Author: Aysel Toprakli Aysel Toprakli served in the Information Communication Technology Division of UNICEF as Senior Production Associate. For me a sustainable life starts with the environment I inhabit. This is my home, my city, and my country. We can extend this to our planet Earth which is home for all humanity, nature, and other creatures. How can we sustain our environment? It starts with being mindful of using our resources such as water, electricity, transportation, a

Author: Stephen Schlesinger Author of Act of Creation about the UN’s founding, American historian, political commentator, and international affairs specialist. In the mid-1990s, Mr. Schlesinger worked with UN Habitat. The American presidency has played a central role in the operations of the United Nations for all 80 years of the Organization’s existence. There are obvious reasons for this: the United States was the original architect and mastermind behind the founding of the

Delia Barcelona is the Secretary of the Federation of Associations of Former International Civil Servants (FAFICS) Author: Delia Barcelona Many Member Associations of the Federation of the Association for Former International Civil Servants (FAFICS) engage in outreach initiatives usually aimed at helping marginalized and disadvantaged groups and often mobilizing not just their members but other volunteers from the community. Sometimes, these activities are also intended to as

Author: Mac Chiulli Fundraising on Red-Nose Day/Mac Chiulli For decades, my identity was defined by my career. From the age of 16 until my mandatory retirement from the UN, I was a dedicated "workaholic." I loved the hum of the international atmosphere and the challenges of the private and public sectors. Honestly, the prospect of retirement was frightening; had it not been mandatory, I might still be at my desk today. However, I’ve discovered a beautiful secret: there is abs

Author: Olivier Adam Olivier Adam is a retired UNDP staff member and former Executive Coordinator of UN Volunteers. Many of us who spent our careers in the United Nations system were drawn to it by a sense of purpose—a belief that our work could contribute to something larger than ourselves. We moved across duty stations, adapted to new countries and cultures, and gave decades to the pursuit of development, peace, and human dignity. When that chapter closes, the transition in

Author: Gail Bindley-Taylor Toily Kurbanov with Darshak Shah/Toily Kurbanov An Interview with Toily Kurbanov The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, now in its fifty-sixth year, may be less widely known than some other UN programmes and agencies, yet it has become an increasingly important part of the Organization’s development, humanitarian and peacebuilding work. Established by the General Assembly on 7 December 1970 at the initiative of then Secretary-General U Than

Formerly UN Under-Secretary-General for Communications, candidate for UN Secretary General and currently an Indian Member of Parliament, author and diplomat. Author: Shashi Tharoor When the United Nations marked its 80th anniversary last October, reports described the mood at the General Assembly in New York as anything but celebratory. The hall that once echoed with the optimism of postwar reconstruction, decolonisation and peacekeeping, instead reverberated with uncertainty