UN Leaders Reveal How Volunteering Launched Their Careers

Before they led United Nations country offices, many of today's senior UN officials started as volunteers working quietly in their communities. Their stories reveal a powerful truth about leadership: it often begins with simply showing up to help.

Nelson Muffuh, now UN Resident Coordinator in South Africa, started by volunteering with human rights organizations. He wasn't thinking about a career at the time. He just cared about making things better.

Ozonnia Ojielo followed a similar path in Nigeria, volunteering as a young lawyer to help communities resolve disputes. That work eventually led him to peace efforts in Sierra Leone and, ultimately, to his current role in Ethiopia.

George Conway's journey in Somalia started even more directly. He began at the UN as a United Nations Volunteer, working closely with communities in ways that still shape how he leads today.

These leaders say their volunteer experiences taught them skills no formal training could provide. They learned to listen, to work with people instead of for them, and to stay grounded in real community needs.

The Ripple Effect

Today, these leaders see volunteers making critical differences across Africa. In Zimbabwe, volunteers help communities survive droughts and cyclones by connecting people to essential services. In Angola, they build bridges between global development goals and local action.

Volunteers bring unique advantages to development work. They understand local dynamics, move quickly when crises hit, and build trust in ways programs alone cannot achieve. They transform responses that exist on paper into help that actually reaches people.

Amanda Mukwashi, Resident Coordinator in Angola, describes volunteering as more than support work. For her, it was a bridge to understanding dignity and building development with communities, not just delivering it to them.

The timing matters. With just a few years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, progress needs to accelerate. The 2026 International Year of Volunteers offers a chance to rethink how volunteerism fits into global development strategies.

These UN leaders argue that volunteers shouldn't be treated as optional extras. They should be central to how development is planned and delivered, especially when connecting ambitious global goals to the schools, health centers, and local institutions where real change happens.

Their message is clear: the complex challenges facing our world need leaders who understand service. And those leaders often emerge from volunteer work that taught them to listen, collaborate, and stay focused on what communities actually need.