A Destiny in the Making: From Wall Street to Unicef in Africa - Softcover

Mohr, Boudewijn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1786231484 ISBN 13: 9781786231482

Publisher: Grosvenor House Publishing Limited, 2018

Synopsis

When the Wall Street banker takes the side of the indebted developing countries in his feature articles reviewing the impact of the global sovereign debt crisis of the 1980s in the Dutch daily NRC-Handelsblad, it is time to leave banking. He is attracted to Unicef’s   vision and goal of Health for All and its tireless pursuit of structural economic adjustment programmes with a human face. In Africa, Boudewijn Mohr jumps into Unicef’s hands-on work in the field. He spearheads the clearing of landmines in Unicef project areas in Mozambique, and engages with children throughout his travels on the continent. Thus he can be found playing football with former child soldiers in Monrovia; touring Nouakchott with street children who show him the tricks of pick pocketing; or gate crashing a diamond mine that exploits child labour near Kenema in the rebel-infested east of Sierra Leone.  His stories are both an adventure and the search of fulfilment but at the same time a call to all those who want to do more and are uncertain of what the world holds.

Part of the proceeds of this book are going to 'Hands-Up Foundation', a British charity working with Syrian doctors and nurses in Syria under harsh circumstances.

About this title

About the Author:

Prior to joining Unicef in 1985, Boudewijn Mohr was a senior international corporate banker in New York, first with Chase Manhattan Bank in Wall Street, and later at Société Générale's branch in midtown Manhattan. During that time he served on the Board of the First All Children's Theatre (First ACT) in Manhattan, was an active member of the US INSEAD Alumni Association, as well as the Dutch Financial Club. Joining Unicef in Geneva, his brief was to support its National Committees to diversify their sources of income, more specifically through designing strategies for building partnerships and raising funds with corporations in Europe. It was not until he reached Africa that Boudewijn Mohr began to feel professional satisfaction and fulfilment of a life's objective: public service in an international organisation "in the field". In the process he acquired more than 25 years of working experience in Africa. His role of a Unicef country programme and operational management specialist took him to some 36 countries on the African continent. Moreover he wrote extensively for Unicef, including Situation Analysis on children and women, mid-term reviews and official documents for Unicef's Executive Board. He wrote a series of feature articles in the Dutch daily NRC-Handelsblad on the sovereign debt crisis as it unfolded in the developing world in the 1980s. He is the author of "The Language of International Trade", published by Regents Publishing Co of New York (Hachette) in 1978. A national of the Netherlands, Boudewijn Mohr holds a Master degree in Law from Leiden University in the Netherlands and an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.

Review:

Excerpt from a book review

Tobias Denskus

Senior Lecturer, Malmö University https://www.mah.se/english

8 June 2018

Writing about careers inside the UN system is a particularly fruitful sub-genre. Mohr’s unique contribution to the genre lies in the fact that he was neither a senior executive of the organization nor did he work in particularly dangerous environments-being the country representative for Sao Tome & Principe has never been exactly a hardship post. But Mohr’s reflections, as mundane as they sometimes must seem to an ‘in-group’ of international aid workers or -researchers, shed an interesting light on working in a bureaucratic framework under the leadership of the iconic Jim Grant.

His memoir opens an interesting door to a time when UNICEF and a system of global governance expanded into a global enterprise to improve the lives of children from the perspective of someone who was close to the strategic center of the organization yet spent most of his fulfilling career a bit on the margins of global diplomacy. 

Mohr works at UNICEF at a time when today’s notion of global governance comes into reality: There is the Bob Geldof-inspired Sport Aid event which leads to the Race against Time in 1986, ‘the largest sporting event in history at that time’ (p.99), global summits and a growth in national committees that contribute significant funds to the organization, in short, UNICEF as a ‘brand’ emerges and has done well ever since.

It is his honesty and his unpretentious storytelling that turn the book into a real gem of the genre.

What others have said 

“A groundbreaking, inspirational book that will hook anyone working or thinking of working in the humanitarian sector, as well as those who love Africa. Using a personal, poetic and readable style that pays extraordinary attention to detail, Mohr candidly gives us an informative insight into the challenges and dilemmas faced in humanitarian work and the way top UN management decisions are taken within the context of momentous world events of that time.  We meet people from all walks of life, from presidents to those working in remote communities, such as the sappers clearing landmines in Mozambique. We come to intimately know his adventurous family, colleagues and friends. I loved the book and was sorry when I finished reading it!”  

Ruth Ayisi, Former UNICEF staff member and journalist/consultant

“From Wall Street to remote villages in Africa is a human adventure and true UNICEF story. A must-read for business people interested in a humanitarian challenge, newcomers to the United Nations and all others who care about Africa.” 

J. Denis Bélisle, Former Executive Director,  International Trade Center (UNCTAD-WTO) and UN Assistant Secretary General

About this edition

• Publisher: Grosvenor House Publishing Limited
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1786231484
• ISBN 13: 9781786231482
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 348