Olga Tsaplina has joined UN-Habitat in Kenya as a Junior Officer for sustainable urbanization in August 2020. She has a background in political science and international relations and studied in Russia and Germany. UN-Habitat Human Rights and Social Inclusion Unit is responsible for the inclusion of the vulnerable urban population groups into programming and various other activities of the agency. Olga has been supporting the unit on several workstreams like developing the project documents, concept notes, reports and sometimes weekly event publications.

Ayaka’s assignment had a strong focus on COVID-19 response and capacity building, along with accelerating private sector engagement in the Sustainable Development Goals. She also enhanced Uzbekistan’s participation in the UN Food Systems Summit last year. 

The Libya Education Response Monitoring Dashboard documents that some 326,000 people in Libya are in need of education support. UNICEF works to ensure access to safe, inclusive and quality education, particularly for children affected by the protracted crisis. In strengthening support to humanitarian coordination among education actors in the country, UNICEF has a special focus on engaging with community-based organizations and the Ministry of Education.

This year, in Ethiopia, 10 UN Volunteers decided to overcome emerging obstacles. Leveraging the power of e-communication platforms, they embarked on an online three-month journey to connect with young, passionate Ethiopian students. The goal of this bridge-building coaching initiative was to enhance digital, communication and presentation skills and to support young mentees in facing challenges in identifying future career paths. This collaboration was of mutual benefit to the personal development of both mentors and mentees.

Under a partnership with the Government of the Russian Federation established in 2018, UNV is offering UN Volunteer assignments in different areas of expertise for Russian nationals.

By introducing a law against gender-based violence in 2011 and adopting a positive discrimination approach, progress made in Cabo Verde has been encouraging. Unfortunately, entrenched patriarchal gender stereotypes persist and many of these have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. More women were isolated at home and many social services closed, which resulted in the increased vulnerability of women and girls to domestic abuse and other forms of violence. Work continues to recover these gains and promote greater equality for women in Cabo Verde.

A world full of fairness, agility and justice Jean-Rufin Doguela Gbogola is a national UN Volunteer Monitoring and Reporting Assistant with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in the Central African Republic.  My assignment is focused on monitoring and reporting a joint youth project, which aims to promote the socioeconomic resilience of young people in the country, by creating emergency jobs and entrepreneurship training.

My primary role is to spearhead disability inclusion at the Nigeria Country Office. I manage the inclusion of women and girls with disabilities and the youth in UN Women's activities in Nigeria. I have pioneered a Disability Inclusion toolkit tailored to the ongoing programmes in the country. This toolkit simplifies the steps for programme managers and partners to provide access to women and girls with diverse disabilities to contribute, participate and benefit from development programmes.

When I first arrived in Rwanda, the country went into lockdown as COVID-19 had reached its peak in the country. Hence, I was first deployed to support Rwanda’s National COVID-19 Command Post Centre in Kigali, which coordinates the entire country’s COVID-19 response. I was part of the Technical Advisory Group, where representatives from different partner organizations met and discussed technical responses, including decisions on the number of COVID-19 tests and vaccination roll-out.

Having experienced discrimination herself, Chavia has always felt the need to dedicate herself to tackling challenges faced by persons with disabilities. For as long as she can remember, volunteering has always been her passion. During her university years at Aleppo University, Syria, Chavia founded an advocacy organization for persons with disabilities. "At the time, I was fortunate enough to have my father’s support, so I was able to fully dedicate myself to improving the everyday lives of persons with disabilities in my home country," she recalls.