MBA discovers Geneva

UNited Nations Speaker Series part III

2007-10-26T00:39:00.000-07:00

Part of the experience and responsibility of writing and being in charge of a blog for the school is showing how amazing it is to study a career with international focus. Meeting people from all over the world and realizing that their career paths head interesting directions makes me think the “Global” word on my MBA degree has much more sense now than before. I would like to share with you the biography of Mr. Magdi Farahat.
Mr. Magdi Farahat, has worked at the ITC for 2 years as a Chief of the Office for Africa, has an exciting career behind him. He joined the Egyptian Commercial Service in 1975 where he worked for 30 years on posts in different countries and different positions. His position was like the minister of foreign affairs for economic investment. He worked for Customer service and IT and was in charge of Western Europe and Africa representing Egypt in case of economic investment.He has worked for trading development from five different countries: as a Commercial Counsellor to the Embassy in London, Madrid, Jakarta, Tel Aviv and as a minister counsellor and chief negotiator to the WTO of Egypt in Geneva.
Also, he worked as in the Minister of International Investment and International Cooperation as a special assistant to mobilizing International Investment (there were 8 programmes between the US and Egypt). Other time, he worked to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Planning also as a special assistant to Egypt’s relations with the World Bank and IMF.Following his family decease, as he called it”, he followed the Diplomatic career. He has travelled his life long and has gotten his degrees in different countries; High school in Tanzania, a BA in Economics in Cairo, a MA and PhD. on the High school of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw(Poland), and a Post graduate certificate of the Institute International de l’administracion public in Paris.
Wooow, what an impressive professional career!!!

United Nations Speaker Series Part II

2007-10-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

The United Nations was created to facilitate cooperation, to solve conflicts among the nations members, to serve as a mediator and to develop policies that help nations to reach social, political and economic equilibrium. In order to achieve its main goals, the United Nations very often opens discussion boards in many of its governance bodies. The main objective of these discussion boards and forums is to allow the audience to know what is going on in the UN system to achieve its main mission. Also, it opens the floor to suggestions and inputs that other important bodies can add or refute to a same subject. At the end, it helps the organizations within the UN system to receive feedback from its counterparts in other agencies, to integrate the policies and to create procedures that make sense for all members.
One of the most interesting debates I assisted to was “Trade rules for sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean”. This session was organized by CEPAL (ECLAC in English), which is the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. During this session, three speakers from CEPAL Santiago de Chile, came to Geneva to explain how the international trade rules and provisions regarding investment and intellectual property rights impact the Latin American and Caribbean export pattern.
The WTO as well as CEPAL are concern about sustainable development and both organizations recognize the importance of addressing these issues in public forums in order to create debate on the topic and generate in the future policies that goes along with global trends. Both bodies recognize global environmental concerns, innovation, competitive pattern of growth and institutional governance are relevant for a progressive movement toward sustainable development objectives in the Latin American and the Caribbean countries.

United Nations Speaker Series

2007-09-30T15:56:00.000-07:00

One of the advantages of working for an international organization is being able to participate in discussions about tendencies of the world in many different fields. United Nation’s mission is primarily “ to maintain international peace and security; to develop friendly relations among nations; to cooperate in solving international economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems and in promoting respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in attaining these ends”.

To meet its goals, the UN is divided into many different bodies that are in charge of missions in specific fields. UNCTAD is one of the bodies that make up the large body complex. UNCTAD was established in 1964 to promote the development and friendly integration of developing countries into the world economy. One of it main functions is “to provide technical assistance tailored to the specific requirements of developing countries, with special attention to the needs of the least developed countries and of economies in transition. When appropriate, UNCTAD cooperates with other organizations and donor countries in the delivery of technical assistance.”

Based on this brief explanation of the organizational division and missions of the UN and the UNCTAD, I want to present one of the interesting informal lunchtime presentation that all staff members are invited to join.

Mr. Charles Gore works for the UNCTAD doing research about Least Developed Countries (LDC’s) and its role in the world’s trade. He specializes on how science, technology an innovation can be integrated into trade and development policies of the LDC’s. In his final report, Mr. Gore suggest four key policy issues that national governments in LDC’s can apply to foster development in those countries. In the link http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=1530&lang=1 are summarize his main findings.

During the speech, my concern was to find the differences between LDC’s and Developing countries. Here there is a complete description of the LDC meaning:
Since 1971, the United Nations has denominated "Least Developed Countries" (LDCs) a category of States that are deemed highly disadvantaged in their development process (many of them for geographical reasons), and facing more than other countries the risk of failing to come out of poverty. As such, the LDCs are considered to be in need of the highest degree of attention on the part of the international community. Three United Nations Conferences on the Least Developed Countries were held in 1981, 1990, and 2001 under the leadership of UNCTAD. The third conference (Brussels, 14-20 May 2001) agreed on the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010 . By periodically reviewing the list of LDCs on the basis of established criteria and highlighting their structural problems in relevant UNCTAD publications, the UN gives a strong signal to the development partners of these countries, and points to the need for special international support measures and concessions in their favour.

At the time of the 2003 review of the list, the following three criteria were used by the UN:
low income, in the light of a three-year average estimate of the gross national income per capita (under $750 for cases of addition to the list, above $900 for cases of graduation);
weak human assets, as measured through a composite Human Assets Index; and economic vulnerability, as measured through a composite Economic Vulnerability Index.

Recognition by the UN of the particular problems faced by LDCs brought the development partners of these countries, including UN agencies and programmes, to adopt a range of special support measures in their favour. These measures are essentially designed to reduce the competitive disadvantages LDCs suffer from in the global economy; support the development of their physical infrastructure and human resources; and enhance their institutional capacities. LDC-specific treatment mainly falls under three areas of international cooperation: in the multilateral trading system, special concessions, such as non-reciprocal market access preferences (e.g. the European Union's "Everything But Arms" initiative), are granted to LDCs; in the field of development financing, bilateral, regional and multilateral donors and financial institutions are expected to give LDCs specially favourable consideration in their decisions on concessionary financing; and in the area of technical assistance, priority is given to LDCs under all cooperation programmes of the UN, and bilateral and regional development partners are encouraged to follow the same preferential policy.

Source: http://www.unctad.org/

The Fondue Experience

2007-09-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

Moving to other country is an exciting challenge that not everybody is willing to face. For those who take the risk, the easiest way to get involved in the daily live of a new city is by knowing its culture, traditions and customs. Food, for example is a good start. Switzerland is well known for the variety of cheeses its traditional table offers. The locals have created a variety of ways to enjoy that good selection.
In the past, I had tasted the chocolate fondue with fruits and it was just wonderful. However, I had never tasted the cheese fondue. First, I want to remark fondue is not just the food but all the tradition that comes with this meal. The place called “Café du Solei” is a restaurant in Geneva well known for the variety of fondues it offers. This cozy place epitomizes the traditional Genovese tiny restaurant with a worm environment, and off course, a delightful smell to cheese. Once inside, the place full of locals and foreignness were enjoying around a “pot” a very good local white wine.
The fondue, as I was told, was amazing and with a very nice selection of close friends converts the meal into a wonderful evening in Geneva
Here it is a recipe from a local web page: http://www.about.ch/culture/food/fondue.html
General note:
You need a special pot called a "caquelon" to prepare a fondue. Once the fondue is ready, the caquelon is set up on the table on a small burner. Keep the fondue on a constant head, but make sure it does not overheat. We use special forks with long handles to dip the bread in the molten cheese, but I'm sure it also works with regular forks.
Ingredients for 4 persons:
approx. 600 g (1.3 pounds) of white bread
1 piece of garlic
400 g (0.9 pounds) grind Greyerzer cheese
200 g (0.44 pounds) grind Emmentaler cheese
3 dl (10 fl. ounces) white wine
5 cl (1.7 fl. ounces) kirsch
2 tea spoons of maizena
grind pepper
a small amount of nutmeg
Preparation:
Cut the bread into small pieces. Some people like the bread a little bit crispy, so you may want to cut it a few hours before you have the fondue.
Split the piece of garlic in two and rub the inside of the caquelon with the them. Put the cheese and the wine in the caquelon and cook them on the cook stove. Constantly stir the mixture. Add kirsch and maizena, but keep stirring. Leave them on the stove for a while, but make sure it does not overheat. The mixture tends to spill out of the pot if it gets too hot ! Add pepper and nutmeg, then put the caquelon on the burner on the table.
Adjust the heat so that the cheese stays at a constant temperature while eating. Put a small piece of bread on the fork, stir it gentle in the cheese and enjoy. Warning: the cheese is hot, don't get burned.This menu may not be suited for small children.
You may vary the mixture of cheese depending on your taste.

Professional Interviews

2007-09-18T03:06:00.000-07:00

When trying to build your career path, sometimes it is very difficult to find a job where to start. Graduate student would prefer to get management positions straight away from the classroom to the office. However, with the increasing competition among MBA students, young professional need to be clever and start early in their careers to set up long term goals and to “sketch” a career path to follow in order to reach their desired goals. In order to build your own path, it helps a lot to talk to professionals about their experiences. Senior professionals who hold managerial positions within an organization are the best people to learn from because usually those professionals have held positions that added value to their professional inspirations while some others may not have had interesting experiences. Networking with senior professionals will give to any master student insights on building their own career path.
Here there is and interview with a “Professional Angels” I have met with while pursuing my internship:

International Experience: Working for an International Organization

2007-09-11T00:26:00.000-07:00

I wanted to start this Blog writing about my experience in working abroad for an International Organization. First, it is valid to remark the efforts of leaving your home country and going to experience living abroad. This is the immediate fear that many people face: it is sometimes boost the desire for leaving, and sometimes it is enough reason for staying. Second, working for an International Organization holds a responsibility that everybody can reach but very few can keep for a long time. Do these statements sound weird for you? Let me explain my reasons.

From the going abroad perspective, this experience has a huge advantage for the career. In recent years, many Human Resources departments look very positive the fact that the applicants for managerial positions had been exposed to international environments. For recruiters a candidate who has experience in international environments has more chance to succeed in the global business world, which means that the candidate has more capacity for adapting to new and challenging atmospheres. On the other hand, people who study or work abroad develops skills in problem solving become more flexible and gain independence and awareness of cultural differences.

Now, if working abroad is challenging, working for an International organization is a huge responsibility. International Organizations are made for those who appeal to solidarity with their own nations and with the world. Here, somehow the environment promotes the sense of struggle to develop and to work for a better and more equal world. Associates – full time employees, consultants or interns— learn the responsibility that holds in their shoulders, and in the same way, they try to give the best. Associates know that their job will benefit thousand of people in least developed and developing countries. Sometimes, many of these employees have the opportunity to physically see their efforts become real.