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UNESCO joins the “Diplomat for a Day” program in Doha
On March 8 2021, the world will come together to celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD 2021). “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world” is this year’s theme, which aims to celebrate the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, the Director of the UNESCO Office for the Gulf States and Yemen joined the Ambassadors of Austria, Canada, Ethiopia, Greece, Mexico, the Netherlands, Tanzania and the USA and the Head of IOM office in Doha – all female Heads of Mission – to organize the initiative “Diplomat for a Day”. This program aims at mentoring for a day young female Qatari students from Georgetown University and the American School of Doha and expose them to real diplomatic life.
The UNESCO Office for the Gulf States and Yemen organized a unique program that highlighted its mandate and activities in Qatar. A female student was a shadow-diplomat for the day, working side by side with the Director, Dr Anna Paolini and participating in various programmatic activities, including interacting with the Secretary General of the UNESCO National Commission to Qatar, receiving briefings on the various policies being implemented, discussing programs with the various sectors, and participating in technical meetings and discussions with other UN agencies.
At the end of the day, a virtual wrap up session was organized to allow all participants to meet and provide feedback on their experience. All COVID precautions were in place for the day.
“It has been a pleasure to have Deena Al-Jefairi at the office.” Dr. Anna Paolini said, “The young ladies participating to this initiative have been outstanding: motivated, excited, interested, curious. It is great to have contributed a bit to their understanding of what is in real terms public and international service, something they do not learn or are exposed at school. It was a learning experience for me too to confront and debate with my shadow diplomat.”
