Cayra Tansey: Reach Alliance project takes MScSM student to the Philippines
The Institute for Management &Innovation (IMI) and Master of Science in Sustainability Management Program (MScSM) are delighted to congratulate Cayra Tansey (MScSM Class 2023) for her recent acceptance to the University of Toronto’s Reach Alliance.
Cayra's Reach Alliance profile
Cayra has always had a passion for community resilience and social enterprise. A graduate of the University of Victoria’s Gustavson School of Business, Cayra joined the Master of Science in Sustainability Management (MScSM) Program in 2021, intent on tackling difficult cross-disciplinary sustainability challenges, particularly relating to community resilience. Cayra was interested in expanding her experience and education outside our own borders, exploring international sustainable development issues. When she read about the Reach Alliance, she immediately knew it was for her. "There are so many opportunities to participate in”, says Cayra, “but when I read the call for participants for Reach, the value was immediately clear”. She was inspired to study the work of non-profits, social enterprises and community initiatives that were already successful through local solutions; “the opportunity to learn from existing sustainable development programs is very exciting”, she says.
The Reach Alliance, housed at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and in partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, is a student-driven, faculty-mentored research initiative investigating how critical interventions are reaching the hardest-to-reach populations. Reach focuses on equipping the next generation of leaders to produce actionable insights to advance an inclusive economy that will deliver value to all stakeholders and achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs).
As part of Reach, accepted students pair off to propose a series of cases for exploration, which the students vote down to 8, which will be tackled by interdisciplinary teams of 3-5 students per project. Cayra proposed a project on the Alliance of People’s Organizations along the Manggahan Floodway, a community-driven alliance in the Philippines that aims to create climate-resilient housing for informal settlements. Cayra was interested in the community-driven nature of this project; “the community saw the problem, and set about fixing it”, she explains, “and they were able to turn barriers into partnerships along the way. I am interested in the partnership structure, and why it’s been so successful”. Cayra and her partner’s case was accepted, and she’ll be working on Team Philippines, studying the Manggahan Low Rise Building Project in Pasig City.
About Cayra:
Cayra recently completed her MScSM internship with the Boston Consulting Group as their Centre for Canada’s Future Intern, and has a breadth of experience, including one year at Two Worlds Consulting as a Sustainable Development Analyst. Her research with the MScSM Program focuses on community resilience, specifically on social service delivery in remote Indigenous communities in Canada, comparing government social services, private services and social enterprises services in addressing underlying challenges and outcomes. We wish Cayra the best in her research endeavours and congratulate all Reach Alliance students on their important work.