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What is your name and your last assignment with UNICEF?
Rob Carr - Chief of Planning, Monitoring and Reporting, UNICEF Pacific (multi-country office based in Suva, Fiji)
Rob Carr - Chief of Planning, Monitoring and Reporting, UNICEF Pacific (multi-country office based in Suva, Fiji)
How old do you feel?
Most days I feel far younger - until I overdo it - and then not so much. My health after leaving UNICEF is far better then it has ever been as I never go to bed thinking of a deadline and I have more time for myself.
What book do you currently read?
"A Humanitarian Aid Worker's Journey: Stories that Stayed with Me" - by former UNICEF staff, Allyson Chisholm, about her work. Amazing.
If you could travel without restrictions, where would you go?
I am not so much into hard travel anymore as have been lucky to work in amazing places - I would love to see more of Japan and New Zealand and see all the national parks of the USA. Travelling in a camping caravan is also a dream if my marriage could take the close quarters. LOL.
Your best experience with UNICEF?
I liked them all - but working in Albania was special - we had a very small team and small niche so did not try to do everything. The government had good capacity and once on board most things moved. It was also the era before regional offices increased “oversight” and before we had so many new “tools” that took up our time on internal processes–so we spent time on the right things. Having Detlef as my Rep we were very clear on the role of DepRep vs Rep and what to spend our time on from a risk management perspective.
Your biggest challenge when working for UNICEF?
When regional offices got too big and became a burden and HQ also grew - far too many layers. Also when the tools we were required to use - online etools - consumed all of our time on internal processes. Also UN reform was a huge burden - I happened to serve in 3 consecutive duty stations that were UN reform pilots. Nonsense.
What is your biggest fear, in relation to the future of children? What is your greatest hope, in relation to children?
Fear: Climate change and the wars they will (and already) incubate. Also greed - that goes hand in hand with climate change.
Hope: That we start to reverse climate change before it is too late - and it is up to our children to fix our mess.
What is your one piece of advice you wish to give to the UNICEF Executive Director:
Where do you live?
Tirana, Albania (former duty station we loved - rediscovering it)
Tirana, Albania (former duty station we loved - rediscovering it)
What book do you currently read?
"A Humanitarian Aid Worker's Journey: Stories that Stayed with Me" - by former UNICEF staff, Allyson Chisholm, about her work. Amazing.
If you could travel without restrictions, where would you go?
I am not so much into hard travel anymore as have been lucky to work in amazing places - I would love to see more of Japan and New Zealand and see all the national parks of the USA. Travelling in a camping caravan is also a dream if my marriage could take the close quarters. LOL.
Your best experience with UNICEF?
I liked them all - but working in Albania was special - we had a very small team and small niche so did not try to do everything. The government had good capacity and once on board most things moved. It was also the era before regional offices increased “oversight” and before we had so many new “tools” that took up our time on internal processes–so we spent time on the right things. Having Detlef as my Rep we were very clear on the role of DepRep vs Rep and what to spend our time on from a risk management perspective.
Your biggest challenge when working for UNICEF?
When regional offices got too big and became a burden and HQ also grew - far too many layers. Also when the tools we were required to use - online etools - consumed all of our time on internal processes. Also UN reform was a huge burden - I happened to serve in 3 consecutive duty stations that were UN reform pilots. Nonsense.
What is your biggest fear, in relation to the future of children? What is your greatest hope, in relation to children?
Fear: Climate change and the wars they will (and already) incubate. Also greed - that goes hand in hand with climate change.
Hope: That we start to reverse climate change before it is too late - and it is up to our children to fix our mess.
What is your one piece of advice you wish to give to the UNICEF Executive Director:
Here are 7 tips (there is no one silver bullet):
Note: Rob is one of the new editors of XUNICEF and we are challenging old and new members of XUNICEF to answer the 10 questions.
- As we say in RBM training - always ask ourselves SO WHAT? If we do X and it makes no sense or has no impact - then SO WHAT?
- We have to cut back on the number of countries and focus resources on fewer places where governments are taking child rights seriously and the partnership is real.
- Explore having more multi-country offices with less heavy management structures.
- The RR formula needs a total overhaul so small offices don’t spend their time chasing small money.
- Take a hard look at the layers - HQ and the Centers of Excellence - how much oversight do country offices need and how many experts does it take to do our work?
- Lighten up burden of internal tools and work processes.
- Take a hard look at time invested in engagement with the UNRC system - we can’t do all the heavy lifting for the UNRC at our own expense if it does not improve our work for children
Do you have any suggestions for XUNICEF - content, format, ideas, etc..?
Find a way to get more people to contribute. I enjoy reading (and writing and commenting) about the stories, thoughts, photos, paintings, poems and reflections of XUNICEF colleagues.
Rob can be contacted at : farmerrobert1963@gmail.com
Are you inspried ? If you want to respond to 10 QUESTIONS go here
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