Before joining the Blavatnik School, Lama was intrigued by the intersection of economic and social issues.
With a background in business, she was engaged in consulting work that piqued her interest in public policy. One notable consultancy project in Saudi Arabia focused on regional development.
“We had to be mindful of job creation while considering the cultural context and the region's comparative advantages. This could involve anything from a potato farming initiative to a call centre. Our goal was to maximise development through a job creation lens.”
This interest in designing impactful policy solutions informed by local insights motivated her to apply for the Master of Public Policy (MPP) programme.
“The reason I always recommend the MPP at the Blavatnik School of Government is that it’s applied. If you want to be a future public servant, it’s for you. I knew that I wanted to be more on the practitioner side but with the ability to evaluate academic evidence. That balance is hard to find. The MPP has given me the knowledge to give policy recommendations in a nuanced way without having to be an academic researcher.”
When she arrived at the School, Anda and Anne, part of the School’s reception team, gave her a warm greeting. “I remember when I arrived, one of them knew my name. They try and familiarise themselves with the cohort before they get to Oxford. It made me feel like I was at home.”
Lama talks about the module on policy evaluation with Julien Labonne, Associate Professor in Economics and Public Policy, as a particular highlight that has had a great impact on her career path. “It has given me the tools to figure out if an experience in one region is applicable to another region. This has been the backbone of my career.”
Now, when she benchmarks in her consulting role, she considers the key problems, how other countries have solved those problems and what the contextual differences are. It means that her policy recommendations are underpinned with rigorous analysis.
She also highlights the intellectual variety of the course.
“Something I really enjoyed is interdisciplinary thinking. When you’re working on a policy project you need to balance law, economics and politics. What gives me the edge in my consulting practice now is that when we’re coming up with policy options we actually work with clients on the advocacy process too. That means our policy proposals are both practical and implementable. It has given me the ability to become a policy entrepreneur.”
Lama also emphasises the many different routes through the course, and that it can be adapted according to particular interests.
“I don’t think if you do the MPP you have to feel like you have to do a specific path. The MPP can be an add-on to whatever your interest is, whether it’s in the non-profit sector, allocation of capital. There are so many ways to pursue public service. There isn’t a linear path. The MPP gives you a way of thinking that is applicable for so many sectors.”
One skill she has gained from the MPP course is how to write a succinct and clear policy memo, something that has proved particularly useful. After Lama graduated, when she was helping to set up an advisory board for one of the Saudi Arabian ministries, this skill was formative in enabling her to brief people in the right way. “It’s fantastic that they give us that skill early on at the beginning of the programme.”
Even now she is often called to support young people in Saudi Arabia when they want to propose solutions to government. She has recently worked as a mentor with a non-profit organisation that has a skill development programme for young people. She helped them to come up with policy ideas. This year they’ll be taking a group of students through the process from policy design to policy advocacy, where they will design the implementation of a programme in a roundtable with decision makers.
Lama talks about the development of Awtada, now a leading public policy consultancy that she has built from the ground up. The business provides strategy and public policy consulting to public sector entities in local emerging sectors such as culture, sports, and coastal tourism. They also offer corporate and sustainability reporting services, assisting large private sector clients, including financial institutions and publicly listed companies, in developing management reports which are transparent and also incorporate ESG.
She also describes how she rigorously tracks the impact of their work. One project they worked on recently with a government institution led to eight policy recommendations, five of which are now under consideration. She attributes this to both the robustness of their recommendations which are influenced by a team of analysts and extensive field work but also their political acumen.
Reflecting on what advice she would give to current MPP students, she urges them to make the most of their peers’ expertise. Lama is still in touch with so many from the course and even works with some of them. One of Lama’s classmates was a rower alongside her studies in Oxford and pursued a PhD exploring sports in Scotland after the MPP. Now, as sports are seen as a key driver of economic development in Saudi Arabia, Lama has brought in their expertise to work part-time on a sports policy project.
“The stronger the network you have, the better you are at your job. It’s having people you can turn to and discuss problems. It makes you more confident. I’m so grateful that the Blavatnik School has given me both lifelong friends and a fantastic professional community.”