Can you share briefly of your career background?

I joined the UN 35 years ago. Though my whole career was within a single UN department – UNCTAD, I feel I have changed many jobs. Indeed, each time I have moved to a new topic, I have had new colleagues, and new counterparts in other organizations and in the Member States. Of course, each time I moved, I needed to familiarize myself with a new field of work with all its complexities, but this also brought lots of excitement. So, any change has represented a kind of new adventure. A peculiar characteristic of my career path is that I always tried to be assigned to topics that were emerging in the development debate. Indeed, this is how, in 2010, I was assigned to launch a new workstream in UNCTAD, the one on trade and gender.

Congratulations on all the achievements during your tenure. Now looking back at these years, how do you feel? Would you like to describe your career journey in three words, and why?

The three words would be: challenge, gratitude and pride. It was an exciting career, and I could not be more grateful for it. But it was also a challenging one. It became particularly tricky when I was assigned to set up UNCTAD Work Programme on Trade, Gender and Development. A very common question I would get from colleagues was: why should a technical organization such as UNCTAD work on gender issues?

What are the memorable moments / turning points of your career?

There are many moments I cherish. Let me share a couple of them. I had the honour to be invited to give a speech at Harvard University, at that time I was working on bioenergy and on the benefits and challenges it would bring to developing countries. Another bright moment was when I was still quite junior in my career and I was working on the Genetically Modified Organisms, at that time a very new topic whose implications for developing countries were rather unclear. The then UNCTAD SG read one of my papers on the issue and called me to his office to discuss it. He said that he had not yet had the time to devote attention to this topic and my paper had been an eye-opener for him. Lastly, in November 2023, I received the first Gender Equality Pioneer Award. I was amazed by it. It was given to me by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General of the WTO, and H.E. Xiana Méndez Bértolo, Secretary of State for Trade of Spain. 

Why you did you start the work on gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE)? What are key traits you would consider essential to promote GEWE progress that are strategically aligned to the organization?

I did not decide to work on GEWE. UNCTAD member States had requested trade and gender to become a permanent feature of the work of the organization and the then director of the Division on International Trade and Commodities decided that I was a suitable staff to launch this new workstream. I think she knew how much I enjoyed delving into new topics.  Back in 2010, trade and gender was quite new for UNCTAD and in general. 

I am a strong advocate of “declustering” gender issues. It is not enough to deal with GEWE when GEWE is the topic of a meeting or the title of a study or the reason for a capacity-building training. GEWE should be discussed whenever development is discussed. At the beginning it may be challenging to see how to include gender considerations in topics that may seem very far away from it, but, if you start doing it every time you deal with a new endeavour, it becomes easier and easier, and then you cannot avoid doing it.  

You started the Trade, Gender and Development Programme for UNCTAD. What are the work that you feel mostly proud of, and the challenges if any?

At the beginning it was challenging working on trade and gender at UNCTAD. Most colleagues could not see how the very technical issues UNCTAD deals with – trade regulations, investments, transfer of technology, debt, customs procedures, etc., could be linked to GEWE. Things slowly improved and I believe that the work the Trade, Gender and Development Programme carried out contributed to showing that most technical issues can be looked at through a gender lens. Thanks in part to my efforts, nowadays gender issues are a current aspect of UNCTAD’s work on all of its mandated topics. An analysis that considers the different impacts of trade reforms on women and on men is for sure more complete, more interesting, more useful and more pertinent than one that ignores it.

You’ve been a true friend to UN-SWAP for many years (We greatly appreciate that!) Can you share with us your reflections on the strengths and weakness of UN-SWAP? Where do you see its potential and how we could leverage/strengthen that?

Indeed, I am a “UN-SWAP lover”! When the reporting exercise started back in 2012, I felt slightly uncomfortable with it. In my view, it was a bit too much focused on looking at the internal functioning of UN entities. It was a good first step, a necessary one, but I felt this new instrument could be used better and become even more useful and impactful. I remember the long discussions about it in New York and how we managed to move it to what we started calling SWAP 2.0, a new reporting instrument that allows entities to report not only on their internal improvements, but also on how they contribute to GEWE through substantive, advocacy and technical cooperation activities. Linking the SWAP to the SDGs was the perfect move! 

We noticed UNCTAD is advertising your position - Senior Economic Affairs Officer (job description). What are you looking for from your successor, in terms of skills, experience and mindset?

First of all, let me say that I fully enjoyed my job and my successor will enjoy it too, I am sure. It is impossible not to find it interesting, stimulating, very diversified and, above all, devoted to contributing to one of the most noble causes of the UN, leaving no one behind. But be ready to hold a heavy workload and to count on a team that is skilled and committed but very small. Be ready to face people who will still tell you that GEWE is not a priority or that UNCTAD is not a good fit for discussing it. Be ready to do some good economics on a country study, to write a 5-minute speech to make the case for GEWE, to go on mission to a remote border area to train women who do small-scale cross-border trade, to decide the new focus for an online course on trade and gender. Above all, be ready to fight for GEWE in your daily work, never take it for granted.
For more info on UNCTAD's gender and trade work: click here

Any words to our dear colleagues in the UN-SWAP community?

Keep doing your great job and keep in touch. Commitment and friendship do not end with retirement.