United Nations Dual Career and Staff Mobility Programme

[Me at United Nations World Food Programme HQ, Rome, Italy]

Since April I've been at United Nations World Food Programme HQ in Rome, working on a very interesting project called UN Dual Career and Staff Mobility.

The UN moves a lot of its staff around. A lot. In an earlier age a regular UN couple would likely consist of one spouse working for the UN and the other staying home, whatever duty station happened to be "home" at the time. Nowadays this is rarely the case and a UN staff member is often accompanied around the world by his or her doctor/teacher/actor/otherwise-professional spouse (or increasingly, unmarried partner).

In almost every country where the UN sends staff any diplomatic immunity enjoyed by the UN couple does not extend to the right to work for the non-UN partner; spouses are still seen by host-country governments as merely a partner of the UN operative - often the rather humiliating designation partner of... is even written as spouse's official occupation into their official identity documents. It's a long fall from international lawyer to partner, as one of our clients recently wrote in an article about the difficulties she faced in a foreign country.

UN Dual Career and Staff Mobility was established to mitigate the problems faced by working expatriate UN spouses and unmarried partners. We advocate for this worthy cause from a Global Expatriate Spouse Association (UN/GESA) here in Italy, researching possible ways into national labour markets and supporting our clients through the establishment of Local Expatriate Spouse Associations (UN/LESAs). Being attached to the World Food Programme (WFP) is very useful, as the WFP is in most of the UN's most difficult duty stations. Often WFP spouses and partners are in the vanguard of establishing LESAs around the world and it is useful to benefit from their experience and contacts.

More on spouse employment, staff mobility, the United Nations and Rome very soon...

Comments

[Mau]

Waiting to have news from you, Fil!
But maybe you're too busy with the UN... ;)
Baci

Mau

[Nike shox deliver]

Perhaps my gate never seeks a meeting, but, from yours eye, read sincere and the hope. The corners of the mouth rise slightly, the corner of the eye slightly brings a silk thread, the short several seconds, as if already penetrated my body, arrived at my moral nature. That smile, turned into eternal, lets me be joyful. I gain ground look at the sky, all haze turned deep blue and deep Xiu's Wan Li the clear sky. That white clouds, as if pieced together each one hope smiling face. I returned to have given you a smile, similarly was bringing sincerely