Fifteen

Issue date: 10/13/09 Section: Student Life

A speaker at a UN conference

UN conference

I worked at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Turkey National Office as a summer intern from June-August of this year. Generally speaking, my role as an intern in UNDP Turkey was to assist the Project Manager for the Head of Private Sector on administrative functions related to all projects. The department I was assigned to was the Private Sector team and the nature of the work in this department was to build close relationships between large multinational companies, including Microsoft and Coca-Cola, and local communities, particularly in the least developed rural areas.

More importantly, the UNDP Turkey National Office held the UN Global Compact conference in Istanbul in early June of this year. Launched in July 2000, the UN Global Compact is a practical framework for companies that are committed to sustainability and responsible business practices. (www.unglobalcompact.org).
This situation presented me with a unique environment to apply the knowledge and experience I had gained during the course of my career and prompted me to broaden my perspective, paying more attention to sustainable development. For instance, over the course of the two-day meeting, more than 353 national staff members from 77 countries convened at the UN Global Compact Forum. The number of participants increased by 60% compared to last year. The overarching theme of the meeting was to set core values in the area of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption in business practices. UN representatives, civil society, government and business leaders from all over the world were in the forum in record numbers to share best practices from their experiences implementing the UN Global Compact principles during the worst financial crises.

I coordinated and co-organized the conference in connection with UNDP Turkey, and therefore am confident that I could make a positive impact on the success of this major conference based on my extensive experience in organizing and covering similar international conferences, like the World Economic Forum, during my career as a journalist in Korea. Moreover, key communication and leadership skills that I acquired from MIT Sloan helped me to build relationships with people from other UN country offices around the globe and work with them in project-based multicultural teams during my summer internship.

In terms of the nature of projects at the Private Sector Department, I have learned their key concepts and gained a better understanding of the nature of public service, which will tie in with my future career objectives.

Specifically, during the summer, the Private Sector Department in UNDP Turkey was focusing on the "Rural Empowerment of Turkey - Technology Villages" project. The goal was to remove the "Digital Divide' in rural schools and communities by instituting this pilot project with the support of Microsoft. Through the project, I was especially inspired by the movement of the multinational company emphasizing the "bridge" that connects students in the under-developed areas with the private sector, particularly large companies and banks, called the "Student to Business Programme". I believe that the educational system in rural areas lagged behind those of urban ones and the system gap within a country is closely linked with severe inequality, and also that the effects of recent economic challenges and cuts in the assistance activities to poorer areas for the people who live in underdeveloped/developing countries have never been more severe.

In this light, I am confident that more public organizations, including the UN, should step up their efforts to create new projects, with partnerships between governments, business, and civil society organizations to stimulate private sector development especially in relatively poorer areas. As for me, the internship experience enabled me to learn more about how to initiate and strengthen the connections between local communities and large companies for the country's development by engaging the business community in development projects. In addition, I also gained know-how on working with developing countries in order to boost local economies, create jobs, and uncover opportunities that create pathways to sustainable development.

The summer internship experience at the UN will benefit me in the long-term, and I firmly believe that I also benefited greatly from the MIT SNIF (Sloan Non-Profit Internship Fund). The opportunity to write many application essays for my internship last March provided me with a chance to organize my internship goals and continuously learn more about the UN itself, which was critical for my rewarding internship experience. In addition, wanting to share my memorable experiences on the public sector with my classmates and MIT Sloan community, I tried to be aware of my on-going project at the UN and to make the most of the opportunities to communicate with many staff members who have extensive experience in the international civil service.

I personally hope that the many highly talented students in the Sloan community play a central role in helping the least developed economies and sectors create new opportunities to improve their lives. This time of uncertainty in the current world economy underscores the importance of people's attention on public organizations.

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