An Open Letter from our First Alumni Scholarship Student

Mir Dosteen Hoth

I am very grateful to the IDS Alumni Team for their generous support to my educational ambitions in Development Studies by selecting me for the IDS Alumni Scholarship.

I am in permanent employment with Govt. of Balochistan as a fast stream entrant as Civil Service Officer since 2011. During all this period I have served Govt. of Balochistan in different positions and was responsible for a variety of tasks including supervision & monitoring of developmental schemes, managing a housing scheme, ensuring provision of health and educational services and other basic amenities to the poor masses and to some extent looking after law and order situation within a District.

Capacity building is a vital part of our career planning which helps us better understand the key issues and in effective service delivery which are crucial to the Economic Growth and Human Development. I, therefore, planned to study a course in Developmental Studies to get the knowhow of the modern developmental theories and ideas being practiced in different parts of the world. It will surely help me in making a positive and responsible contribution to make this world a better place for the humanity.

I was interested to secure a place within the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) for this course as IDS is a well-known research institution, as well as it has a result oriented approach.  Moreover I found this institution challenging the conventional and traditional ways of dealing with longstanding world developmental issues.

I am enrolled on MA Development Studies and I hope this one year course will help me in grasping the key concepts and ideas about various paradigms of Development and ways to counter the obstacles to development such as bad governance, lack of transparency and accountability, economic dependence, poverty, lack of proper infrastructure and many more.

I intend to resume my service with the Govt. of Balochistan after the completion of this course. Balochistan is the most under-developed and poverty ridden province of Pakistan. This problem of under-development engendered so many social, political and economic complications within the region. I am hopeful that after completion of this course I will be able to take informed decisions in my future assignments with Govt. of Balochistan, and play a positive and productive role in bringing the marginalized communities in the mainstream to reduce the level of distrust on the State.

I assure the respected IDS Alumni team that their generous contribution will certainly make an impact on the lives of millions of people living thousands of miles away.