Abayomi Edwards-Dyer earned her undergraduate degree in Spanish Language and Literature and Latin American Studies from SUNY Plattsburgh in 2019. A native of the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Abayomi is employed as a Consultant in the Office of the Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) at its Headquarters in Washington, DC. She serves primarily as the Assistant to the Chief of Staff, working closely with Member States and the Model OAS program. Her passion for international development was awakened through participation in the Washington Model OAS and honed over an internship in Washington, DC during her final year of undergraduate studies.

Abayomi hopes that her experience at GHD will prepare her to advocate for the development needs of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the international sphere. Her personal motto is “service to God and to country” as she aspires to be of service to the people who inhabit the spaces that she has been sent to.

Why GHD?

The multi-disciplinary academic structure and the incorporation of practical skills made GHD most appealing to me. The possibility of engaging with members of a diverse cohort was also a key factor in my decision to enroll in this program. If I were to do this over again, I would still choose GHD!

Summer Internship

For my summer internship, I supported Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Specialists within the Poverty Global Practice at the World Bank Group. I was directly involved in the development of a new tool called Green-IPNOS (Improving the Productivity of National Offices of Statistics (IPNOS) - Environment dimension) which quantitively assesses the capacity of National Statistical Offices to generate integrated environmental data and analysis in order to promote the development of evidence-based policies as it relates to the natural environment. During my internship I was able to participate in focus groups with data producers in Somalia and create a questionnaire for data producers in that country to analyze the availability and accessibility of environmental data. I also co-authored the report detailing the statistical capacity of the Somalia National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to produce environmental statistics and provided recommendations on how that NSO could be further strengthened. 

This internship aligned with my area of specialization in GHD — Environment and Climate Change. The opportunity to work on such a project not only fostered a greater appreciation for data production but also highlighted the importance of environmental data in decision making and policy-formulation in the Global South.