TheJourneyVolume1 - Book - Page 59
Such trauma is sufficient to cause long-term emotional
and psychological damage to all involved.
On another occasion, when I was Deputy Resident
Representative - Programme in Iraq, my post was
suddenly abolished due to a management restructure,
which rendered me jobless. These situations are not
uncommon in the UN and there are many, like me, that
have seen difficult times of uncertainty, insecurity, and
sacrifice. How we cope under such circumstances truly
tests our mettle and resilience as leaders and affects the
perceptions, choices, and the actions we take, which can
dramatically impact the direction of one’s career path.
BECOMING RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVE
Becoming RR in 2019 (first as RR ad-interim in South
Africa) and now as substantive Resident Representative in Kenya as part of #NextGenUNDP, was therefore
a crowning moment in my 26-year career. At the time of
de-linking, I had already been in the RC candidate pool
for over five years. I could have potentially pursued the
RC track, but I saw the likely impact that the likely mass
exodus of sitting RCs would leave, in terms of a leadership
vacuum at UNDP in the field. I knew that UNDP would
urgently need people with my profile to fill the void, and
I was convinced that I would make a meaningful contribution to the unfolding UN Reforms by remaining with
UNDP during the pivotal moment and the organization’s
evolution.
I knew I could model an exemplary relationship with
the RC having done so very successful with three separate
RCs and experience I ought to replicate in other settings.
I seized this unique opportunity to take my life-long
learnings, my passion for development, and my love
for the organization, and through transformational
leadership use that to inspire the great team that I am
currently privileged to lead.
This is a debt that I owe and the only way I can repay it
is by harnessing what I have learned to help build future
generations of truly transformational leaders.
This is my conviction, and that is why one of my favourite
and most inspiring quotes of all time is by Margaret Mead:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing
that ever has.” In simple terms, I believe the role of an RR
is to inspire teams and create the enabling environment
that will ensure “thoughtful committed citizens” thrive
and achieve the impossible! n
U N I T E D N AT I O N S D E V E L O P M E N T P R O G R A M M E
‘FIXING THE PLANE MID-FLIGHT’
But firstly, job one was to turn around a Country Office
that had been beset by many significant challenges.
I arrived at a particularly difficult time, on the heels
of a rather disruptive, painful, and protracted change
management process. The dust was still settling on the
UN Reform, and many performance metrics were in the
red. There was much to do internally if we were to achieve
external relevance and impact in a dynamic lower-middle-income country like Kenya. I had to fix the plane
mid-flight.
Our solution was “CO-RESET” – a fun, homegrown,
cocreated innovation that transformed what we did and
how we did it, with the youth of Kenya at its core.
CO-RESET, which was launched in the presence of the
RBA Director, Ms. Ahunna Eziakonwa, only one month
after I arrived in Kenya and went on to receive UNDP’s
inaugural People for 2030 Champion award garnering
much global and national attention, for the scale, speed,
and impact of results it had achieved. While I could
write a thesis on CO-RESET, the depth and breadth of this
agenda allowed us to meaningfully respond to the diverse
challenges that came our way, and none more significant
than COVID-19.
YOUTH AT THE CENTER
Our interventions were informed by the national, county,
and UN COVID-19 Socio-Economic Response Plans, all of
which were substantively and technically led by UNDP.
Innovation, spearheaded by our dynamic Accelerator Lab,
was at the heart of our responses, always keeping youth
at the center of what we do, given that 75% of Kenya’s
population is under the age of 35. It is clear we will not
achieve the SDGs if we do not focus specifically on the
needs of youth in Africa.
To ensure we keep our focus on youth, in October 2020,
I established the UNDP Kenya Youth Sounding Board
(YSB), a dynamic multi-stakeholder youth platform that
guides and informs all our work in the country to ensure
everything we do in Governance, Inclusive Growth,
or Environment and Resilience, is youth-centric. The
platform has gained momentum such that in her closing
remarks at the 2021 Youth Connect Africa Summit in
Accra, the RBA Director, Ms. Ahunna Eziakonwa gave
marching orders to all UNDP country offices in Africa to
establish similar sounding boards modelled around the
Kenyan example.
.
MY CONVICTION
The journey to becoming an RR has certainly not been
easy, but it has been rewarding. Had it not been for my
wife and three beautiful kids who have always been my
anchor, compass, and source of motivation, coupled with
a clarity of purpose in serving our great organization and
its noble mission, and leaders that truly care about their
people, I would certainly not be where I am today. Not
a day goes by that I don’t think and draw on the many
talents, skills, and inspiration of so many great transformational leaders, supervisors, and managers that I
have had the privilege to work with and learn from over
the years. I am forever indebted to these individuals not
mentioned here, who have mentored, coached, groomed,
and believed in me and still do so to this day.
59