Idointernationaldevelopment.com
International Development, Mission Life
Category: Uncategorized
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Life Between Gates: Food in the Missions Food in the missions is more than just nourishment — it is survival, comfort, and culture all at once. Between the fences and checkpoints, food becomes a daily reminder of where you are and what you left behind. For me, Afghanistan, Iraq, and South Sudan each told a…
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Insights and Lifehacks Before travelling to Afghanistan, my packing list was a mess of confusion. I knew women had to cover, yet Afghanistan is unbearably hot in summer. Anxious and unsure, I reached out to a former male colleague who had already spent nearly five years there. My text to him carried all my stress:…
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First mission experience In the summer of 2021, at the height of the pandemic, I spent six weeks inside the UNOCA compound in Kabul, supporting an election project just two months before the Taliban takeover. It was my first time visiting Kabul and this period was marked by confinement, uncertainty, and contrasts — moments of…
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Mission life When I first accepted an assignment in Afghanistan, I thought I understood resilience. Earlier in my career, I had spent three years as an OSCE representative in the remote Naryn province of Kyrgyzstan — a place of breathtaking mountains, underdeveloped infrastructure, and winters so cold they tested both endurance and creativity. That experience,…
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Newbie in the international mission When I first joined an international mission, I thought I knew what to expect as I had few colleagues and friends living in mission life. Security briefings, long hours, a mix of cultures, and the thrill of working on something bigger than myself. What I didn’t realize was how profoundly…
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International development International development is at a crossroads. The last decade has seen extraordinary progress in some areas — poverty reduction, global health, digital access — but setbacks in others, especially in fragile and conflict-affected states. Today, development work is no longer only about delivering aid. It is about building resilience, strengthening institutions, and finding…
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Welcome to my blog. Idointernationaldevelopment.com is where I share the insights and describe various aspects of the life of the international personnel in the UN Missions across the world. There are a lot vagueness, distrust and unclarity to the purpose and life of such missions, especially from local governments and communities as they perceive it…
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