Int'l Organizations & UN News #9/2023

Building on the success of the previous years' event, this year's in-person International Organizations & United Nations Roundtable Conversations gives students the opportunity to speak with 20+ staff members from a range of international organizations in intimate small group discussions. Invited experts represent UNDP, IOM, DPPA, World Bank, UNFPA, DESA, OCHA, OECD, ILO, and many others.

Unlike other networking events, the virtual roundtable conversation format will ensure that students have significant facetime with three IO officials, opening the door for meaningful relationship building. About six students will share a roundtable with one of our featured experts to discuss their work and experiences on the role of international organizations to foster development, cooperation, peace, human rights, climate change, and prosperity. Students will spend 30min each at three roundtables to enable them to have a range of conversations.

After 3 rounds of structured roundtables, all participants are invited to join the reception on the 15th floor that allows participants to connect with other experts.

Join seasoned professionals for a roundtable networking event, including professionals at international organizations working on gender and public policy.

Theme: Midterm Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018–2028;
Key objective: Support to achieve the internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, including those contained in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;
Format: 6 plenary meetings and 5 interactive dialogues Presidents of the Conference: Governments of Tajikistan and the Netherlands.

To successfully implement the goals and objectives of the Water Action Decade, including SDG 6 and other internationally agreed water-related goals and targets, in 2018 the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 73/226 on the midterm comprehensive review of the implementation of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018–2028, in which it decided to convene, in New York, from 22 to 24 March 2023, the United Nations Conference on the Midterm Comprehensive Review of the Implementation of the Objectives of the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, 2018–2028, or the “UN 2023 Water Conference”. In December 2020 the General Assembly adopted resolution 75/212 detailing the modalities for this Conference.

The IO/UNS Specialization invites you a special event that brings togetehr experts from the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and UNICEF's Office of Innovation.

Our guest speakers will discuss about the main methods through which different organziations from the UN System foster innovation in order to keep abreast with the last developments in terms of digital, social, and cultural trends.

Speakers:

• Salem Avan, Director, Policy, Strategy & Governance Division at the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT)
• Benjamin Kumpf, Head of Innovation for Development Facility, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
• Radha Kulkarni, Investment Manager at the Innovative Finance Hub, UNICEF's Office of Innovation

Please Join the Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy (HRHP) Concentration a round panel discussion on “Aid Without Rights”. As the need for humanitarian aid across the world rises, so do the questions concerning the ethics and potential unforeseen impact of humanitarian assistance.

In this panel, HRHP brings together practitioners from several prominent organizations and different humanitarian and human rights backgrounds to discuss and question the relationship between aid and rights.

Speakers:

• Jamie McGoldrick - Former UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator (Yemen, Palestine and others); Distinguished Fellow, Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs, Fordham University;
• Kate Phillips Barrasso - Vice President for Global Policy and Advocacy, Mercy Corps;
• Sarah Holewinsky Yager - Director, Human Rights Watch Washington DC Office;
• Ruth Mukwana - Section Chief, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia Pacific, UN OCHA;
• Joshua Craze - Writer and Conflict Analyst, South Sudan Specialist.

Ever wondered how to get a job at the UN? Wondering how the UN recruitment process works and how best to prepare for the UN interview?

In this IO/UNS Career Talk, Professor Daniel Naujoks, director of SIPA's International Organization and UN Studies specialization, shares key pointers on how you can use your time at SIPA to:

• Build expertise & a hirable profile (skill & resume-building)
• Build & nurture networks 
• Understand processes, paperwork, & markers to land one of the coveted jobs at the UN.

SIPA students have the option to attend in person or online (see the different registration options). 

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken political institutions and the ways they prioritize some issues over others. In the United Nations system divided into programs and agencies working on separate issue areas, such a crisis challenges those in charge of promoting long-term concerns. Professor Lucile Maertens and Dr. Luis Rivera-Vélez from the University of Lausanne share insights into how UN actors keep an issue, which is not seen as a priority, on the agenda in times of crisis? Based on an investigation of the UN environmental agenda in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maertens  and Rivera-Vélez highlight the practices through which UN staff attempts to maintain the environment on the agenda at the operational and policy levels. 

In conversation with Daniel Naujoks, Director, International Organization & UN Studies, School of International and Public Affairs and Fabien Cottier, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Center for International Earth Science Information Network of Columbia University. 

Columbia students, faculty and staff may attend in person; others please join us virtually. Please see the different registration options.

This event includes the irtual launch of the Special Issue on ‘Cuir/Queer Peacebuilding’ of the journal Revista de Estudios Sociales edited by Fernando Serrano Amaya (Universidad de los Andes); Samuel Ritholtz (University of Oxford); Jamie J. Hagen (Queen’s University Belfast) and Melanie Judge (University of Cape Town).

The editors will be in discussion with Pascha Bueno-Hansen (Associate Professor, University of Delaware), Eirene Chen (Independent Senior Advisor on LGBTIQ+ Forced Displacement Policy) and Mauricio Albarracín (Deputy Director LGBT Program Human Rights Watch) and will consider the central questions addressed in the Special Issue namely: What is cuir/queer peacebuilding? Why is it important? What can the construction of queer peace contribute to rights and justice?