Stéphanie's Humanitarian Work in Zimbabwe

Stéphanie in Harare, Zimbabwe during her internship with UNRCO

By: Stéphanie

It will hit 3 months (half way) this week that I have been working for the United Nations Resident’s Coordinator’s Office in Harare, Zimbabwe. Working for the UNRCO is not your typical UN placement since my office mainly consists of coordination with all UN agencies in Zimbabwe. However, it is an interesting one.  My office consists of 6 people, all working for the Resident Coordinator, who is the direct representative of the Secretary General in Zimbabwe. So far, it has been a great opportunity to make connections with embassies and local organizations and gives a great overview of how different agencies function. 
 

My main assignment has been to work with the coordination of the humanitarian crisis in the country. The El Nino drought has affected 4.3 million people in Zimbabwe. Though my background is in development, it is very interesting to get experience on the humanitarian aid side.  I’ve become somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades in the office, trying to keep myself busy, therefore, I also got a chance to get experience in communication and operations, which is an asset. 

Everyone I meet here has said that I have arrived in Zimbabwe during a very interesting time. Not only is there a drought in the country, but Zimbabwe is also going through an economic and political crisis. There is a cash shortage of US dollars, seeing long lines of people at bank machines every day and the country is announcing the introduction of bond notes in November. The economic crisis is going hand in hand with the political crisis, where citizens are unhappy with the current government in power who has had the same leader since independence. Many demonstrations have been observed in the capital and citizens are speaking out on social media. It is however unclear what will happen next. 

Even with everything going on in Zimbabwe, Harare still feels very safe and I am starting to feel at home. There is no shortage of gardens and green space to hang out on weekends and different cultural events to attend. The people are friendly and diverse and the weather is getting warm.  Southern Africa is definitely a great mix of culture and familiarity and I look forward to seeing what the next 3 months bring.

Stéphanie