In this lecture, we have discussed and learnt about the United Nations and its structure. It is known in worldwide that the United Nations is an international organization that comprises of all the recognized countries in the world. There are many other organizations that are linked to the United Nations through special agreements such as UNESCO, IMF, FAO, WHO, and so on. Apart from the other objectives and goals of UN, the most well-known job of the UN is peace-keeping. They operate in countries where there are civil conflicts or conflicts with other countries. Since the activities and responsibilities of the United Nations cannot be summarized and almost everybody is aware of, I would like to highlight my experience and what I have personally seen from this organization.
Back in my home country, Somaliland, there are many sub-organizations of the UN such as those we mentioned above. Firstly, they help those people who are in severe poverty in the rural areas although they do not reach some parts. In addition to that, the offices of such organizations create and employment opportunity for the educated youth in the country. Since they are the natives and have knowledge on their projects, it is a mutual benefit between the UN and the educated youth. The most famous and well-known UN organization that operates in my country is the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). This organizations implements many projects in the country such as environmental and infrastructure development programmes.
However, some of these organizations promote cultures that are illegal and totally opposite to our culture. For example, my country being 100% Islam, the use condoms and contraceptives are not allowed. Some organizations who were implementing health programmes encouraged the use of condoms and contraceptives. This created tensions among the society and the people felt that these organizations are not here just to help, but to spread the culture and ethics of their society. I personally agree with this. Furthermore, they announce job vacancies in their offices and publish on the media. When the applicants sit for their exams or interviews, it has been observed that they mainly recruit women especially those whore not educationally bright, but physically. This issue has also created sensitivity among the Somaliland population because of some different types of harassments experienced by these female employees. Due to these issues and many others, it has pressured the government to dismiss some of those organizations.
All in all, I would like to conclude that no organization is infallible. We have to weigh the positive and negative outcomes of the operations of such organizations. I believe that the United Nations organizations are helping a lot and doing well for other people. The inconsistent cultures of those organizations can be dealt with by signing an agreement with them before they start their operations. Of course, there is a need for global organization. The Peace building projects and the other development programmes that the UN has implemented successfully are remarkable and it outweighs the few shortcomings that the project coordinators might mix with the project objectives such as those mentioned earlier.
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