“I fundamentally believe that public policy should be harnessed as a force for good in society.”
Zack Sabella was working as a Senior Project Officer at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in his native Palestine when the Arab Spring happened. “It really affected me, and made me seriously consider how I could do something to bring about meaningful and lasting change in the region I associate myself so closely with.”
He began to research graduate courses that would provide him with a strong theoretical grounding, as well as real-world experience, connections with leading practitioners, and a global cohort of students. “When I came across the Blavatnik School, it had only just started teaching the Master in Public Policy - its first cohort boasted 38 students from 20 countries, and had a curriculum that looked as though it had been written for me. I applied to four schools in the UK and got in to them all, but there was no competition.”
On completing the MPP, Zack returned to his role within the Government of Canada, where he was managing justice reform and economic development projects, putting the skills he learnt on the course into practice. “For me, the key takeaway from the course was the importance of creating public policy and programmes from evidence, and the need to listen, analyse and think critically; doing this ultimately allows you to put forward a more compelling case, and allows for more articulate and measured communications. Working on large-scale projects such as increasing Palestinian exports and constructing courthouses in the West Bank required me to use numerous skills I’d learnt throughout my MPP degree, especially in the negotiation and economics of public policy modules. I found myself going back to some lecture slides and suggested readings to ensure that I was approaching issues in the most appropriate manner.”
Zack has recently taken up a position as the Senior Policy and Programme Manager for the UK Department for International Development’s (DFID) Economic Development Unit in Jerusalem. In this role, he is responsible for implementing projects to improve the competitiveness of the Palestinian economy, which is suffering high levels of unemployment, especially amongst young people and women, as well as ensuring DFID’s programmes adhere to its Value for Money Strategy.
In addition to this, Zack has blogged for the Huffington Post in the past and frequently hosts roundtables and speaks on panels on the subject of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “Obviously the political reality I’m surrounded by is incredibly close to my heart, and is something I have a very strong view on. The MPP taught me the power of using evidence in order to convey arguments in an effective way; this is something I have been employing in speaking to delegations visiting Jerusalem.”
“I feel my work has been impactful to a certain extent, but it’s impossible for development in the context of occupation to be fully successful. Something that made me feel like I had positively affected people, however, was a personal story I wrote, titled ‘A Day in the Life of…’, which spoke about an experience I had in Jerusalem on a particularly difficult day last October. It was shared over 15,000 times on social media, and people reached out to me and shared similar stories, too. It was really heartwarming to witness the impact a human story has on others, and made me feel as if my words had helped spread awareness about a particularly difficult situation here in Palestine.”
The thing Zack values most about the MPP at Oxford? “The cohort! While the content and structure of the course was exceptional, I learnt as much – if not more – from my peers; their experiences are the lessons that stand out, and the ones I value the most. I truly was surrounded by experts each in their respective fields, and know that I now have incredible friendships for the rest of my life.”
October 2016