GW Students Attend World Bank Meetings, Connect Research to Global Policy

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When the World Bank held its annual fall meetings, Abigail Ruggles and Simon Debesai were among several George Washington University students who had the rare and exciting opportunity to attend the landmark international development event.

The meetings offered the two students a chance to network with global leaders and experts, hear directly from scholars about their work and ask questions, as well as connect the research they assisted GW professors with to real-world policy discussions.

Debesai, a first-year master's student in international development at the Elliott School of International Affairs and a research assistant at the Institute for International Economic Policy (IIEP), said he left the meetings feeling inspired.

"I've always been interested in international development. I'm a DMV native, so I was born in Maryland. And, you know, the World Bank, IMF, a lot of these international institutions, you don't really get to access. That's a side of D.C. you don't get to see until you're at a place like GW," Debesai said. "So, it was really satisfying to be inside the door."

Debesai's research with Alicia Cooperman, an assistant professor of political science and international Affairs, focuses on a D.C. water survey, which is part of a nationwide study examining variations in water insecurity and how residences perceive their water quality.

For the project, Debesai has been interviewing local residents about access to and trust in tap water, exploring how perceptions of water providers influence consumption.

"We're trying to get a better understanding of that variance and how water insecurity can still impact people, even in the developed world," Debesai said. "So, we've done maybe 50 surveys. We're hoping to do around 200 by the project's conclusion. It's an ambitious goal, but we've been making pretty good progress."

Survey participants are found at local spaces including farmers markets. They are asked about their experience using tap water in the D.C. area and what the perception of their water provider is. The survey also asks how that perception impacts whether they drink tap water.

"There are issues we talk about abroad, internationally, when it comes to development in water and security that we really need to be thinking about domestically as well," Debesai said.

At the World Bank, Debesai attended a session titled "Water Reuse: What If Water Had a Second Chance?" The session explored how water reuse can drive economic growth and promote access to safe water through new technologies and digital innovations.

"It was really excellent," Debesai said. "They talked about all the ways that we might not think about water use and how important it can be. A lot of the things they mentioned reflected what I've been finding in my research, especially that underserved communities are more aware about their water quality and the need of safe drinking. They also discussed potential solutions, like optimizing water treatment and increasing reuse and recycling."

Abigail Ruggles, a senior studying political science and economics in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, also attended the meetings. She works as an IIEP research assistant with the Yunus Initiative on Extreme Deprivation, led by James Foster, the Oliver T. Carr Jr. professor of International Affairs and a professor of economics.

The Yunus Initiative builds on the work of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered microfinance work to help low-income communities. Foster's work focuses on measuring multidimensional poverty to evaluate policy impacts on health, education and income.

She said she was drawn to the initiative because identifying and measuring these overlapping forms of deprivation is essential to solving them, and the data can guide decisions at the local and national levels.

"Even just in D.C., these measurements of multidimensional poverty don't have to be constrained geographically," Ruggles said. "You can use it to see how specific areas or populations suffer from different dimensions of poverty, and how policy solutions might improve outcomes. That has the potential to have measurable impact locally, nationally and internationally."

At the World Bank, one of the sessions she attended was on innovative financing for farmers, which highlighted microfinancing, emergency savings programs and sustainable practices like temperature-controlled storage for crops in India.

"Hearing how a social business can create innovative solutions that improve the quality of life of low-income individuals was inspiring. Seeing these real, tangible applications of the theories we learn in class, especially in a global context, reinforces why this work matters," Ruggles said.

The entire experience left her feeling inspired, she said, adding that attending the annual meetings of the World Bank as a student felt like such a special opportunity.

"Talk about a bucket list item," Ruggles said. "Being able to just gawk in awe at being in the World Bank headquarters and looking at those glorious tall ceilings and just kind of taking it all in. It's inspiring, especially since all of us students at the IIEP for the most part are studying political science or economics or have some kind of economic tie in there. We all kind of understand the gravity of the institution that we're in and the pull and influence that it has on policy worldwide. So, to be able to experience that just as a whole was incredibly like it was a great experience. And especially being able to experience it together, I think was one of the most influential moments for me."