Two of a kind: Adrian Glamorgan on QUNO’s assistants programme

‘It models mutual support for transformational change.’

While visiting Quaker House in Geneva last year (see ‘United front’, 20 September, 2023), I wondered what Friends in Britain could learn from some of the dynamics between staff at the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO). I was particularly interested in the relationship between the programme assistants and the programme representatives.

I found one example of this relationship in Lindsey Fielder Cook, permanent QUNO representative working on the human impacts of climate change, and Alana M Carlson, who was then the assistant on the programme. Both of them kindly agreed to be interviewed. We gathered in Lindsey’s office at the top floor of Quaker House, with an attic’s view into the greenery outside. It’s not far from the United Nations agencies that are the focus of much of QUNO’s work.

Being appointed as a programme assistant involves a formative first twelve months. This begins with an introduction to Quaker ways, to ‘quiet diplomacy’ and holding a long term vision. The aim is that, by the end of their time, assistants will be able to draw from an unusually broad experience to go in any number of work directions. The year will have its share of humdrum work, of course, but there’s exciting stuff, too: witnessing negotiations; perhaps even making a short presentation to an assembly of diplomats; organising panel events; and helping run the annual summer school for young people. Then there is the advantage of being properly paid (unlike so many other UN internships, which are underpaid or not paid at all). This seems to me to be a matter of mutual dignity, for both the willing worker and QUNO itself.

As with many QUNO representatives, as well as her professional qualifications, Lindsey Fielder Cook brings valuable life experience. In her case, this has involved working in conflict areas. She began by volunteering in reconciliation youth work in Northern Ireland, and taught in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A former QUNO programme assistant herself, she then worked with UN agencies involved with refugee protection, also in the West Bank, and humanitarian and human rights work in the former Yugoslavia, Somalia and Gaza. Returning to graduate studies in climate change, Lindsey then joined QUNO in 2013, taking on climate justice and connected issues, at a critical time in the history of humanity.

I asked Lindsey what difference a programme assistant made to her QUNO work.

‘It’s quite a profound difference,’ Lindsey explained. ‘When our programme assistant was asked to cover a different programme full time, I had to zoom in on the priorities that I could manage well, which meant probably a good third of our work was put aside. [There’s] also a stress level.’ A programme assistant increases a representative’s reach, ‘so I know that if I can’t make a meeting, Alana is there. She’s able to pick up that connection with a lot of our networks… communications, everything, so it’s both [reducing] stress and [adding] capacity of actual workload.’

When there is funding for a programme assistant position, it enhances the productivity of QUNO work, in return offering a unique early career opportunity. Each staff member will bring professionalism, but also their unique gifts. Lindsey says, ‘It’s about getting to know this new person, and where are their strengths, and where are the areas where they want to build skills; and really focusing on those strengths, so that people shine. Every year is different and that’s quite special: every year the programme assistant teaches me things.’

Alana’s CV includes an MA in International Affairs, with a specialisation in environmental sustainability and security. Her past work addressed human rights concerns, tacking health and water issues from that perspective. Alana had also lobbied alongside local grassroots organisations, campaigning for women’s and queer rights. But the evident destruction being caused by climate change spurred her to work more directly in the area, as ‘one of humanity’s gravest moral imperatives and a necessity if we hope to build a more just world.’

Facing the grim realities of the climate disaster, seeing what is unfolding, and knowing much more about what lies ahead than many citizens, I wonder whether the QUNO working relationship is a blessed opportunity to share and debrief what can sometimes be some fairly gruelling experiences.

Lindsey agrees. ‘Absolutely, I don’t think anyone other than Alana would appreciate what we went through during the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change climate science adoption plenaries. You just can’t, you can’t relay the dynamics in the room, the tiredness, the intensity, and the magnificence of when language we propose is taken, so that’s something that I can’t really share with anyone else.’

Alana readily concurs: ‘I agree completely. When I try to articulate my work to colleagues within QUNO, and friends outside of it, I never feel like I’m fully capturing what we did because, as Lindsey said, you cannot really understand what that intensity feels like until you’re in the bubble of it, itself. And I’ve experienced that myself, with Lindsey telling me pre-emptively “Here’s what it’s going to be like,” and then actually being hit with the reality of it and going “Oh this is what it’s like,” and so having somebody to share this with, is really special and important.’

Given the close ongoing working relationship, it helps for skills to complement each other. ‘When I interviewed Alana,’ explains Lindsey, ‘she was making connections which were innovative and unusual, and I knew that’s what I wanted… She was able to see connections between issues that most people at her level of professional life probably wouldn’t. Also I love that Alana is a far more of an analytical thinker and that helps balance me when I’m doing intuitive thinking.’

Alana also believes the pair complement each other, which highlights a deeper set of values at work, too. ‘I think there’s a lot of positive and strong qualities that Lindsey has, and brings to work: her kindness, her empathy for others. When we’re in negotiation spaces, when she’s working with colleagues, that always shines through, and it’s really evident that that grounds her work.’ And there’s something else: ‘Lindsey’s humanity: she’s inarguably highly intelligent, really good at discerning, but her humanity is what makes her approach feel so warm and welcoming, and enables people to engage with her in a way that it feels just so genuine, and I think the negotiators feel that, too, in our work.’

QUNO is also enriched by what young people can bring to the position. Lindsey says that ‘Having programme assistance is part of our mission at QUNO. I’ve been here now ten years, and where these young professionals have gone after QUNO is so inspiring.’

The volume of work is an ongoing challenge, however. ‘What I love is that I work for an organisation with a spiritual grounding, one that values reflection and discernment, so that it’s more about me claiming that space to say, “We need to take this time to discern the way forward.” I’ve never really had that [in previous professional positions]. Valuing the role of time to discern an issue is profound.’

Alana also values the moments when they can together review their work, and acknowledge achievements and reflect. ‘Given the long task list, I think in this work it’s really easy to just go “OK, tick, done! On to the next thing, tick, next thing,” and it’s a never-ending list of next things. So having a chance to pause, to look back where you come from, and say “Oh we’ve actually taken a lot of steps, and the path ahead still has a lot of steps, but it’s not as daunting because we know we already have taken many and have the ability to take many more.”’

Rachel Singleton-Polster, a former programme assistant at QUNO New York, is now back representing American Friends Service Committee for the Quaker United Nations Committee (QUNC) in New York. (She is also very involved with Canadian Friends Service Committee in her own work and life.) She says ‘I believe that QUNO New York has something very special. Quaker process and Quaker values are a very unique thing that we can bring to support the work of the United Nations.’

Later, when I spoke to Emily Miles, who is now leading the Food Standards Agency in the UK but was a QUNO programme assistant in Geneva in 1997-98, she recalls her time and says ‘It makes me quite emotional, it was huge.’ So much came of her time with QUNO, she says. For all those I’ve spoken to, it has been the same.

To me, the strength of the work seems to stem from QUNO’s determination to make the programme assistant’s role part of the mission. The fixed term internships mean that each year someone new has contributed to the work, and been quite likely shaped by it, too.

For this to happen at all, there is a necessary partnership with donors: Friends around the world, without whom none of this could happen. But after seventy-five years of QUNO working with the United Nations, the partnership which has emerged between representatives and programme assistants can build longevity into each programme. It models mutual support for transformational change, in ways that Friends seek to develop further in the wider world.

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