Reflections on a United Nations' Career

As one of the world’s largest multilateral organisations and a beacon for social change and the betterment of humankind, a career with the United Nations is often highly sought-after, especially among those with desires to drive positive social change.

In Reflections on a United Nations’ Career, Ian Howie offers more than an autobiographical account of the career of a young graduate from Melbourne who spent his life working as a United Nations official. The book is a critical, indispensable debriefing of a UN insider’s account as it follows navigating the rewards, costs, coping with transitions, corruption and poverty, all while 'trying to make a difference'.

Sharing insights from his assignments as the United Nations Population Fund’s representative in China negotiating the 'one-child policy'; in North Korea during the 1994 Famine and the death of Kim il Sung; and in the aftermath of the Rwandan Genocide, Ian Howie recounts pivotal moments including evacuating UNFPA staff from the Daily News Building during the 9/11 attacks, and attending a breakfast in honour of President Kennedy the morning of his assassination.

AIIA Victoria invites you to join Ian Howie in conversation with Tony Walker for first-hand insights into the realities of a UN career official’s life. Books will be available for sale and for signing.

Ian Howie, Associate Professor, Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, and Adjunct Professor, RMIT University, Melbourne, has spent more than 35 years working in the field of international development. The bulk of this time was spent with the United Nations as a career official. Reproductive rights were integral to these appointments, especially when negotiating government policies. Professor Howie also spent seven years at UN Headquarters, New York, following his appointment as the Chief of the Division of Human Resources. Earlier, he served as Chief Technical Adviser with the International Labour Organisation managing primary healthcare projects in rural Bangladesh and, following his plotting of a unique model delivering health services at village level, oversaw its adoption in the plantation sector in Sri Lanka, and in the industrial estates of Kenya and the slums of Nairobi.

Tony Walker AM FAIIA is a vice chancellor's fellow at La Trobe University. In 2022 he was awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the media as a journalist and to the community. He is a columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a dual Walkley Award winner for commentary, and recipient of the Paul Lyneham Award for Excellence in Press Gallery Journalism. He is a former foreign correspondent for Fairfax and the Financial Times in China, the Middle East and North America. Publications include Arafat: The Biography and The Peter Thomson Five. Mr Walker is presently a board member at both The Conversation and the CEW Bean Foundation. He was made a Fellow of the AIIA in 2013.

Видео Reflections on a United Nations' Career канала Australian Institute of International Affairs