LiA: Final Reflections: InnoPeace, Tunisia

Personal Reflections
A large amount of my time in Tunisia was spent studying and practising my Arabic, both in lessons and whilst travelling around the country. This has pushed me both academically and personally, pushing beyond my performance anxiety when it comes to language-learning. Although I'm far from conversational, I've learnt a lot about how the language one uses shapes your interactions with others. Depending on if I spoke the local Arabic dialect (some French mixed with Arabic, though far removed from the Arabic heard on the radio or TV), Modern Standard Arabic (which would make me sound stilted and formal, but still somewhat understandable for locals), French (the typical foreign language studied, often the easiest to use when needing to have more complex conversations), or English (which I hardly used with locals beyond the classroom) - each option shaped the relationships I built with locals. I've come to appreciate even more the importance of learning the language(s) of those you are working with, especially when working in global organisations or working on international collaborations.
Ethical Leadership
For me, ethical leadership is all about being able to listen - and listen actively, beyond simply giving people the opportunity to speak. In a global context this also includes considering opinions and understanding the social and personal backgrounds that shaped said opinion. It is also about compassion and flexibility; one of the first things said at the induction event at InnoPeace was to never pressure anyone to work more than they can or should, and to work collaboratively to make it a more efficient and fun, less isolating, experience.
Acting as a Global Citizen
Part of being a global citizen is thinking 'towards' areas of the world unfamiliar to you, whilst still developing connections with the people and organisations. In that vein, my view of the world has changed in that the cultural idea of 'Africa' as used by the West to group the whole continent together has become rather meaningless. The cultural connections (food, style of living, attitudes towards work and family etc.) that Tunisians have are far more closely related to those of other Mediterranean countries, particularly Italy and France, as opposed to countries south of the Sahara. My view of Europe therefore, has somewhat shifted downwards, to consider the views and perspectives of North Africa as well.
Working with InnoPeace has also meant meeting fellow students from across the world - Tunisia, of course - but also the US, Algeria and Italy. The mix of cultures, languages, and perspectives when it came to running an NGO and developing projects was fascinating, including disagreements particularly on the prioritisation of activities. For example, the association had difficulties planning things sufficiently far in advance to develop collaborations with European partners, who would often need six months, due to the more ad-hoc and unofficial nature of finding venues to hold events. This was something I could help with, developing structures and ideas to ensure possible collaborations with EU partners could be realised.
Looking towards the future, I am excited to use what I have learnt to develop exciting and impactful international collaborations, particularly using my language abilities, to build a network of people passionate about water security and hopefully use this in my future research too.
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