TheJourneyVolume1 - Book - Page 120
#NextGenUNDP
Lionel Laurens
Coun tr y o f O r igin :
UNDP Co u n t r y O f f ic e :
Date o f Ap po in tm e n t :
FR A N C E
Z A M BI A
S E T E M BE R 2 019
“AS RR IN ZAMBIA, I HAVE CHOSEN
TO FOCUS PARTICULARLY ON YOUTH
AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT.”
I
come from the Alps, in the south of France. My father
was a small entrepreneur who had his own construction company, and my mother was an accountant.
From my parents, I learned the core values of hard
work, meritocracy, honesty, and integrity, which are still
the compass for my actions and decisions.
When I was 14, I started to work with my father during
the summer holidays where I also learned the essential
values of teamwork and solidarity. These values still drive
my approach to building teams that trust each other and
understand that they depend on one another to achieve
success.
When I was young, my dream was to have an adventurous career building large infrastructure like dams in
remote developing countries. I was irresistibly attracted
by the human adventure of working with people to
create something useful. So, I studied engineering and
management, gaining a Master’s degree from the Ecole
Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers in Paris, France.
My engineering studies gave me essential skills for
effective problem-solving and strategic thinking.
More recently, I became interested in applying these
skills to the big issues facing the future of the planet and
humanity, such as climate change and social inequality.
To this end, I completed an MSc in Sustainability and
Responsibility at the Ashridge Business School in the UK.
LESSONS FROM EARLY EXPERIENCES
One of the early experiences that shaped my professional
career was the time I spent volunteering as a teacher in a
rural primary school in Cambodia. There, I saw unspeakable human tragedy, poverty, and inequality due to the
impacts of conflict. I felt strongly about wanting to assist
and to make a difference, to help them have a better life.
But, I also discovered that this is a mutually beneficial
exchange. They felt supported and encouraged to build
a better future, while I learned from their culture, their
life stories, their ingenuity, resilience, and wisdom. This
experience set the course for my subsequent professional
career and commitments.
My work in international development has been
extremely rewarding but it has had its challenges as well.
My first jobs were in the humanitarian sector, supporting
short-term interventions in Haiti, Georgia, and Laos.
But while I was happy to see the immediate results of
our efforts, I realized that we were not addressing the
deep-rooted causes of the problems. Our programs also
often did not support the systems and institutions that
could take over when the project ended.
JOINING UNDP
Later, I joined UNDP and worked in crisis contexts in
Afghanistan and Iraq, where there was so much to do
that the scale and pace of development could not possibly
match the needs. Operating in fragile security situations
also often restricted meaningful engagements with key
stakeholders who we needed to engage to ensure national
stewardship, and to effectively address complex, multidimensional, interdependent development issues. This was
sometimes disheartening. But from all these situations
I have learned the importance of fostering partnerships
with other UN agencies, governments, local communities,
and institutions to create integrated holistic development
programs that leverage the strengths of each organization, so we can all play our role in achieving development
impact. This was the beginning of the journey that led me
to become a UNDP Resident Representative.
I worked in both Sierra Leone and Guinea during
the Ebola epidemic. As UNDP we had no experience of ›
I have learned the
importance of fostering
partnerships with other UN
agencies, governments, and local
communities to create integrated
holistic development programs.”
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