My Work with the united nations
I am currently working as an Intern at the United Nations’ Department of Politics and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations. Our work focuses mainly on the Great-Lake region’s issues, which are the Central African Republic and the Congo region. My team, the Department of Peace Operations, mainly focuses on the Central African Republic’s issues, as they are very critical. In this region people are dying, security is not guaranteed even for Humanitarian actors, women and children are being killed and raped, militaries have taken the occupation of the region and even charge taxes to the vulnerable civilians and many more human rights violations are occurring. My work, as an intern, is to inform my superiors and keep them up to date about the information passed, drafting letter responses, attending meetings, and writing reports to and for my superiors when asked, writing weekly reports about the situation there, working with military and Police liaisons to work on security plans,... I may not see the Central Africans directly as I work from home but I am confident that my work from afar is serving them. Why? Because I do some of the work that may have taken a lot of time to my superiors so that they can focus on more important matters to bring peace in the Central African region. I share with the community that I serve the values of not needing to be praised or receiving clouts to do my work of serving others. I can do it from my room, in secret, and still contribute to an important matter, in causes that are greater than myself, than everyone else, which is participating in the peace of humanity.
The strategizing principle that I believe in is the fact of doing more with less. In my Internship, I am not in a position to see everything, to be in place, and actually experience the “reality” of the situation. So, we are limited by location but we are also limited by time because there is a huge time difference between where I work from (Dakar), where I work for (UN Headquarter, NY), and who I work for (Central African Republic). It connects with the work I do because it shows how to be resilient and that even if you are not physically somewhere, you can still do work that affects people and that could change their lives.
The strategizing principle that I believe in is the fact of doing more with less. In my Internship, I am not in a position to see everything, to be in place, and actually experience the “reality” of the situation. So, we are limited by location but we are also limited by time because there is a huge time difference between where I work from (Dakar), where I work for (UN Headquarter, NY), and who I work for (Central African Republic). It connects with the work I do because it shows how to be resilient and that even if you are not physically somewhere, you can still do work that affects people and that could change their lives.
- The Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) plays a central role in United Nations efforts to prevent deadly conflict and build sustainable peace around the world.
- DPPA monitors and assesses global political developments with an eye to detecting potential crises and devising effective responses. The Department provides support to the Secretary-General and his envoys in their peace initiatives, as well as to UN political missions around the world.
- DPPA is also an agile platform for crisis response, capable, with the assent of countries concerned, of rapidly deploying mediators and other peacemaking expertise worldwide and cooperating closely with regional organizations on the frontlines of conflicts.
- DPPA provides staff support to the UN Security Council, advises the UN Special Committee on Decolonization on the 17 remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories on the UN list through DPPA’s Decolonization Unit and services the Secretariat of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People through its Palestinian Rights Division. The Department also contributes directly to UN efforts to promote peace and prevent conflict by coordinating UN electoral assistance activities through its Electoral Assistance Division. (https://dppa.un.org/en/about-us)