25 students from Strathmore University (Kenya) visited the University of Navarra from March 27 to April 7 for attend to attend a course on research at Economics from development organized by the Navarra Center for International Development (NCID) of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS). The sessions were taught by experts from ICS and School of Economics.

The activity was framed in the close partnership that the NCID and this Kenyan university have maintained for years, as explained John Olukuru, Dean of high school of Mathematical Sciences at Strathmore. "Their director, Luis Ravina, has come to Nairobi several times and we have had the opportunity to receive lectures from Pedro Mendi, Luis Alberiko Gil-Alaña.... All this has opened the door for our students to come to Pamplona to work for development in Kenya while generating impact for Navarra," he said.

Caroline Kariuki, an economics professor at Strathmore, noted that the experience is very positive for her students because "they get to hear from experts in their field and also from other areas that they don't deal with in their daily programs of study , such as GIS or urban planning." He stated that seeing "different perspectives" and how these are linked to Economics "opens their eyes."

On the other hand, he pointed out the usefulness of the contents that have been taught during the program, especially software such as Stata, Gretl, Matlab.... "Now they have a better understanding of how they can use econometric analysis in their projects," he added.

Helping Kenya grow

Mercy Okoth, a participant in the course, emphasized that the experience has offered her "a greater perspective on the knowledge we brought with us, from a different perspective". She also stated that she enjoyed learning about "the internship part of the theoretical work that we are doing at class".

Her colleague Andrew Odera agreed with her on how useful it is to "learn the practical aspects of Economics and development" in order to be well trained and help her country "grow".

Prince Muraguri found learning programming for econometric analysis especially valuable: "For many of us it was the first time we were using computer models to analyze data economics and econometrics, something very useful for economists."

Joan Kamau pointed out that they all come from a country at development and the best thing they can do for it is to be well trained as economists to better distribute resources among the citizens. "Everything we take home can be of great value to our society and can help us move Kenya from being a nation at development to a developed one," he concluded.