Networking is the essence of having partnership - essay for chevening review/input

Dear fellow friends,

for applying the Chevening, i have written below essay for the networking question. please kindly to share your opinions. really appreciated and thanks.

establishing effective connectivity

Establishing a strong partnership and cooperation needs a networking. This concept shows that we must interact with others for exchanging information and expertise to build trust and connectivity. Therefore, by having an educational background in International Economics, I devoted myself to implement my knowledge by working in international organizations. The intention was to build networking related to economic cooperation with other countries so that I could understand their economic policies and identify which policy would bring benefits to Indonesia. So, I joined an Intergovernmental organization, consists of eight developing countries, namely the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation in 2008, in Istanbul, Turkey.

In the D-8, one of my responsibilities was to oversee the five areas of cooperation, namely Agriculture, Trade, Industry and Small Medium Enterprises, Transportation, and Energy. Moreover, they have different working groups under the respective area of cooperation, which is in total amounted 22 working groups. The working group consisted of directors and experts from relevant ministries of D-8 Member States. Consequently, I had to establish networking with 176 persons or focal-points with different expertise and ideas for streamlining recommendations produced in the working group meetings. In the first two months, the challenges were the time difference, daily routine work of focal-points, mode of communications, and different issues of discussions.

To overcome the challenges, I set up a schedule of call-meeting twice a month for each working group to exchange of updates on implementation of recommendation along with its policy development. Each focal point reported the progress to me and corresponded with others for further feedback. Therefore, I received updates from each country on their progress of areas of cooperation and, simultaneously, facilitated focal points to communicate their national interests accordingly. I also strengthened my networking skills toward effective connectivity with the focal points. Every month, I prepared a position-paper for each area of cooperation based on the updates received from focal points and subsequently reported to my supervisor.

In addition, I also gained valuable networking with high-political hierarchy and had chances to discuss with them in term of foreign and economic policies. For instance, when the D-8 held its 8th Summit in 2012, I was lucky enough to have a chance to talk with the Indonesian President along with his ministers and Indonesian Ambassador to Pakistan. So, this was the momentum where I felt that I was in the high-position. It was very satisfying to share my thoughts with the President and, in response, received valuable acknowledgment.

I am confident that my experiences will help me to establish an effective connectivity within the Chevening community around the world and to actively engage in seminars, workshops, and meetings. In addition, having Chevening experiences, I am committed to transferring my networking knowledge and experiences with Indonesian institutions, private-sectors and multinational enterprises for their input in establishing effective connectivity. Therefore, I can contribute to Indonesia by improving networking approach in disseminating information and policies toward implementing objectives and promoting Indonesia's national interests to the world.

Ilham, simply joining one organization doesn't signify that a network was created. All of the references you make in reference to that are in-house networks that can only be expanded on a limited basis for external use. Chevening is more interested in the development of your exterior network because that allows for a far greater information exchange process among counties. Didn't you have a chance to join other networks through your attendance of conferences? Weren't they of use to you in the performance of your duties? Did you not notice an improvement in your work performance because of them? What you did here is leaning more on the side of network development explanations. You should instead be presenting a network in action. That it's because Chevening requires you to justify the usability of your network as part of their consideration process. The more expansive your network, the more impressive it will be. Provided the network you created is closely related to your profession.

Hello Ms. Holt,

thanks for valuable advice on my essay. It gives me clear picture on what I shall write, especially on exterior network, direct involvement with the others along with its impacts to my performance. Yes indeed. Whenever I got appointment to represent my organization in meetings, whether in one of member countries, international forum/conference, I directly established networks with others from different expertise and positions. Personal engagement, interaction, and involving in action are the key. I will put this in mind and try to rearrange the essay.

Once again, thanks Ms. Holt.