice and also noticed core differences, such as the very limited time frames in practice, as opposed to in theory, and also reflected on the aspect of stress and the need of efficient communication and collaboration being more evident in practice in DRM. I have also gotten a sense of the need to always reflect and update views and knowledge in this dynamic field, as it is always evolving. Relating to issues of resilience and complexity, DRM and CCA are covering issues on a global scale and at all levels of society while dealing with great uncertainties and quick changes.”

Swedish Red Cross, Sweden – Emelie

“The internship has met my expectations in terms of working with ‘real’ tasks, making proper contributions and being able to actually use the skills and knowledge that I have thanks to my studies.”

Swedish Red Cross, Sweden – Paula

“I find it very important that the course not only teaches us about the subjects but also gives us the tools necessary to have a reflective mind and to constructively and holistically look at things. /…/ The group projects, discussions and reports helped me to better work in groups. This was very important throughout the internship as I often had to work with colleagues that had either different work methods or ideas. Because of the group projects, I was more able to pace myself as well as the work to find a good middle ground for the people involved. I also knew the importance of group discussion to gain other people's views and perspectives.”

IOM, Burundi – Katharina & Marie

“It was fascinating for us to experience the intricacies of multi-stakeholder collaboration. Relationship management takes up a lot of time, communication is difficult especially if you do not see each other it determines the general working atmosphere. In this remote setting, it is harder to develop trust, ensure to work towards the same goals and engage local stakeholders.”

MSB/ Lund University, Sweden – Léopold

"I applied several skills taught by the master’s degree during the internship: for example, quickly reading and making sense of academic papers helped me design evaluation briefs in a timely manner; using system thinking was key to understanding the project’s stakeholders and their influences and I felt comfortable working as part of a diverse team and presenting the results of this work to an external audience."

IOM, Burundi – Katharina & Marie

“The DRMCCA programme has given us a solid foundation to our understanding and analytical perspective. Especially the courses of Societal Resilience, Risk Assessment and Management, Capacity Development and Preparedness and Planning were helpful, and we felt capable of supporting most areas within the DRR department. /…/ Overall, our knowledge from the programme has been highly relevant and we really started to understand what “dynamic, ambiguous, complex and uncertain” means in practice concerning our travels, differing risk perceptions and ideas of how change happens."

Testimonials from 2019

Swedish Red Cross, Sweden – Sonia

“The knowledge I gained during the Master’s was crucial for my understanding of the context, programs and roles in the organisation. I was genuinely surprised by the innumerable matches between the theoretical and practical aspects of the field. In addition, the Preparedness and Planning course with its practical application through the realisation of a contingency plan was extremely useful during my internship.”

WFP Regional Office, Senegal – Alice

”During my mission, I was able to really apply Capacity development principles learned throughout the Capacity  Development (CD) course, such as ensuring ownership, considering the local context and conducting a capacity assessment together with the stakeholders while ensuring that existing capacities are also considered and assessed and not only gaps.”

Malmö city, Sweden – Sanna

“I experienced over and over again that what I have learned in this master’s program has been very useful. Sometimes I could come with perspectives that the unit had not considered. Sometimes I could suggest improvements according to what I have learned, especially from the preparedness and planning course. I got to participate in a simulation exercise of staff for an emergency situation. After the exercise, we were discussing how it can be improved and I felt like I could contribute with perspectives on the importance of clarifying learning outcomes and following how the participants are handling their tasks during the simulation. I had use of many of the courses from our program in the work with writing the risk and vulnerability assessment, especially Foundations of risk assessment and management and Risk-based land use planning."

IFRC, Bangladesh – Daniel

“The sheer amount of background knowledge attained on response, preparedness, cash, climate change adaptation, cluster coordination, the RCRC movement, land use/planning etc. made sure I arrived with a very competent background and a lot of useful knowledge enabling me to quickly understand the context and be able to spare with colleagues.” 

UNEP/OCHA, Switzerland –Stéphanie-Fabienne

”The first year of the DRMCCA programme was a clear advantage in understanding what the Unit and OCHA are working on. Having heard about essential concepts before and simply knowing the 'vocabulary' of disaster preparedness and response, as well as training, allowed me to get started quickly on my tasks. Especially the practical group works of the Master often served as a reference for my work.”

Testimonials from 2018

UN World Food Programme Tanzania – Johanna

“My internship highlighted the utmost relevance of the Master’s programme. To various extents, of course, I found most courses relevant to the project I was working on as well as the work of WFP Tanzania. What I very happily discovered is that WFP is working very actively with bridging the disaster risk management–sustainable development–climate change adaptation nexus. This insight gave me great confidence that I not only made the right decision in choosing the master’s programme, but that my educational background will also be highly relevant in both the near and far future.”

SREO Consulting Ltd in Istanbul, Turkey – Linn

'“In general, I think the DRMCCA programme’s great focus on critical analysis and reflection is something that has helped me in my internship. DRMCCA programme’s intense study pace has taught me to better handle a large amount of information, and the many oral presentations in front of the rest of the class have also been very valuable.”

Arctic Circle – Ásdís

“What I feel is the most important asset the DRMCCA programme has provided me with is the ability to apply a complex-systems thinking into my work and perspectives. The way the programme sheds light on the interconnectedness of these issues and the dynamics that surround them has benefitted me greatly. I am very grateful to the DRMCCA Master’s programme and the brilliant people that work there to have helped me in getting to the place I am today and the level of inspiration I feel.”

Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center in Banda Aceh, Indonesia – Giordano

One of the most exciting aspects of my internship has been the constant presence of theoretical notions and skills acquired throughout the first year in Lund. Whether it was for a literature review, for stakeholder analysis, or the organisation of a risk assessment, the recall to past papers and lectures has always been present in my work. More than once I found myself skyping or chatting with other students from DRMCCA, and noticed the degree and extent to which different organisations use tools like Venn diagrams, LFA matrices, Risk Assessments and so on. Having a very solid academic background has been the major factor for the successful outcome of this experience.”

IFRC Resilience Programme of the Caribbean Regional Representation Office – Country Cluster Support Team (CCST) for the English-Speaking Caribbean & Suriname – Gwenaëlle

“Aside from the technical knowledge covered in various modules, there are two other aspects from the DRMCCA programme which helped me to fulfil the internship tasks. Firstly, the emphasis on group work and collaboration with a variety of individuals with very different understandings, skills and approaches during the first year of the Master's really strengthened my ability to collaborate with anyone regardless of how similar we may be. It enhanced my diplomatic and problem-solving as well as tension-avoiding skills when faced with sensitive situations and made me more comfortable in tasks performed with many others. Secondly, the genuine care and confidence entrusted to us as students by our professors have truly been life-changing in providing me with a stronger sense of ability to achieve challenging, complex tasks. The humanity and inspiring leadership skills of the programme director, in particular, were truly key learnings that I thought of several times in the course of the internship. The support and wise advice from the course coordinator during the internship were also invaluable and critical in my positive experience.”

Testimonials from 2017

UNDP Regional Service Centre for Africa – Ali

“The frameworks we studied during Capacity Development were integral to my work during my internship, being directly translated to the working world and used regularly for day-to-day tasks and report writing. In addition, I believe the style in which these documents are written gives an insight into the organisations and professional ways of writing, which I began to realise as I developed more professional writing skills.”

UNESCO in Montevideo – Ane

”The Capacity Development course was very beneficial for the development of project proposals in the sense that I learned the importance of local ownership and focusing on needs. By analysing cases and real-life capacity development project proposals in the course, we got a taste of how capacity development actually is in practice. The course that I perhaps found most beneficial for my internship, specifically the project on the Early Warning Systems, EWS, is the Preparedness and Planning course. The simulation exercise and the experience of writing a contingency plan in this course helped me understand the roles of the different local actors in Durazno in the case of flooding. Finally, the Societal Resilience course made me be more reflective about the meaning of central concepts in disaster risk management. I experienced that, in project proposals, concepts such as 'resilience' and 'risk' were often used as buzzwords in contexts that did not always make sense. Using my knowledge from the Societal Resilience course, I, therefore, asked a lot of critical questions in order to improve the proposals and make them more precise.”

Testimonials from 2016

UNDP in Turkey – Tatyana

“The programme’s curriculum perfectly fits into the context of the internship. Almost everything I learned during the first year of studies at Lund University I applied during my internship course. It helped me to adapt to the focus of the UNDP team and it allowed me to speak the same language as professionals. During the internship, I had to go back to materials from the courses Introduction to Disaster Response Management, Societal Resilience, Capacity Development and Foundations for Risk Assessment and Management. I can state that I was perfectly prepared, by the University, for any kind of meetings, events, discussions or reports analysis that I either attended or came across during the internship.”

UNOCHA in Geneva – Moritz

“The first year of the Master’s provided me with more than just the essential tools and knowledge. Firstly, I felt that I was familiar with almost all the language and acronyms being used in my unit or during branch meetings. It gave me the confidence to join discussions or give input during branch meetings, as I could always follow the context. Secondly, and this is connected to the first point, I knew about all the relevant concepts from the beginning. Thirdly, the first year of the Master’s prepared me well for the internship in terms of workload. I had to manage a variety of tasks at the same time, working towards multiple deadlines at once. The rather high workload during the first year, with a mix of individual tasks and group tasks as well as several courses running simultaneously, resembled my workload at the UN quite well.”