Maryam Naqvi

My Name is Maryam Naqvi, I am from Lahore, Pakistan. I graduated in 2016 with a BSc (Hons) Economics as a Gold Medalist from Government College University, Lahore. My strong academic performance and extracurricular activities enabled me to win a full academic scholarship at London School of Economics (LSE) - A Masters Award and an admission to MSc Social Policy and Development in 2017. It was during my undergraduate years that I developed a strong interest and a passion for several socio-economic and development issues such as poverty, inequality, climate change and how social policies can be made and improved by developing countries to address them. To explore these issues further with the help of the right policies, the MSc in Social Policy and Development programme at the LSE stood out for me and the glorious history of academic excellence of the Department of Social Policy at LSE furthered my interest and enthusiasm to apply to LSE.

My time as a student at LSE was one of the most wonderful years of my life, which I shall cherish forever. I mostly spent my time either studying in the library, attending lectures, roaming around the Lincolns inn fields or cycling around London. As a student at the Department of Social Policy, I benefitted a lot from extensive and inspirational lectures by some of the leading academics in the department. Ever since graduating, I have been actively working in the development sector of Pakistan, be it in NGOs, policy think tanks or consultancy firms in the diverse areas of financial inclusion, children, youth and women empowerment, climate resilience, conflict and fragility, public policy, social protection and governance. Recently, I worked on the two international projects for the World Bank and CGAP. The first one was related to strengthening inclusive finance to empower vulnerable populations especially women in ten fragile and conflict affected countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Mali, Lebanon, Syria and Haiti. The other project was about exploring the nexus between climate change, gender and financial inclusion in the Global south countries. Its aim was to increase the effectiveness of financial services that help the vulnerable, especially women, to adapt and become resilient to climate change.

I have this privilege of being a published author for various international development blogs at LSE. I have also been selected by LSE’s department of Social Policy twice as a Mentor for the prestigious Alumni Mentoring programme. For the first time in 2021 and then in 2023. As a Mentor, I had this opportunity to guide the undergraduate students of Social Policy at LSE about different career opportunities, offered support to them in reviewing their CVs and cover letters and provided tips to strengthen their grasp on various qualitative and quantitative research tools. Overall, LSE inspired me to explore new horizons within the domain of policymaking in the Global South and for that I will always consider myself a proud alumnus of the school and the department of Social Policy.