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Liliana Betancur Venegas, Security Coordination Officer, Juba
After studying Law and International Business, I became a lawyer, also gaining some experience in human resources in a public entity. As a result, I had no security involvement when I joined UNDSS ¨C I discovered by chance that they were recruiting in my home city of Medell¨ªn, Colombia.
In my first job with UNDSS, I set up the Medell¨ªn field office from scratch ¨C I had one security coordination officer as supervisor and I had to take care of all the operations, coordination, meetings, training and documentation to make it happen. Thankfully I received a lot of guidance from the team in Bogot¨¢ from the UNDSS¡¯ main office in Colombia.
After almost six years, my managers advised me to apply for an international post and assisted me through the extensive recruitment process. It took around a year to get accepted, and their support made all the difference. In my first overseas posting, I became a Security Coordination Officer in Darfur, Sudan, which was the largest global UN mission at that time. It was a challenging time to move to Sudan ¨C that was the year that South Sudan declared independence, creating a complex security environment with lots of civil unrest, crime and even armed conflict. My role in the North Darfur Section gave me purpose, experience and helped me become very resilient and adaptable.
I then moved on to Guatemala, where I spent seven years as Deputy Security Adviser with a remit that also covered Belize. I had the best possible team I could hope for. During that time, I also completed my Master¡¯s Degree in Security, Crisis and Emergencies Management. I am now in South Sudan, first as Chief of the SOC (Security Operations Center) and currently as part of the UNDSS Security Coordination Humanitarian Unit, where I am directly involved in the security coordination and response for the UN humanitarian operations and SLT. This is something new for me calling for daily learning which is very exciting. I also want to mention that my role as a gender focal point for UNDSS allow me to contribute to different areas within the section ensuring that gender considerations are better understood and applicable.
I am confident that the work I am doing here is making a real difference ¨C creating a safer environment for the UN people involved with key projects and mandates. I love interacting with different organizations and people from all kinds of backgrounds, learning how to support them: UNDSS is a place where everybody can make their mark.
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