Trinbagonians in the UN Celebrate the UN at 80

What local food would you miss most if you packed your bags, left your home country and took up a job in a region on the other side of the world?

For Trinbagonians serving the UN in other countries, the overwhelming choice was doubles. A wrapped chicken roti was a close second. 

The simultaneous experience of being both a Trinbagonian from a Small Island Developing State, as well as an international civil servant of the UN, creates a rich perspective that came to the fore during a special virtual Town Hall hosted by the Office of the Resident Coordinator on October 16th.

The event, hosted as part of the UN Trinidad and Tobago's commemorations of the UN's 80th anniversary, convened 70 Trinidad and Tobago nationals from UN duty stations in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and the Caribbean to exchange perspectives on the value of multilateralism and share their career insights.

“They say ‘Trinbagonians are like salt, you can find them anywhere,’” UN Resident Coordinator Joanna Kazana said during her opening remarks. “We thought it was important to celebrate the UN by giving a voice to the people making a real difference, sometimes in very complex circumstances far from home. You have pursued careers in service of multilateralism, and this meeting allows us to enjoy the privilege of working together and acknowledge the wonderful opportunity we have been given by the UN to do something meaningful every day. At home or abroad, we are really part of the one family of the UN, united by purpose.”

The Town Hall featured a panel discussion that focused on the career paths of four Trinbagonian nationals: 

• Lyanna Harracksingh, a social policy specialist with UNICEF based in Lusaka, Zambia;
• Andrew Pereira, an Associate Refugee Status Determination Officer with UNHCR based in Geneva, Switzerland;
• Kwesi Maxwell-Hamilton, a Programme Assistant working with UNDP in Trinidad and Tobago
• and Esther De Gourville, a retired PAHO/WHO Representative who devoted 30 years of her career to working with WHO and later, PAHO/WHO. 

Lyanna recalled the leap she made in 2020, leaving behind her position with UNICEF in Trinidad and Tobago to take up her first international posting in Yemen. 

“It was quite a big change and I left home in the midst of the pandemic, so I went from lovely Caribbean islands to a conflict context. I was just deep diving into it. There was little space to learn, so I just had to get into in that type of context,” recalled Lyanna, who has spent 12 years working for UNICEF.

Andrew expressed gratitude for the blend of professional experiences he acquired before joining the UN, since he says the experience dealing with grassroots communities enriched the perspective he now brings to working on international policy. A human rights lawyer by profession, Andrew worked with the one of UNHCR’s implementing partners in Trinidad and Tobago, the Living Water Community, in the years prior to joining the UN.

“The time I spent working directly with vulnerable populations really grounded me in what international protection is and the reality of working with communities. And then from there I transitioned into international protection where I now work more on policy. I definitely see the relevance of drafting policy to support the work of the people in the field,” explained Andrew.

Andrew’s career took him away from his home in Trinidad to Guyana, Rwanda and Panama before his most recent posting in Geneva. He has also worked with the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner (OHCHR). 

For Kwesi, his current focus on youth empowerment projects through his work at UNDP is a natural offshoot of the unexpected path he took to join the UN. 

“I was a participant in one of UNDP’s first youth violence prevention projects and it was named the Positive Deviants Project. We underwent community development training and built conflict resolution and mediation skills, and it was during this programme that I discovered my potential as a youth peacebuilder and advocate within my community,” Kwesi recalled.  “I want to prove that good things can come out of at-risk communities like mine in Trinidad and Tobago, and that’s what motivates me to support young people through the programmes I lead at UNDP.”

Esther shared with the audience her extensive career experience in public health, most of which she spent as an international civil servant in the UN. While she started her career at the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) in Trinidad and Tobago, and did take a mid-career hiatus from the UN to work at other entities, she devoted 30 of her 42 working years to serving the WHO and PAHO/WHO.

A microbiologist by training, Esther supported CAREC’s response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. That experience opened the door to what started out as a consultancy with the WHO in the Eastern Mediterranean and transitioned into a full-time staff position. She was posted to Egypt to support the polio eradication programme there.

“I witnessed and participated in the rejoicing when polio was eliminated from the Western Pacific,” Esther recalled. 

She later joined PAHO/WHO and was designated as the PAHO/WHO Representative the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands.

As the panelists shared their professional journeys in the UN, they also reflected on how the UN’s work continues to motivate and inspire them to serve.

“One of the first and most important pieces of advice that I got when I joined UNICEF as an intern was to never forget my motivation for doing this job,” Lyanna reflected. “And that motivation is the people that we do this job for and the children that we do this for in UNICEF. And it sounds like a very simple, almost cliche type of advice. But it has always been what has kept me grounded and driven. You know, at the centre of our work, it's human dignity. So that's been my motivation and I feel very honoured and privileged to be able to fight for human rights and children's rights every day, everywhere.”

Andrew noted that in a world where human rights violations persist and conflicts are on the rise, he tries to remain focused on the value the UN brings as an advocate for those who are marginalised.

“Justice, equity, inclusion, LGBTQI rights are all areas where I think the UN's presence and programming are fundamental to continue pushing the conversation forward,” Andrew said. “Across the Caribbean, the UN’s relevance in these areas is similar, so I think we need to continue this important work to advance human rights and ensure countries are aligning with global standards, not in a way that countries lose their identity, but more to deepen our regional values.”