All good things must come to an end and my time in Ethiopian and with UN OCHA Ethiopia is ending 31 October. It is due to personal reasons and a need for my family and myself to reorient ourselves that we have to go back to Switzerland and stay around our own people for a while.

I have enjoyed Ethiopia not because it was the most challenging amongst all the countries I worked so far, but because both of my children had the opportunity to grow up with Ethiopian culture that will always be a part of their future life even if only subconsciously. Ethiopia with its strong culture and tradition is full of paradoxes that make it worth a challenge and make it sometimes difficult to understand.

I would like to congratulate our government counterparts, particularly DPPC, for the tremendous and very fruitful partnership we were able to build during my assignment here in Ethiopia. I came to appreciate our cooperation and I have witnessed true progress, development and an openness of mind to discuss sensitive issues that I could have hardly imagined when I first came to Ethiopia in 1998.

I have enjoyed my time with OCHA in Ethiopia tremendously and have had the privilege of meeting new people who can really make a difference and with whom I like to work together so much that I truly feel sorry having to leave all this behind.

But what I will miss most are the sometimes adventurous field missions undertaken in almost all parts of the country and the friendliness of people who are living in truly and sheer unimaginable livelihood conditions who helped me to understand more about their lives, their struggle and their dreams… and for whom I really hope that I managed with my work and dedication to have indirectly and in one way or another contributed to improve their livelihoods. I am no idealist who seeks to change the world but I still do have my own convictions and dedication and I am convinced that I truly try my best to help those people and innocent children most in need to improve their lives and to give them hope for their uncertain future.

I wish you all the best for the future and I am sure that we will meet again somehow, sometime, somewhere…

Unlike James Bond for whom "the world is not enough", I feel this world is big enough to provide a decent and human living for every body.

Yves Guinand
Formed Deputy Head of OCHA Ethiopia

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