17 September 2008

Juba, Sudan: Upon arrival in the mission in June 2005, I was attached to the Remote Sensing Cell within the Khartoum-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) office. My job was to conduct remote sensing analyses and conduct ad hoc reconnaissance and field surveys prior to setting up team-sites. It is worth mentioning that I was the 28th UNV volunteer to arrive at this mission. At that time, the mission was known as United Nations Advanced Mission to Sudan (UNAMIS).

Later, in April 2006, I was redeployed to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to set up and act as the team leader for the regional GIS office. From thereon to date, I wear two caps i.e. I have both administrative and technical responsibilities.

As the Officer-in-Charge, I am responsible for the daily running of the office including, but not limited to: staff management; maintaining regular contact with and supporting substantive and other support sections; and implementing management decisions to support the achievement of results as required.

As technical staff, my daily tasking includes maintaining our IT systems (both hardware and software), looking after our database and performing spatial analyses as part of mission spatial decision support systems.

Through the contacts I have gathered since my arrival to Sudan, in June 2005, I created an active partnership with local partners such as the South Sudan Centre for Population Census, Statistics and Evaluation and international partners like the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) from the University of Berne, Switzerland.

I have been at the centre of organizing two successful geographic data transfer workshops in conjunction with CDE.  CDE prepared the planning maps that were used by the Joint Military Commission, a precursor to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that was signed on 9 January 2005 in Naivasha, Kenya.

In May 2007, CDE transferred 120 GB of geospatial data to the mission, UN agencies and Government bodies such as the Government of South Sudan and the Government of Sudan. This data is the main reference for our current mapping activities.

Recently, the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) Juba Office approached me to support them in providing training to field-based staff on basic land navigation and map reading as part of their Safe and Secure Approaches to Field Environment (SSAFE) training. This training is part of the compulsory induction training to newly deployed UN staff and a repeat is recommended every six months.

Volunteering is a calling, rooted on the notion of giving back to society what you earned from it. I personally chose to volunteer in Sudan in appreciation of the knowledge I gained from one of my academic professors, Dr Samuel Chang-Juok Otor, a Sudanese, at Kenyatta University, Kenya.