About Matt:
Matt recently graduated with a Master of International Development from Pitt's Graduate School of Public in International Affairs. His studies focused on the humanitarian- development continuum in Africa, so working with ASA's Microloan programs in Uganda is a natural fit. Originally from Butler, Pennsylvania, Matt joined the Navy after high school and studied Oceanography while in the Navy Reserve Unit at Old Dominion University in Virginia. After a failed attempt at SEAL training, Matt realize his vocational interests aligned more with the development side of the 3 D's (defense,diplomacy, and development) triangle. After volunteering with resettled refugees in Louisville, KY and in Pittsburgh, Matt did a career pivot and applied to GSPIA.
“So far I've been busy designing an evaluation framework for ASA's microloan program. The goal here is to collect data via interviews with loan recipients and program administrators in Uganda to assess the impact and sustainability of the program. So far, I've interviewed the microloan supervisor, and I have interviews scheduled next with the finance manager and a prior loan coordinator. During these interviews, I'm trying to gather as much data as possible about program shortcomings, blind spots, and opportunities for improvement. Evaluation is a fun and interesting process that we can use to improve the microloan program and ultimately improve the lives of our loan recipients, and it's nice to see that our team in Uganda is on board with the process. The challenge is communication though because they are living through a very stressful and dangerous time in Uganda. With a recent spike in COVID-19 infections and deaths, the government has implemented extremely strict lockdown policies. This has put everyone on edge and reduced much of the economic activity that allows both the program administrators and loan recipients to maintain their livelihoods. As a result, we are expecting loan repayments to drop in August as recipients lose income due to lockdown measures. This, on top of the very real risk of our Ugandan counterparts getting sick with COVID-19 due to low vaccination rates, combines to make conducting a rigorous evaluation quite difficult. I was supposed to travel to Uganda in August to conduct interviews in person, but with the situation there now that seems highly unlikely. Nonetheless, we will press on and continue to interview our program stakeholders over phone and zoom. We're keeping all our program staff and recipients in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time, and I hope our ASA supporters in the states will too. Stay tuned for a fundraiser to help our recipients in the coming weeks”.
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