TheJourneyVolume1 - Book - Page 58
#NextGenUNDP
Walid Badawi
K ENYA
Officer (JPO). This was indeed a dream come true, giving
me a professional foothold in the organization.
Sadly, my dream was short-lived as the Dutch
government funding abruptly came to an end after two
years instead of five years.
Suddenly I was left unemployed in a foreign country
with no family savings, visa, or even a place to stay. I
struggled, and for several months, I tried hard to find a job
with the UN, but I was not successful. Somehow, I made
ends meet, teaching squash and coaching the Indonesian
national team while squatting at a friend’s house.
Several months later, I got my lucky break when I ran
into the then-new UNDP Resident Representative (RR)
at a mall, who offered me a one-month consultancy.
What ensued were a series of very unsettling short-term
contracts that, when strung together, kept me going for
four more years.
SETBACKS AND BREAKTHROUGHS
My professional fulfilment, working for UNDP at a time
when Indonesia was going through a major democratic
transformation, was a real turning point in my budding
UNDP career. Here, I saw first-hand how UNDP played
a pivotal role in restoring stability and setting a major
country like Indonesia on a solid governance footing; a
role that no other development actor could play. I was
fortunate to have been part of UNDP’s core electoral
support team driving this landmark electoral support
programme, which mobilized and delivered US$150m
in less than four months. I became a true believer in the
power and magic of UNDP, and here I came to appreciate
what Nelson Mandela meant when he said, “it always
seems impossible until it’s done.”
Fast forward after Indonesia, I went back home to
Egypt, where I worked as a national consultant with the
RC/RR supporting UN and donor coordination efforts.
Here again, I held a series of unsettling short-term
contracts, and my continuous efforts to land an international fixed-term position with UNDP were not successful.
It was not until 2001 (eight and half years after I started
as a JPO), that my dream of finally landing a fixed-term
appointment with UNDP materialized. After so many
failed attempts, setbacks, and disappointments, my
perseverance, resilience, and tenacity, perhaps thanks to
my experience as a squash player finally paid off.
I landed a P3 job in the Regional Bureau for Arab States
(RBAS) responsible for the Programme of Assistance
to the Palestinian People (PAPP), as well as Regional
Programme Adviser on HIV/AIDS, Water and Trade
programmes and later went to become the Chief of Staff
to the Regional Director at the Arab Bureau.
My first job was as a UN
tour guide in New York…It
provided me with a bird’s eye view
the organization.”
58
However, the timing of my move to New York, coincided
with the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack, which
was a challenging time for me as an Arab, because racial
profiling was rife. This brought its fair share of personal
and professional humiliation, and frustration, as I experienced what it was like to be discriminated against because
of your race or ethnicity.
COMPLEX CAREER JOURNEY
Fast forward again, and from that point onwards, I
held a series of progressively more senior and complex
positions as my international career in UNDP continued to
unfold and flourish. My career path has traversed country,
regional, and global/HQ roles, crisis and non-crisis
country settings, national and international staff experiences, three geographical regions, and other diverse
experiences, all of which have given me an intricate view
of UNDP from all its angles.
Through this journey, I have been able to contribute in
different capacities to some flagship products such as the
Arab Human Development Reports series, where over a
million copies of the inaugural edition were downloaded
within 24 hours of its launch. This series identified three
development deficits holding the Arab region back,
namely freedoms, gender equality, and knowledge.
The work we did on transformational leadership on
HIV/ AIDS in the Arab world was inspired by Dr. Monica
Sharma. She is one of the world’s leading gurus on transformational leadership and was the Head of UNDP’s
HIV/AIDS global practice. This partnership culminated
in a ground-breaking religious leaders declaration which
was the most progressive text adopted by religious leaders
on HIV/AIDS in the world. This work later won a global
award presented to UNDP by Mr. Joseph Diess, the
President of the 65th Session of the General Assembly, at
the 2010 South-South Expo.
In South Africa, we developed and launched the Leading
Like Mandela Leadership Programme, a brainchild of
his eldest granddaughter Ndileka Mandela. This event
was graced by the Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Amina
Mohamed. We also provided legal and policy advice to
the government of South Africa on the thorny issues of
land reform, which alone could address a great part of the
country’s grave inequality problem.
DUTY, LOYALTY AND SETBACKS
Being part of these transformational results that only
UNDP, with its impartiality, broad mandate and systemic
approaches to development can make possible, continued
to nurture in me a deep sense of loyalty, respect, appreciation, and love for the organization. Nevertheless, many
sacrifices have been made and setbacks encountered
along the way.
On one occasion, my family and I were held at gunpoint
while four robbers ransacked our home in South Africa.