From Nominee To Winner! Artwork Shaping Peace Together at #UN75

2020 has been the year for historic milestones and active changemakers such as myself. Of importance, the United Nations celebrated its 75th Anniversary, with the Secretary-General's call to action focused heavily on increasing gender equality, encouraging urgency of response to the climate crisis, and calling for partnership at all levels and in all sectors to realise all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. 

 

With celebrations scheduled for International Peace Day, 21 September 2020, the United Nations made a call for audio-visual submissions across all 10 provinces of Zimbabwe for which my photomontage piece, titled: International Peace Day from an EcoFeminist Perspective, was nominated for the talent pool on 14 September 2020. To my joy, surprise and disbelief, on Thursday 1 October 2020 the nomination was upgraded and I was now a bona fide WINNER! 

Dreams really do come true, but not without grit, sweat, tears and determination to keep going no matter the challenges. Believe me, I have had my fair share this year. Ranked as the 4th largest project on the African continent, I served the Zimbabwe Idai Recovery Project, as Communications Senior Assistant- Digital Content, for the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in the Project Implementation Unit (PIU). In August the World Bank (WB) awarded our team a prestigious prize for fulfilling their mandate to increase resilience and medium to longer term recovery of Cyclone Idai affected communities on this 72 million US dollar project. Following on, I decided to get more active with advocacy work regarding gender equality, climate action and reduced inequalities and so became a member of UNITE2030, He For She and Youth for SDG’s in the Zimbabwe, Kenya and Africa chapters.

Responsible for Digital Content management, I provided support to multiple social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, and assisted in the creation and activation of the ZIRP website and YouTube channel positioning UNOPS as a credible thought leader. In achieving high visibility gains for the team, I garnered 100 new followers on our Twitter page within my first month on the job. 

Specific to partnership development and analysis, I demonstrated analytical thinking, problem-solving skills and experience in an international environment by drafting the monthly Digital Coverage Report (January to July 2020), to highlight the impact of ZIRP for the approval of an essential budget line by the Donor. Also, within the PIU, I collaborated on concept notes in support of the Infrastructure and Project Management Unit, as well as Partnerships and Liaison Unit, respectively. The concept notes included: Infrastructure for Sustainable Development; MSD Meteorological Equipment; Waste Management; and, Water Management. Lastly, I served as Minutes Secretary during High Level Consultative Meetings with Government of Zimbabwe Stakeholders, and the UN Consultative Group Meetings with the UN Zimbabwe Resident Coordinator’s Office. 

By way of office management support, I was trained by the Communications Group (Copenhagen) on External and Internal Communications Reporting, the areas of focus in managing web-based systems included: data collection TalkWalker & Newsdesk; media tiering; internal communications dashboard: why and how can it help us in our daily work?; how to read the dashboard; and, how to choose internal channels to best reach internal stakeholders. This greatly enhanced our team’s output with posters, banners, blogs, powerpoint presentations, the ZPIU newsletter, infographics, case-studies and Knowledge Management Manuals (Induction and Handover Takeover Guides). 

All in all, embracing a growth mindset, I can see that I've deepened my professional skills in graphic design, animation, written communication, partnership development and conflict resolution. It feels good and I'm excited to see where the rest of this journey leads.