What are the key highlights of your assignment, and who do you interact with in your daily work?

At UNHCR, there is a saying: "Protection is what we do, and we do it through programmes." With a background in development management, I am privileged to put my knowledge and skills into practice as UN Volunteer Associate Programme Officer with UNHCR in Somalia. In my role, I support the team leader and Field Officer in the UNHCR Area of Responsibility where I serve, ensuring business and operational continuity, and meaningful engagements in support of the communities that we serve.

I joined UNHCR Kenya as a UN Volunteer in June 2018 and have just concluded my volunteer assignment. During this period, I worked closely with my colleagues at UNHCR Kenya in promoting sustainable cities and communities. Our aim has been to help and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.

To promote intergenerational solidarity, two UN Volunteers serving with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in Kenya met during a training session organized by the UNV Kenya Office.

I serve with the UN Environment and Climate Security Advisor to Somalia, whose position is under the UN Environment Programme, but who is seconded to the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM). This way, I have the unique opportunity to serve with two agencies. With the Climate Security Advisor, our overarching goal is to assist Somali communities in becoming resilient to increasingly recurrent and frequent climatic shocks, while also mitigating possible climate-related conflicts.

Marking the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Stockholm Conference, the theme of this year’s World Environment Day “Only One Earth” calls for collective and transformative change, highlighting the need to live sustainably in harmony through climate action. As the resources of our planet is limited, no one is spared from the impact of environmental degradation.

UN Volunteer Yo Kunieda supported the work of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) in Fiji from March 2020 to March 2021. Her main contributions centred on a Small Island Developing States (SIDS) project, which supports small islands to better manage disaster and climate risk. 

In 2021, 164 UN Volunteers served with UNEP in Kenya in areas such as environmental law, communications, governance, and policy. As former UNEP Deputy Executive Director, Ms Joyce Msuya, said during International Volunteer Day 2021, UN Volunteers make important contributions to UNEP and around the world.

Through UNDRR’s virtual meetings, calls, and discussions, I have expanded my network and gained a greater understanding of how Sustainable Development Goal 11 – focusing on making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable – is implemented.

In Mozambique, one in three women suffered from violence in their lives in the pre-COVID-19 era. Different forms of abuse towards women and girls in many provinces of Mozambique have previously been recorded, especially in Chimoio, Mossourize, Gondola and Tambara districts of Manica province, where domestic violence and abuse cases against women are prevalent, with some resulting in death or loss of body parts.