For\nnine years Meenuka Matthew worked with international organizations including\nCaritas Colombo and International Young Catholic Students (IYCS) Manila,\nPhilippines. She held high profile positions in these organizations in several\nlocations including Paris, France and Kampala, Uganda. The experience brought\nher face to face with the reality of policy failure, particularly in the\neducation sector and areas concerning conflict, security, and law in many parts\nof Asia. It prompted her decision to pursue higher studies and a career in public\npolicy. That brought the Sri Lankan national to Jindal School of Government and\nPublic Policy (JSGP). Now based in Delhi, Meenuka is the co-founder of Policy\nTalks, and she is taking public policy learning to schools. She talks about her\nexperience at O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) that helped to shape her\nviews on public policy, and how public policy education in school can strengthen\ncivil society and drive social change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meenuka had gained recognition for her work in Sri Lanka over a decade ago. In 2007, she was involved in the drafting process of the United Nations Youth Report. She had also worked with tsunami victims\u2019 rehabilitation projects in her country. Soon enough she transitioned from being a student leader to an inspiring professional. Some of her professional roles included regional coordinator, project designer, and evaluator of programs in different parts of the world. She says these engagements helped her learn many things and gain deep insights. They made her realize the importance and the need for public policy education in South Asia. To work towards bringing about this change, she enrolled in the programme at JSGP. Her master\u2019s programme was a huge learning curve and, being part of the Public Policy club at JGU, enabled her to come out on top of her long-term mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According\nto Meenuka, classroom teaching and practical experience at JGU were\ninstrumental in her understanding of what public policy really means. She also\nrecalls the campus environment, and the opportunity to engage with students\nfrom different backgrounds during lunch break. \u2018We enjoyed the conversations\nand debates as much as the food. We invested the time on constructive thinking,\nand planning what we wanted to do with our lives, she recalls. Meenuka certainly\nknew what she wanted to do with her life and career. She was keen on taking public\npolicy education beyond the confines of university programmes. That\u2019s where Policy\nTalks had a big role to play. Policy Talks was formed with the goal to develop\nand facilitate public policy training across schools in India by promoting policy\neducation for students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talking about the idea behind the initiative, Meenuka says, \u2018It is vital to have public policy education as part of the school curriculum to give students an understanding of how public policy impacts the daily life of individuals, enabling them to have the choice to pursue it for higher studies.\u2019 She admits that initially, it was challenging to convince traditional institutions and systems to consider public policy studies for school students. But the organization has grown in a short span of time, and today Policy Talks endeavors to provide public policy resources, opportunities, leadership, and tools needed by civil society to expand, enhance, and sustain their ability to advance social change. It also organizes Policy Dialogues in different cities and has become a bridge between think tanks and public policy institutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meenuka\u2019s\ninterest in public policy also reflects in her research work, especially her\npaper on \u2018Refugee Economies in South Asia\u2019. As the co-founder of the organization,\na mother, and a researcher, Meenuka wears many hats with remarkable poise. She\ncandidly admits, \u2018It does get challenging to manage different roles in life. But\ndetermination has made it possible to strive for and achieve what I think is\nimportant.\u2019 That belief, passion, and determination have led to huge gains for\npublic policy education in India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For nine years Meenuka Matthew worked with international organizations including Caritas Colombo and International Young Catholic Students (IYCS) Manila, Philippines. She held high profile positions in these organizations in several locations including Paris, France and Kampala, Uganda. The experience brought her face to face with the reality of policy failure, Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1715,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1713\/revisions\/1715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}