A Tribute to Jeanne Vickers
by Jesper Morch
14 April 1982 was the first day of my 31 years with UNICEF. My job title was “Assistant Development Education Officer”, a Danish Junior Professional Officer (JPO) assigned to UNICEF’s Geneva Office at P1 step 1 level.
My job, or rather the job of the little unit I was to work in, was two-fold. We were to support and assist the National Committees for UNICEF in their Development Education (DevEd) work. DevEd was basically through formal and non-formal education channels to teach children and young people about the situation of people and communities in the developing countries. And then we were to provide liaison between the hundreds of national and international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOS) and UNICEF and mobilize support for UNICEF’s agenda among them.
In the Development Education/NGO Liaison Unit, I quickly came to feel comfortable, mainly because of the kindness and support of the four women who were now my colleagues. I was put to work on a new DevEd kit called “Alive in Lebanon”. It involved a lot of research and then a lot of writing and design to turn it into an educational material. I was given a lot of freedom, but they were there to help when I asked and to review and modify when I thought I had finished products.
Jeanne Vickers, my boss, was a woman in her late 50s. She had been associated with the UN in various capacities since the end of World War II. In 1945 she joined the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA), She was posted in Germany to work with refugees in post-war Europe. In the early 1950s she worked part-time with the UN Information Centre in London while completing her economics studies at London University. In 1955 she joined her husband to assignments for UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in Gaza and Beirut, and in the 1960s she accompanied her husband to UNHQ in New York. Throughout the years she did consultancies and voluntary work related to refugees and children. In 1972, Jeanne left New York to join UNICEF in Geneva. Jeanne headed the new section for Development Education and NGO Liaison.
She was a workaholic who loved her job, and there was really not a moment when she did not work, one way or the other. But she was categorical in her interaction with us, her staff. “Don’t take me as a role model”, she would insist, “you are young and life has so much more to offer than just work. Work hard but always find time for family, friends, and things that also interest you. “Often when I would pop into the office on a Saturday or a Sunday, she would tell me to turn around on my heels and go home. She would of course always remain behind in the office.
Anne and Eva were outstanding colleagues and Genevieve the perfect secretary. When we in the unit had a success, Jeanne would always credit her staff with the good result. Whenever we messed up, she would always take responsibility and insist it was her fault alone. She was like a terrier. When she bit into an issue, she just wouldn’t let go, no matter the strength and power of the opposition. When I began to travel a lot – like 200 days a year – and weekends invariably were involved, she would tell me to stay home a day or two without accounting for it. She considered it fair compensation although we were supposed to be “at the disposal of the Executive Director 24 hours around the clock, 7 days a week”. I have met and worked with very many great managers and/or leaders, often much higher in the UN pecking order than she was, but she remains my role model for commitment, management, leadership, fairness, justice and all the qualities I consider important in a professional relationship with other people.
The UN had a Joint United Nations Information Committee, (JUNIC). JUNIC had in its wisdom established a Non-Governmental Liaison Service, NGLS with offices in Geneva and New York. Their work was brilliant, achieved in the UN exactly what we were doing in UNICEF, and NGLS therefore was our closest and most like-minded agency in the entire system.
We were almost like family. The social aspect was - and, I believe, remains – fundamental and vital.
Jeanne loved to get together over a lot of wine and some tasty snacks. So did the NGLS people. Our social calendars were full. We would often be together for lunch and then get together in the evening with the NGLS people and the UNICEF DevEd Unit as core and various others as guests. And indeed, many of the best discussions and some of the most important business were all done on these occasions.
When Jeanne retired in late 1984, I applied and was selected and appointed to her position. In my subsequent three decades with UNICEF, I have never had bigger shoes to fill. As I write these lines, Jeanne is still alive, going strong and living in Geneva. A living legend and surely one of the few persons still around who has been associated with the United Nations since 1945 and specifically UNICEF since 1972.
We were almost like family. The social aspect was - and, I believe, remains – fundamental and vital.
Jeanne loved to get together over a lot of wine and some tasty snacks. So did the NGLS people. Our social calendars were full. We would often be together for lunch and then get together in the evening with the NGLS people and the UNICEF DevEd Unit as core and various others as guests. And indeed, many of the best discussions and some of the most important business were all done on these occasions.
When Jeanne retired in late 1984, I applied and was selected and appointed to her position. In my subsequent three decades with UNICEF, I have never had bigger shoes to fill. As I write these lines, Jeanne is still alive, going strong and living in Geneva. A living legend and surely one of the few persons still around who has been associated with the United Nations since 1945 and specifically UNICEF since 1972.
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