Ma Yaoyao: My 365 days mission in SDG5

Editor's Note

Tsinghua University plays an active role in promoting the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by nurturing innovative talents, enhancing research, among many other important ways. 

Today we hear the story from Ma Yaoyao, a graduate student from the School of Journalism and Communication, telling her experience advocating gender equality while working at UN Women China office. 

I still remember my excitement when I received the offer from the UN Women China Office last year. Even though the potential delay of my graduate study still concerned me, I knew I must take it. After all, you cannot refuse a chance to accomplish your childhood dream of working for the UN someday. 

My only hesitation was the time conflict between the job and my graduation. The contract was for one year, and taking the offer meant I couldn’t complete my graduate dissertation as planned, because both of them are highly time-consuming. But luckily, my college tutor and family were all very supportive of my decision to suspend my school work to take the job – then, the journey started!

Yaoyao in front of the UN compound

The one-year experience in UN Women was challenging but rewarding. Unlike my prior internship in the UN HQ, the UNV contract counted me as the staff member, which meant more opportunities, especially the opportunities for you to lead and manage projects independently. Benefited from this, as part of the partnership team in the role of Gender Equality and Youth Engagement Associate, I was fully involved in several office partnership events, including the #RunForEquality charity run initiated with Xiamen Marathon, the Gender and Gaming series event partnered with Game For Peace, etc. 

In these partnerships, I was the focal point of UN Women to communicate directly with partners, vendors, regional office and headquarter, responsible for the whole cycle of the event from concept note drafting to event implementation. The intense training consistently let me practice my capabilities in strategic thinking, flexible implementation, and effective communication. 

UN Women China Office’s retreat in Great Wall

The most impressive part of my work was the opportunity to participate in the coordination of the policy consultation workshop between the UN and the lawmakers relating to the second draft revision to the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests. This law was the first National People’s Congress law specifically protecting the rights and interests of women and girls in China. This year’s amendment was also regarded as an overhaul of the law first enacted in 1992 to make it adapt to the changing times. My role in this work was to coordinate and consolidate policy recommendations from different UN agencies, and discuss the relevant details with Regional Office’s Policy Advisor to have UN Women’s recommendations aligning with international normative framework. The process provided me an insight to the implementation of UN Women mandate in providing normative support to member state, which is also the first one among the three. It goes without saying the importance of the law amendment, not to mention that as a national law, it impacts hundreds of millions of the women and girls in China including me.

The three-day office annual retreat focused on team management and leadership development

My experience in UN Women also helped me build a more objective and comprehensive understanding on the UN. From the outsiders’ view, the UN is always connected with high-level officials and meetings, and it sounds like the UN is inaccessible to the general public. But when you go into it, you will discover the organization is also dealing with complex internal and external situations - the difficulties in negotiating and jointly promoting the common agenda in member states, the localization and adaptation of the normative framework, also the UN as an established organization’s evolution in the fast changing environment, and its future development, etc. But from another side, it may also reflect the fact that there still has lots of work to do and a long way to go in the achievement of the 17 SDG goals.

Besides those concrete works, I enjoyed the supportive and inclusive work environment in UN Women as well. I will never forget the talk with my supervisor during my first days in the office, who encouraged me to be bold and think big, to be more confident and aggressive. It was the time that I realized I was also a beneficiary of the gender equality spirit, empowering more women and girls to break the barriers, taking the lead and shaping the world. Every time when we ate food together, my special eating habits as an ethnic minority would be considered by my colleagues. It is an office composed of people from different countries and places with different living habits, which made it the best place for me to experience diversity and inclusiveness. I also met a group of young people with the same interests and faith as mine in development. We are friends more than colleagues. 

Yaoyao participated in the media workshop organized by the UN Women China Office

A year slips away. Via this experience, I have reaped the firmness and confidence in following my own interest and taking it as my future career, which I believe will benefit me for a lifetime.

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TsinghuaRen | Ma Yaoyao: My 365 days mission in SDG5

Writer: Ma Yaoyao

Editor: Huang Fei

Designer: Xia Yifei