JPO Stories
Questions to Silla Ristimäki
Silla Ristimäki is a JPO funded by Finland currently assigned to the UNFPA Country Office in Nepal.
VITALS
Name
Silla Ristimäki
Where are you from?
From Finland.
What is your background?
I studied international relations at university.
JPO ASSIGNMENT
When and where have you worked as a JPO?
I started as a JPO in the UNFPA Country Office in Kathmandu, Nepal in May 2006.
What has been your assignment as a JPO?
My TOR has changed many times during my two and a half years.
I have found my most important and challenging tasks to have been related to the management of our projects on women's participation and protection in the peace process. Apart from getting to work with inspiring local women's networks, I have learned a lot about how important but challenging UN-donor coordination is from being the secretary of a working group that has strived to implement the recommendations of the UN Security Council resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
At the moment I have been given the role of gender focal point in a humanitarian assistance group that was recently set up in our office. Nepal is vulnerable to both man-made and natural disasters. UNFPA plays a big role in delivering emergency reproductive health services and establishing mechanisms to prevent and address gender based violence in emergencies. As gender focal point I look over our humanitarian activities that relate to protection, and ensure gender mainstreaming throughout our humanitarian programme.
I am also our resource mobilisation officer, which means looking after our donor relations and writing proposals to raise programme and emergency funds.
Which random words come to your mind when thinking about your JPO years?
Exciting, valuable, manifold.
Do you remember your "best moment" as a JPO?
In terms of work, best moments are those when you feel like your work has made a difference. These include moments when your funding proposal is approved, when a protection component is approved into a UNCT strategy because of your advocacy, or when a UNFPA project you've helped to initiate has delivered another uterine prolapse surgery that allows a Nepalese woman to live a healthy life again. Those moments motivate me to continue the hard work.
However, I think the best moment has been the moment of realisation that I have become a real family member of our multi-cultural office, to realise that I also can be and am approached by my colleagues for support and advice. That makes the work seem valuable.
In what way do you think your JPO assignment has shaped your career?
I think it has made me more aware of the benefits and fall-backs of different actors in development, not only of the UN but also of donors and NGOs, which in the future will make it easier to determine where I would like to continue my career. I think it has allowed me to identify an area of specialisation for the future. The contacts that my JPO assignment has allowed me to develop will surely continue to contribute to my work for a long time after the assignment as well.
CAREER PATH
What are your major lessons learned during your JPO assignment in terms of professional growth, career planning and opportunities?
In my job I have met many different persons with different stories of their careers in development. It has been interesting to see what different options are available and to learn about the possible ways to reach certain professional goals. I think it has shown that there are many interesting opportunities available.
I think the most important lessons learned is how important the field level work is, and how much it takes to really understand the development challenges of a country and begin to find your way around them successfully. Although the policy level work is extremely important, making it relevant at the field level, translating security council resolutions to have meaning for rural women, that is the true challenge to having an impact on the lives of those who are most in need.
What is your motivation to work in the field of development?
I still have idealism left in me. I enjoy the multi-cultural environment and the meeting of different people who all have something to contribute whatever their perspective may be. I think working in the field of development personally makes you much more aware of the things you shouldn't take for granted.
The mandate issues are extremely motivating, including ensuring that women can be safe in their homes and communities, and that their hard work is recognised. Their contribution still goes largely unrecognised and unrewarded.
Most enriching professional achievement so far?
Last year together with another UN agency colleague I was finalising an agreement for advocacy on women's participation in the up-coming Constituent Assembly elections. Our planned activities were important, yet pretty standard activities, and we began to brainstorm on more creative options. In the end, we had a joint street drama project, with our two UN agencies bringing together our respective comparative advantages, that reached both decision-makers but most importantly women in villages in rural Nepal. It was so valuable to hear that they felt they could relate to the street drama and that it had given them strength and hope. Many women said it made them aware of their right to participate in the elections and the peace process more broadly. A documentary made of the project was shown to the wife of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on his recent visit to Nepal. At the moment, we have entered into a new partnership with the colleague, this time to make a film about women in prisons in Nepal.
What kind of advice would you give to JPOs?
I find that often times JPOs arrive in an office many months after his/her TOR was prepared and circumstances may have changed during the recruitment time. I find that the more proactive you are, the faster you are able to get involved in issues that are of interest to you. I believe a JPO has the opportunity to learn a lot, even if sometimes it is up to the JPO themselves to look for the learning opportunities.
