Global Policy, Local Realities: Melissa Monge’s MIDP Journey

A social entrepreneur and Fulbright Scholar from Costa Rica, Melissa Monge MIDP’25 came to Duke Sanford to pursue the Master of International Development Policy (MIDP) degree, building on her experience co-founding and leading a Costa Rican NGO dedicated to youth education and collaborative, community-centered social innovation.

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“I came into the MIDP program with experience and profound conviction in community-driven and bottom-up work,” she says. “The program expanded my understanding of how top-down policy action can be used strategically alongside it. MIDP pushed me to be more rigorous and reflective, helping me identify where I can contribute most effectively and how to co-design stronger solutions for a more just world.”

Melissa focused her studies on the intersection of environmental governance and gender, noting the MIDP program’s flexible curriculum allowed her to shape her learning around the issues she cares most about. 

For her master’s project, Melissa examined how gender-inclusive marine conservation policies are adopted and implemented in Belize and Colombia, two contrasting cases in Latin America. Under the guidance of her project advisor, Associate Professor Sarah Bermeo, Melissa analyzed policy frameworks, institutional contexts and insights from local experts to understand what helps or hinders meaningful gender inclusion in Marine Protected Area (MPA) governance. 

“I wanted to understand where countries stand on gender mainstreaming in environmental governance, even when political timing or feasibility might suggest it’s ‘not the right moment,’” she explains. “Given the urgency of the climate crisis, I strongly believe that excluding half of the population from solutions is not an option. Women are often framed solely as a ‘vulnerable group’ – which they are – but they are also key agents of change, bringing their lived experiences, knowledge and ideas that are essential for effective climate and conservation action. If we want solutions that work, women’s voices need to be heard, funded and empowered.”

Her findings and recommendations, which she presented to an audience of peers, faculty and staff, offer practical guidance for policymakers, local actors and organizations such as the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Upon completing the MIDP program in December 2025, Melissa feels prepared “to navigate a changing world that feels increasingly uncertain, where trust, justice and democracy are at stake, and where maintaining the status quo is often not enough.”

“The program helped me further understand how systems are built, challenged and redesigned,” she says, “and how to engage responsibly in spaces where change is urgently needed.”

Q&A with Melissa

What activities and groups were you involved with as a Duke student? 

I served as MIDP Student Council vice president and honor board representative, working closely with students to help foster a strong, inclusive and supportive campus community, and was a member of SLAC (Sanford Latin American and Caribbean) Student Group. 

I was part of the Duke delegation to COP30 in Belém, Brazil, where I volunteered with the Global Fund for Coral Reefs and the UN Capital Development Fund. I also volunteered with the Wildlife Conservation Society, both at COP30 and at the 2025 UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France. These experiences allowed me to connect my learning at Duke with real-world global policy and environmental governance spaces.

What was your biggest takeaway from your master’s project experience?

The importance of listening – really listening. The local experts are the people living these realities every day. Understanding their challenges, constraints and knowledge reinforced how essential co-creation and cross-sector collaboration are when addressing complex, “wicked” problems like climate change and biodiversity loss. Strong policy matters, but without grounding it in local realities and relationships, it just doesn’t translate into meaningful change.

What are some skills and knowledge you gained from the program that you will apply in your career?

Through experiences like COP30 and the UN Ocean Conference, I had firsthand exposure to global policy in real time, seeing how negotiations and decisions unfold on the ground and the action that happens in parallel as well. 

Academically, the MIDP helped me close key gaps in policy analysis and economic development, while also introducing me to new areas such as international negotiation, collective action and global environmental politics.

One of the most influential courses for me was Challenging the Status Quo: Alternative Visions for Development with Kerilyn Schewel. It gave me strong critical lenses that stayed with me throughout the program and beyond. 

The MIDP experience equipped me with solid academic and professional skills, and at the same time offered unexpected but invaluable learning, such as navigating very intense levels of uncertainty, balancing academic work with family and mental health, and sustaining and being sustained within a strong, loving, and supportive tribe of friends from all over the world that became family.

Have your professional goals and perspectives changed since you started the MIDP program? 

I want to contribute to challenges with high impact potential… spaces where justice and sustainability are at stake. While my recent work has focused on environmental governance and gender, the MIDP program has equipped me with a versatile toolkit for policy analysis and collective action that applies across the development landscape. 

My perspective has evolved to be more strategic; I now see my role as a translator between global policy spaces and community realities. I want to serve where the need for redesign is most urgent, helping to build systems that are not only effective but fundamentally just.