UN co-ordinator Marina Walter advocates for human rights

As a university student in Berlin, Marina Walter longed for adventure. She wanted to see the world, learn about new cultures and meet new people. Her natural curiosity was piqued also by a pivotal moment in history – the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

“It was a cold November. People kept telling you, ‘The Wall is down, everything is open,’ and you couldn’t believe it. And when you went the next day to see it, it put everything in such perspective.

"I think it drove me to do more than just staying in one country. Germany was being reunified and was basically a whole snowball effect for the whole Eastern Bloc in Eastern Europe opening up. So I just wanted to explore more,” she recalled during a recent interview with WMN at UN House on Chancery Lane, Port of Spain.

The Berlin Wall was for 28 years a symbol of separation, the physical manifestation of the political and ideological divide between western democracy and Soviet autocracy. With its collapse, the thrill of German reunification resonated. Walter too wanted to be part of that positive force sweeping the world – and what better place to celebrate and support global unity than at the UN?

She got an internship at the UN Headquarters in New York and from there, her globe-trotting 20-year adventure began.

“Once you’re there, it’s like you catch a bug,” she said. “Everyone around you is from a different country, from different ethnic, religious backgrounds, and it has a certain – not charm, but it gives you this energy, this drive.”

Walter, a German, grew up on the German-French border, so she was accustomed to switching between cultures.

“You kind of grow up with French and German, swapping between countries. So, you do the shopping in France because the food is better,” she joked.

Although she came from the more liberal West Germany, seeing the freedom of movement that came with the fall of the Wall and the international co-operation necessary to achieve it helped put this monumental achievement for peace and unity into perspective.

“I think realising that this whole process of the reunification of Germany would have not happened without the world, without other countries supporting it, made you realise that there is a lot more to the world than just your country.

"I love my country deeply, but I think that sometimes people grow up in countries and societies where, you know, they get stuck, either because of their gender or because of the lack of access to education, because of their religion.”

Being at the UN was a whole different level of cultural immersion.

“Being from Germany, you know, this well-developed country, it’s easy to access food and education, but then you realise that it’s not the same around the world. That’s what drove me.”

She joined the UN in 1996. Her first overseas posting was in Africa, in countries like Burkina Faso and Ghana – places she calls her first loves. Then she moved to the Middle East. During her posting in Afghanistan, she met her husband. Then she was stationed in Thailand and India.

Since December 2018, she’s been in TT as UN resident co-ordinator, and also oversees the organisation’s operations in Suriname, Aruba, Curacao and St Maarten.

“There's a lot to say for trying to support countries to just take the next step in development. And there's so much to learn from others – you don't have to reinvent the wheel.”

Not bad for someone who admitted it took her a while to figure out what she wanted to major in at university (she finally settled on politics and economics). For Walter, joining the UN was more than just earning a salary but satisfied a genuine interest in people and in countries.

Women in the world

There’s also the obvious perk of getting to explore a new country.

“Since we came we've been exploring the islands. It’s just fantastic because of the variety of things to do – take your bike, go hiking deep in the forest. We love those river hikes. My children (a ten-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter) pretend they’re Indiana Jones,” she laughed – although the adventures have stopped since covid19 restrictions.

Coming from New Delhi, notorious for its air pollution, it’s a change, she said, getting up every morning and seeing a clear blue sky.

“We can’t believe our luck. Trinidad has been fantastic.”

But not everywhere allows that freedom – especially for women.

“Afghanistan, I think was probably one of the bigger challenges. I was still a lot younger and arrived as a project manager based not in the UN Office but with a large project within the Afghan government. I remember that, you know, you would wear a headscarf out of respect to the local culture, of course.

"But in the beginning, no one was prepared for a female head in this sub office. And so the first few months were very tough."

Male colleagues and counterparts started to accept her even though she was a woman – but not just any woman – a foreigner, and so the norms of culture were easier to bend, because where she came from, women were allowed to work in a position of authority and among men.

“What I also learned the hard way in Afghanistan: change has to come from the inside. There was a lot of money and initiative thrown at advancing the cause of women, but you cannot artificially infuse it from the outside. You can build capacity, you can bring people into education, but it has to grow from the inside. You cannot throw democracy at a country. You cannot throw gender equality at the country if the population and the communities don't believe it.

“I think that's something that we've gotten a lot better with at the UN, having more patience and finding champions from the inside.”

India also has challenges with gender equality, she said. In TT, Walter highlighted gender issues, including gender-based violence, as a particular hurdle the country needs to overcome.

“We just started a spotlight initiative, together with the (Gender Affairs Unit at the Office of the Prime Minister), together with the civil society (organisations) because gender-based violence is still a huge issue.

"When I came here...you meet strong women everywhere in the government, in journalism, in business – so you don't see it coming. You do not realise that there is a problem about gender-based violence.”

The UN was able to get a good amount of funding, she said, and with the co-operation of the minister (Ayanna Webster-Roy), one consideration to combat the scourge is starting a programme that works with civil society and institutions, trying to find out well how to combat gender-based violence.

“It's not just the laws; you have to go into the communities. You have to understand where it comes from. And it's got to be a generational issue to change this right.

"It's not a quick fix. You have to start early on, to talk to young men (to figure out where) this willingness to use violence is coming from and (what is) a solution.”

Patience is more than a virtue, then, but critical to engender change.

“Once you allow for it to happen more naturally, frankly, any kind of intervention, there’s a lot more progress and the chance to succeed."

Keeping up with the SDGs

Environmental causes follow the same pattern, she said.

“You can set incentives from the government. You can you can pass legislation that makes it easier to recycle. You can keep your coasts clean. But it has to come from every citizen: that wish to see the ocean. If you have that, and you find a way of bringing these voices out and to champion them, I think that you have a lot greater chances to make this last step towards more social society.”

Walter described the UN as a club, where all countries are members. The UN resident co-ordinator’s office, then, works with (and on the invitation of) government to ensure the goals of sustainability and human rights are achieved.

“It depends, always on the sort of partnerships you get – if you have counterparts in government that really want to achieve change; if you have very important partners in civil society; and, increasingly, the private sector. You can move the country further and you can do amazing things. I mean, it never ends. I think that you need a lot of almost naive positive energy to work for the UN, because the work never ends.”

Walter believes in the work of the UN.

“You know, the old quote is if you abolish the UN tomorrow another similar organisation will probably be invented the day after,” she quipped.

The organisation is one of the platforms smaller countries can use to ensure their voices are heard on a global scale. Climate change, for example, first became mainstream when small island developing states in the Pacific raised the issue at the General Assembly.

“I think the UN remains especially relevant for smaller countries…to demand back some of the help and some of the change they need. And I think it prevents big countries from bullying others.

“At the moment it's a tough period we're in. The geopolitical situation of the world isn't very supportive of multilateralism, and the secretary general (Antonio Guterres) always calls it multilateralism under fire, which is very true.

"But even if you look at the last few months of covid19, it’s a massive challenge for all countries, but bigger countries can make their own vaccines, while the smaller ones (have to find a way to access). That’s why the UN, through the World Health Organization, is creating a system (to provide equitable distribution).”

The UN, then finds solutions. Sure, unilateralism and bilateralism can happen, but, she said, the world is more interconnected. It’s one of the reasons Walter’s favourite sustainable development goal is SDG 17: partnership to ensure that every other goal is achieved.

“Even remotely achieving these goals can only be done if you do it in partnership – among institutions and countries. So, yeah, SDG 17 is probably my favourite one. It's kind of spirit of the world.”