Interview with Dr. Monazza Aslam

Question : Could you begin by stating your name and providing a general background about your current professional role?

My name is Monazza Aslam.

A little background about my current professional area of expertise is that I did my undergraduate degree from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 1999 and was then lucky enough to become a Rhodes Scholar (2000), one of two people selected from Pakistan to study at Oxford. I used this exceptional opportunity to read for my MSc. in Economics for Development followed by a PhD from Oxford University in 2006 where I trained as an education economist I spent about 4years doing my-doctorate at Oxford. My areas of interest have always been education and I have always wanted to look at educational issues in Pakistan. I am also interested in gender, labour market outcomes, household expenditure allocations, and inequalities within the household. For the last few years I have become interested in looking at child in the context of developing countries. I am also associated with the Centre of the Study in African Economy in Oxford as a research associate, and a visiting researcher in the Institute of Education at the University of London. In Pakistan, I am senior research fellow at ITA and am also associated with the Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan and IDEAS Pakistan

Question : How did you become interested in your field of research?

I think that was when I was doing my Masters in Economics at Oxford. It’s a funny story – I found the Maths crash course for economists so technical and boring that in the very first week I switched my degree from M. Phil to Applied Developmental Economics, which was quite an eye opening experience for me. While I had studied all kinds of subjects at LUMS during my Undergraduate days, I only realized at Oxford that development was my foremost interest. A few months later, during a visit to Pakistan I went to the LUMS library and browsed through the ‘Pakistan Development’ section, as I had to come up with some topics for my dissertation. I accidently happened upon education and there has been no going back since then!

Question: Were there any unexpected challenges you came across when performing your research?

I can probably recount hundreds of challenges that I have faced during the past few years. Challenges differ, depending on where you are in your career. As a student, the challenge was getting access to data which is such a difficult task in Pakistan!. That’s why I believe what ITA has managed to do is so crucially important for Pakistan as one of the things that they do is that they make data easily accessible which is key to any researcher. I still remember my experiences - the struggles I faced when I went to the Federal Bureau of Statistics of Pakistan. I even tried to pay them for the data. The whole process and the red tape surrounding it was so arduous that it put me off going to these offices completely - so that was one challenge.

I have faced many other challenges: I had a small child when I was literally starting my PhD - managing my doctorate while caring for a small baby and trying to make sure I stayed on track was a challenge. Similarly, there have been challenges in the field of academics. However I believe challenges are learning experiences and give us a chance to grow, so it’s good to face them heads-on.

Question: What are some lessons learned from these challenges?

As a student I used to email or write to researchers who were based in well-reputed universities, hoping to get their feedback and insights on my research paper. I will never forget those who wrote back to me. I always remember those people with a great deal of affection - to think that they look the time out, even if it is five minutes, to help me out. One of the lessons I have learned is to try and do that; I really do try to respond to emails that people send me, try to help them even if it is just one line, hoping that by guiding them at that crucial time in their career, I am helping them in some way.

Question: How do you envision your research benefiting the general public?

You know that is a very interesting question. I like to think that though I was trained as an economist, I have really evolved these past 10 years or so in terms of my career and my experiences and this has made me evolve into a completely different person. I think my association with different think tanks and organisations - with ITA in particular – has made a real difference in this evolution because I like to think that whatever research one does should ultimately be accessible to everybody.

I increasingly feel that it is very important to be able to talk at high-level academic circles as well as be able to transmit knowledge to the general public. This means that the language and style I use to conduct my research needs to be aligned with audience expectations. My association with ITA has really helped frame my mindset to keep these expectations in mind. When I present my research to an audience I think I try to present the findings in a way that they can understand. I believe my research has increasingly reflected this change in my mindset and thus become more accessible to people and the general public, especially policy makers.

Question: What are the different ways in which you share the findings of your research?

I think there are different dimensions of research and they obviously attract different types of people. The most well renowned way in academic circles is to publish in peer-reviewed journals. This obviously requires meeting strict standards set by the journals and you have to follow set criteria. When you publish in a good journal you target an international audience - so that is one dimension in which I work. Then there is research commissioned by international donors and organisations which gets published on their websites in the form of working papers and research reports. These generally depend on who commissioned the research and how they want it published. I‘ve been engaged in different types of research. For instance, I‘ve taken part in technical reviews of literature known as systematic reviews. I have taken part in reviewing evidence and assessing data and those have been published as policy documents. I also do a bit of teaching for the University of London. When I teach, I always like to talk about different aspects of my research during discussions and I think that is another way of portraying your findings.

Question: Are there any unique research tools or strategies used to carry out your work? If so, could you briefly describe how one or two of these assist in your research?

I don’t think there is anything unique involved. I just feel that when you’re trained as an academic at a reasonably good university you’re provided with standards tools that all researchers are able to use. I am trained as an economist and that really does help me, for example, I know how to design and implement basic tools. That is something that was ingrained in me during my PhD training; my supervisor insisted that unless you don’t go out in the field and collect your own data, you will never understand how to use the data. And so I don’t think there is anything unique about that; it’s more about what you apply - you learn the tools you can actually apply. Similarly, there’s nothing unique about the kinds of models I apply, it’s all very standard. I think the most important thing I try to follow is to know my data really well. I make sure that I understand my data very well and once you understand the data well, it doesn’t matter if you apply the simplest tool or the simplest model. You have the greatest confidence in the data, you believe it is telling you the truth and you just report the results.

Question: What are the specific research questions you are trying to address?

I think that research evolves over time. The most interesting thing about research is that there’s no correct way – you just start off by ‘looking’ for an answer to a question that intrigues you. , When you begin to develop an interest in something it is fascinating to read what other people are doing about it in different parts of the world. Then you wonder whether the same thing would work in the country that you’re interested in. I think research is always evolving and there is no fixed set of questions. As I said, my broad areas of interest are gender, what happens in labour markets and how it impacts individuals’ lives and other crucial outcomes. These are basic areas in which I am interested in, and it’s funny how in the past ten years, these are the questions I am still not able to answer. There are so many issues and factors that determine all this and it all evolves from there. There’s never a point in my life where I say that I’ve answered all the questions, that there’s nothing for me to research anymore.

Question: What is ASER to you?

I have tried to answer this many times. Personally, I am very grateful to be a part of ASER. There has never been a point in my life when I have felt ‘how did I end up getting stuck here?’ I feel that ASER is an organization that Pakistan really needed. It happened at the right time, it happened through the right person and I just feel that it's incredible how far we have come down this path in just a few years.

Let me give you an example: I was presenting some of ASER’s findings at a conference in Belgium and some of the people who worked for the Government and different agencies in Belgium came up to me and said ‘we can learn from you guys because what you have managed to achieve in Pakistan we can't achieve even in Belgium’.

For me ASER is an incredible journey into what is possible through the right kind of motivation, the right kind of leadership, and the right kind belief in oneself. It is all a matter of believing we can do this. If we assess what ASER has managed to do in the last three years, no one can believe that data of this level can be collected in Pakistan. And they can’t understand how we assessed so much in such little time and with such few resources. It reflects very well on the spirit of the people of Pakistan.

Question: How do you keep your connection with ITA if you live in the UK?

My connection with ITA is very old … since 2009. In my opinion, if you strongly believe and claim ownership, then your link is never broken. I have always wanted to do something in Pakistan and for Pakistan. My research has always been on Pakistan. There are very few countries in the world where I work.

I feel very lucky that I was invited to be a part of the ASER team by Baela. She has always taken me along and I am very grateful for that. Other than that, I believe that if you take ownership and honestly and genuinely take part then you can perform well, irrespective of where you live. I really enjoy working with the ASER team as they make a genuine effort to keep me engaged in the whole ASER journey. It doesn’t matter where I physically reside, I am very much a part of the ASER team!

Question: What do you think about the post 2015 agenda?

I think it’s come at the right time and is moving in the right direction. Baela really pushed for this to happen and I think that is commendable. I believe we’re on track and are making good progress. We are trying to incorporate new questions that target specific areas which the post 2015 agenda is meant to focus on. I don’t think that there’s anything specific that I can say here, but I think that we are very much on track.

Question: What do you think about collaboration with other organisations?

The work ASER does cannot thrive without the collaboration of other organisations. This is something that Baela is a strong believer of. Without collaboration, organisations can still do some small work independently but can never achieve great results. Synergies will only happen when you work together. Our experience from ASER highlights the importance of collaboration. I think ITA is doing well in this area, nationally and internationally. We just need to continue with this momentum.

Question: What do you enjoy most about your research and your job?

What do I enjoy most? At no point in my research do I get bored. I can honestly say that there are very few people in this world who can say that they love their job, and I think that I am one of those lucky people. For me the best part of this whole experience is that I actually feel that I am engaged in what is happening in Pakistan and what is important in Pakistan. I feel very happy that I am a part of this whole exercise and I think that the team here has learned something from me too.

I have the opportunity to engage with people who are doing things on the ground and so they keep me grounded with every day realities and experiences. I just absolutely love it; there is nothing I would change about it. Seven years ago I was doing something completely different. Like I said, I’ve evolved as a researcher, I’ve stopped being very hardcore in my modeling and tried to engage more with real-life situations.

Question: What is your advice for the ITA team?

I have always really benefitted from the field experience. I think what would really benefit the ITA staff is to learn from people like me and other researchers and try to Incorporate their experiences into their work. I think that would really help and is the way I have learned from ITA.

I think that just as a country needs leadership to function, similarly an organisation needs a leader. A leader who scolds, who motivates, and who keeps everything organised. Baela is the greatest driving force in ITA.