Student experience: Marte B. Lia Torskenæs, Communications Officer in UNDP
Photographer: Unknown
Phototext : Marte B. Lia Torskenæs
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After I finished my master degree in Development Studies at Noragric in 2006 I got a job as a communication and liaison officer with the UN Development Programme UNDP. I was recruited as a Junior Professional Officer (JPO) and I’m now based in our Nordic Office in Oslo where I work with outreach to the Norwegian media, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, relevant politicians and development institutions. Part of my job is to position UNDP and the UN in Norway and to generate and participate in the public development debate.
Although I’m based in Norway I have also had the opportunity to travel to several of our 136 country offices. Last year I was working with our office in Sierra Leone during the country’s general election in August, which was the first nationally implemented election since the decade long civil war ended in 2001. Together with the communication unit there, I was monitoring the election campaign, preparing press releases and political updates to the Nordic countries.
My two years at Noragric provided me with not only a solid academic frame work for the job I have today, but also with a taste for an international working environment. To be studying with people from around the world gave us first hand experiences in cross cultural communication. At times it could be frustrating and some times we ended up in rather comical situations, but most of the times it provided us with an invaluable learning experience, preparing us for further work in international organisations. The highlight of this, being the months we spent at Makerere University in Uganda, where we were brought to the core of our studies, and the semester we spent in the field doing research for our master thesis.
I also came to appreciate the flexibility and backing from Noragric when I wanted to do my master thesis on a subject that was not within the institute’s curriculum. But with encouragement to follow my area of interest and good guidance from my supervisor, I managed to hand in my thesis on the role of the media in a democratising and development process.
Since my academic background was in political science there were times when the natural sciences had a tendency to dominate the interdisciplinary approach at Noragric. But eventually that also turned out to be very useful! Every year UNDP launch the Human Development Report, and the two years I've been responsible for the event here in Norway, the reports have been focusing on how human development is affected by access to water and climate change, both in the cross cutting area of natural and social sciences.
I wish all current Noragric students the best of luck and hope to meet some of you in the UN system a few years from now!
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Updated: 21.11.08
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Del med en venn:
Department of International Environment and Development Studies
- Noragric
Phone: +47 64 96 52 00
Fax: +47 64 96 52 01
E-mail: noragric@umb.no
Postal address:
Noragric, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
P.O. Box 5003
NO-1432 Aas
Norway
Visiting/delivery address:
Universitetstunet 1 (Tivoli)
NO-1432 Ås
Phone: +47 64 96 52 00
Fax: +47 64 96 52 01
E-mail: noragric@umb.no
Postal address:
Noragric, Norwegian University of Life Sciences
P.O. Box 5003
NO-1432 Aas
Norway
Visiting/delivery address:
Universitetstunet 1 (Tivoli)
NO-1432 Ås