Member Spotlight: Doris Kiwelu (Tanzania)
Doris Kiwelu, IAIA member from Tanzania, shares how being a member has been valuable to her, plus some career advice to live by.
TRANSCRIPT
My name is Doris George Kiwelu, and I’m coming from Tanzania. I’m working with Tanzania Women in Energy Development, an NGO doing social environmental impact assessment. In the social part, we are working with women who are in the energy sector. In the environmental part, we are dealing with renewables.
How is being a member of IAIA valuable to you?
Being an IAIA member has been amazing so far and one of the things that I like most is the connection and networking that is happening in IAIA. Before being a member, I was having a national network — having people from the same country and the same field that I was working with. But being a member has allowed me to meet people from different countries, people from different fields, people working in impact assessment but worldwide. So I can say being a member of IAIA is amazing because of the connection and networking.
What career advice do you live by?
Career advice that I live by… I can say adaptability and flexibility. At last I was able to get a chance in an NGO — the one that I’m working in currently, Tanzania Women in Energy Development. The organization at that time was still young — it was a product of Power Africa Program whereby to balance the gender gap they allowed organizations in the places that they were doing the project. So it wasn’t much of getting the practical skills, but it changed me to think of the other part of engineering — like engineering is not only about going to the field, the pipelines, doing the practical works. There is a social part of the engineering part. So it was it wasn’t much of “what will I get from the organization” or “what amount of money I’ll get from the organization” but it was much of “what will I provide to allow the organization to grow.” And during that process it allowed me to think more outside the box. So it’s not only about the technical part — it’s about the social part AND technical part. I can say currently I’m flexible and I’m finding ways of which I can integrate the technical skills/engineering part and the social part. That’s why I’m doing social environmental impact assessment — I’m having the engineering part and also I’m having the social part.
