Makele Saidi

Country: Canada, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo

On global affairs

I have worked in many different spaces on education, on trade issues, but what's always attracted me is this idea that we are interconnected. I've always tried to look at cross-border issues. For instance, in Africa, we have an unfortunate youth unemployment issue. And I'm always looking at how it affects us across countries, looking at how it impacts migration, which then leads us to seeing how it impacts borders in Europe. I'm always looking at how issues are interconnected and what we can do either regionally or globally, to address these issues. 

On the GMAP

I chose the Fletcher GMAP program because I was really attracted to the fact that I could learn alongside people who came from different professional and cultural backgrounds than me. It was important to me to be surrounded by people who are really different, and I knew that that would challenge me to grow in the way that I hope to through this program.

What’s next

I'm hoping that through the GMAP program, I can reflect on what I've done in my career so far  and learn more about an issue that has increasingly become important to me: migration. There are fantastic professors here who are experts in that field, and so I can use this program as a platform to explore the many driving forces of migration, including crises and climate change.

Education before Fletcher:  

• Juris Doctor, Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Canada
• Bachelor of Arts, Political Science and History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Experience before Fletcher:

• Director of Corporate Engagement, Catalyst, Toronto, Canada
• Partnerships Lead, African Development Bank Group, Abidjan, Ivory Coast
• Legal & Corporate Affairs Officer, ZEP-RE Reinsurance Company, Nairobi, Kenya
• Legal Advisor, ICJ-Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
• Legal Intern, Supreme Court of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda
• Trainee, Office of the Deputy-Director General, World Trade Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
• Advisor, Permanent Mission of Rwanda to the United Nations, New York, NY