My Work

It’s now been 4 weeks since I started work at UNESCO Hanoi. Here’s a quick summary of what UNESCO is all about and where I work.

For those not familiar with UNESCO, it stands for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. It’s probably most recognised for overseeing the determination and management of World Heritage Sites, of which there are 5 in Vietnam (the most famous being Ha Long Bay and the Hue Citadel). UNESCO is what’s known as a specialised UN agency and is actually only a very small part of the overall UN system. There are another 25 or so organisations which make up the UN, and most of them are represented in Vietnam. The total UN puzzle is pretty crazy and I don’t think I’ll ever work it out.

I have at least figured out our office structure. The head of the office is a Danish lady who’s the UNESCO Vietnam Representative and Office Manager so she pretty much runs the show. The rest of the office consists of 25 local and international staff which make up the Culture, Education, Communications and Admin teams, and ofcourse the one-man Science team (that’s me!).
The UNESCO Hanoi offices are actually quite close to my home. It’s less than 2km and I get a moto taxi there in the morning (10,000 Dong, or less than AU$1) and walk home in the evening. Because the office is also centrally located and close to the old quarter and Hoan Kiem, it’s also great for eating out at lunch or catching up with friends after work.

The office building itself is a beautiful old French colonial house, which has been restored.

I spent the first couple of weeks in what I can only guess was the old maid’s quarters. I was sharing this office with a Vietnamese lady, called Huong Nguyen Thanh, or NT Huong for short. I only mention her name because I have recently been moved to sit next to my supervisor, another Vietnamese lady called Huong Nguyen Thanh Thi, or NTT Huong for short! Anyway, my new office is what used to be the main balcony of the house which has now been enclosed and fitted out with 4 desks side by side. My 3 Vietnamese balcony mates are great company and we are also joined by the office cat on most days.

I’m still familiarising myself with the projects I will be working on (and taking over from NTT – she’s about to about to go off and have a baby) so there’s not much to report on yet. However I have started helping out on the Ha Long Bay project which involves the development of environmental and planning studies and a visitor management study. More on this and my other projects some other time…