Former UNICEF colleague takes on the Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak, by Tom McDermott

Julien Harneis in conversation at Chatham House, November 2024. Image: Chatham House

We always want to congratulate a colleague when we learn of their appointment to a senior post. In this case however, we might temper our good wishes with the thought that the new job is one few people would want, and without doubt among the world's toughest. On the other hand, for the past 30 years Julien Harneis seems to have moved from one tough post to another. His latest challenge however is likely to be "off the charts" in terms of difficulty.

On 18 June, Secretary-General António Guterres designated Harneis the UN's Senior Ebola Coordinator for the Bundibugyo outbreak which has now spread across the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Uganda. He will be based in Bunia, working through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee to knit together the UN agencies, national authorities and NGOs now racing to contain the virus.

Harneis joined UNICEF in Aceh in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. He stayed two years, picking up short missions to the Yogyakarta earthquake and to Lebanon after the 2006 war. From there: two and a half years in Goma, in the always-difficult east of the DRC. Three years in Guinea. Then, from 2013, he became the UNICEF Representative in Yemen — a posting that turned, almost as soon as it began, into one of the grimmest assignments in the UN system.

He left UNICEF's country-representative track for the broader UN system not long after — Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in the DRC, then OCHA head of office in Nigeria, then UN Resident Coordinator in Pakistan from January 2020, then, fittingly, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator back in Yemen.

What the official appointment notices don't mention is the collection of remarkable photographs he has made along the way. Harneis has kept a Flickr account since 2006 — over 2,800 images. "Through the photograph I focus on what is in front of me, interpret it and take a position," he writes. "Through flickr I send a message on how children live, how they cope and how we work with them."

Harneis holds a Master of Studies in International Relations from Cambridge and an MBA from INSEAD. He worked in the private sector before joining the UN. None of that, on its own, explains thirty years of choosing the world's toughest assignments. Fortunately, his photographs come closer.

See Julien's Flickr account at https://www.flickr.com/people/julien_harneis/

Morning at Muganga Camp (10 kms from Goma) by Julien Harneis