UNV at 25 and 50 years: pivotal moments for volunteerism I will never forget
When I reflect on my 40 years of work with UNDP and UNV, I consider the years devoted to UNV the most rewarding ones. Reflecting on the many challenges, some personal sacrifices, and the joy I experienced while working at the UN, it is these years I will never forget.
In 1996, I was appointed by the UNDP Administrator as the new Director for the Arab States, Latin America and the Caribbean (ARLAC) section at UNV.
At that time, UNV was celebrating 25 years since its founding. It was also in the process of moving its headquarters from Geneva to Bonn – resulting in more than two-thirds of its staff reassigned to new functions.
UNV at 50 – it’s all about the people!
No matter how well designed or how well funded, no matter how clear the vision, goals and core values or how well resourced, any organization is only as strong as the people who live it, work in it and lead it! So it is on this historic occasion of UNV’s 50th year, and with the privilege of being asked to reflect on my long service with UNV, that all my thoughts turn to the amazing people I was so fortunate to know and be associated with during my many years of service with UNV.
We’re talking of literally thousands of people, as I reflect upon 31 years. I served for two years in the early 1980s as a US Peace Corps co-sponsored volunteer in rural Liberia working for a UNDP Self-Help Village Development Project. Then in 1986, four years as the UNV Programme Officer at the Colombo office of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), where I oversaw the UNV Domestic Development Service volunteer programme in Sri Lanka.