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teaching advanced level Applied UN. Why did you decide to stay? Was
Mathematics. As I was quickly running
short of money, a friend at the youth
hostel suggested that I go to the UN in
search of a temporary job. I first went to
UNCTAD where the recruiting officer,
after reading my CV, sent me to the
ECE Statistical Division. There I was
interviewed by Mr. Gentile, the assistant
Director. He read my CV and asked me
if I could complete a study that was
previously undertaken by someone who
had resigned and had moved to WHO.
So, I started working the next morning
on a 2-month contract.
3. Being colleagues, we knew you
were brilliant and exceptional, but
you were always very modest and did
not hold high positions either. What
was your driving force to work? Was
it respect for the Organisation or
simply a stable job?
In mid-February 1975, I received job
offers from UNECE Statistics, GATT,
and ILO.
As I had studied Economic Principles,
Economic Statistics, International Trade
and International Organizations for my
first degree, but had completely dropped
Economics for the next 7 years, while
teaching Mathematics, I decided to work
for UNECE Statistics as a statistical
assistant for economists working for the
UNECE Economic Analysis Division, so
that I could revise and update what I had
studied in Economics. I was fortunate to
be able to work with economists of
Western and Eastern European
countries and to carry on further studies
in Econometrics.
4. As I know, you have an excellent
education and background, and you
can do a lot more than you did at the
AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 82 No.3, 2023-12
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it because you believed in the ideas
of the Organisation? Or were you
hoping to develop your career within
the UN? Is there any career
development within the Organisation
if one starts on a G-post? Is there any
chance of being recognized by the
Organisation based on your skills
and knowledge?
5. My work with the UN was supposed
to be temporary, as I had hoped
eventually to return to Zimbabwe where
most of my family resided. After waiting
for 5 years for the end of the racist
regimes in southern Africa, I had lost
hope and so decided to continue to work
for the UN in Geneva instead. I believed
in the UN Organization’s ideas.
Eventually, I adopted a Swiss baby girl
and a few years later turned down a P3
post in the Middle East. In 1992, when
the UNECE moved from IBM mainframe
to personal computers, I was given the
opportunity to follow any IT courses I
wanted and to train staff. I became the
IT focal point for UNECE STAT.
6. After retirement, it is a kind of
new life, a new opening. Is there
anything you really enjoy doing that
you could not do when you were at
the UN, being limited by the job
description?
7. When I was in secondary school my
favourite subjects were Mathematics
and History. So, after retirement, I
dropped IT and spent a lot of time
studying the history of the countries of
origin of my grandparents – south
western India, Portugal, and south
eastern Baltic countries.
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