Natsumi Taniyama
Knowledge Management and Project Design: Border Management and Counter-Trafficking in the Gambia
I interned with the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN organization that promotes safe, orderly, and humane migration. I worked with Immigration Border Management Unit, Counter-Trafficking Unit, and Labor Mobility and Human Development Unit in IOM The Gambia office, conducting the operational support for the projects and overseeing cross-unit knowledge and resource management. The border management projects provide technical assistance to the Gambia Immigration Department in legislation and policy, infrastructure, information management, inter-agency collaboration, and institutional capacity development. The counter-trafficking project strengthens the national mechanisms for effectively preventing trafficking, prosecuting traffickers, and protecting victims, including reintegration support by funding their micro-business. My roles were updating the project action trackers by weekly arranging the unit meetings, reviewing and revising project M&E documents, preparing project visibility documents by compiling and mapping project achievements, and creating a cross-unit knowledge management platform. Most notably, I was involved in a concept note development for a new project, which includes a response to a health emergency in covid-19. Besides, I developed presentation material for the regional donor meetings by consolidating the key interventions and strategies. This internship allowed me to gain practical project management experience in the areas closely connected with regional security and the protection of vulnerable people, strengthening my specialization in conflict and development.