The status of the implementation of my world-saving agenda

I still haven't written almost anything about my job, although it's a very essential part of my stay and the reason why I'm here. I think I need to write something about that to prove that the whole stay is not all about partying and spotting wildlife.

I'm still very happy with the portfolio, which allows me to work for some truly worthwile causes. The main topics I'm dealing with are climate change, the war in Somalia and slum conditions, so for an idealist like me it makes a nice mix of fighting poverty, war and environmental degradation, all the biggest evils. Those who know me well should know I'm thrilled with such a package. It would be even better though if the results of what I'm doing were more perceivable.

Most of the time my job consists in going to meetings at the UN, sometimes giving statements in them but mostly just taking notes and writing a couple of pages on each meeting to inform the relevant people back in Helsinki in the foreign ministry and ministry of environment on the recent developments. I mostly receive my instructions from them if we give any statements. The meetings are usually briefings to the representatives of the UN member countries about what the UN secretariat has done in order to implement the decisions made by member states and to spot new needs for action or financing. There are also plenty of EU-meetings, where EU-countries form common policy stands so they can speak with one voice at the UN.

So I am definitely not involved in practical work to improve slum conditions for instance. My job is about political coordination and administration, for example making sure that projects are well planned before they are implemented, or that the money is used to what it was meant for. And that control happens through reading project documents, writing e-mails to government officials and UN people and listening to briefings in meetings, not by getting on the spot to get a hands-on feel of how things are going. So I really can't say for sure if anything concrete at all is happening as a result of our efforts. I'm afraid the most graspable outcome of my work is the huge pile of business cards I've collected from my colleagues. I wish I knew how to do a bit more than that.

Anyway most of the time it is truly an enjoyable job. At best the meetings are held in varying, interesting places, I get to speak many of my languages, and it seems that the project at hand could really make a difference. It's a challenging mix of meeting lots of people, learning new things, speaking in public and writing.