Communications career transitions in international development

By Ingrid Ahlgren13 September 2011

How do you make the jump to becoming a communications expert in international development? Photo by: United Nations

A freelance journalist. A think tank researcher. A manager at a boutique public relations firm. A multimedia officer at an international corporation.

They all have skills and experiences valuable to organizations engaged in international development.

“Every organization needs to communicate the work it is doing,” Kalaivani Karunanethy, former communications officer at the Asia-Europe Foundation, told Devex.

This is especially true for organizations engaged in development, since they must be accountable to their donors, constituents, governments and the public — a wider group of people than most private companies have to deal with.

About the author

Ingrid Ahlgren

Ingrid is a Devex correspondent based in New York City. She worked as a staff writer for Vault.com from 2007 to 2009, helping to write guidebooks, including the "Vault Guide to the Top Government and Nonprofit Employers." Before moving to New York, she was a researcher for National Geographic Traveler magazine in Washington, D.C. Ingrid holds a master's in journalism from the University of Missouri. As the daughter of a U.S. diplomat, she grew up all over the world.