i sit on my computer all day at work, so about 85% of my posts are about unicef

i do apologize.

but i had to spill just a wee bit this fine Nachmittag. (not as if i know it's fine as i've been inside since 8am and have no windows nearby. but i'm sure it is.)

i seem to rail against unicef and all its politics a great deal, especially of late. but having just returned from the 8th floor of the unicef offices, better known as the health section, and having attended yet another incredibly impressive thursday 11am technical update from the health team, i really have to step back on my criticisms and put them in context. you see, i work on the 11th floor, and if anything, the UN is heirarchical (ha). the executive director rests on the 13th, and it seems the higher you go the more entrenched you are in policy and process, less in outputs and results, and thus more susceptible to the egos and politics of large organizations.

but when i go down to the health meetings on the 8th floor, or the emergency section's on the 5th, water/sanitation on the 6th, i'm routinely impressed by the high level of expertise, innovation, and critical thinking at play. and it makes me uber-excited that there really are huge parts of unicef who are doing critical work, with thoughtful expertise. staff and projects who are concerned about realities on the ground, not afraid to self-question or re-evaluate or change... my problem is that i'm in a division which is so utterly entrenched in all the fashionable debates and politics of international development - i lie in the middle of donor, civil society, and government arguments about foreign aid and aid effectiveness and paris declarations and accra agendas and i'm truly, utterly disgusted at it all.

now one can't necessarily have one without the other - but is it too much to ask that i move down a few floors? the technical update/lecture today was on infant feeding in the context of HIV - ah! it was so revelatory and i felt like i was in a university setting - so much thoughtful debate and consideration of best practice. a few weeks ago there was a lecture on tropical enteropathy that nearly blew my mind.

so. conclusion of the week: i still admire unicef. i wouldn't mind working for them in the future. i would just like to try out other sections, namely health, namely maternal health, since this is where my true interest lies, and where i think actual impact can be made. also, it'd be nice to get out of new york. try a country office on for size. i'd love to see how things happen at that level.

eh voila. i've learned so much the last year of working for unicef, i've perhaps been too critical, but today i concede that there are systems which do seem to work, and in which i sort of wish i was more a part of.

if you've made it this far, many thanks for listening to this long and utterly-boring diatribe. but in case you were wondering if the whole UN was bunk, i can firmly say no, it is not. and with that, happy thursday to everyone!