“As I look back on my life, I realise that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better,” Unaisi Bolatolu Vuniwaqa posted on her LinkedIn account in December 2020.
“Absolutely, I’ve learnt to accept rejection as better opportunities awaits,” she continued.
From the day she won the Baton of Honour award at her 1986 graduation as a police constable in Suva, Vuniwaqa was destined for greater things.
Her career has taken her from appointment as Commissioner and Head of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) to a new UN role in New York.
In so doing, Vuniwaqa became the first female head of UNMISS, and the first Fijian – female or male—to head a United Nations joint military and police peace-keeping operation. UNMISS happens to be the UN’s largest ever peacekeeping operations in modern history.
Vuniwaqa entered UN peacekeeping after realising she had hit the glass ceiling at home and would not rise higher than the Assistant Commissioner of Police role she held.
“I was looking for a lateral exit and always had my eye on UN Peacekeeping since I had never served in a peace operation before,” she told UNMISS communications earlier this year. “I first came to UNMISS as an Individual Police Officer; it was a big gamble to take a step down from the Assistant Commissioner level, but I learnt everything from the ground up—I did night shifts, went on patrol, handled access duties. And then, I built myself up again and here I am, leading a massive, diverse, multicultural team of committed police officers. The risk paid off!”
Mandated by UN Security Council resolution 2567, UNMISS was established to prevent a return to civil war, “build durable peace and support inclusive, accountable governance and free, fair and peaceful elections” in the world’s youngest country. Once part of Sudan, South Sudan gained its independence after a prolonged civil war and following a referendum in 2011.
UNMISS had a four-pronged strategy of protecting civilians with a particular focus on women and children, creating conditions conducive to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, supporting the implementation of the Revitalised Agreement and the peace process and monitoring, investigating and reporting on violations of humanitarian and human rights law.
By October this year, UNMISS boasted a total manpower of more than 18,000 personnel from 123 UN member countries.
Under Vuniwaqa’s administration, UNMISS has an annual budget of USD$1.201 billion—which is the equivalent of 64% of Fiji’s national budget, or 28% of the nation’s GDP.
The next chapter
Her “better opportunity” didn’t end in South Sudan.
Little more than a month after officially retiring as UNMISS Commissioner, United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres announced Vuniwaqa’s appointment as the new Assistant Secretary General of the UN Department for Safety and Security.
She will be based at the UN headquarters in New York, second only to Under Secretary General Gilles Michaud of Canada in the management of the UNDSS.
Vuniwaqa will be responsible for day-today management of the department, said SG Guterres when announcing the appointment.
UN official sources say the department is responsible for providing leadership, operational support and oversight of the security management system to enable the safest and most efficient conduct of the programmes and activities of the United Nations system.
It encompasses processes and security personnel aimed at managing security risks to the UN system globally.
By mid-2021, 238 million people needed UNDSS support and assistance, USG Michaud said in the Department’s 2021 report.
“That is one in 33 people worldwide.
“We will overcome any security challenge to ensure that UN programmes reach them: over 7,000 UNDSS personnel are committed to this mission,” he continued.
Few other Pacific Islanders have risen as high in the UN. The late Ambassador Satya Nandan as Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority comes to mind. Cook Islands Elizabeth Iro as Head of Nursing at the World Health Organization in Geneva is another who has made her mark in a UN agency.
But Vuniwaqa’s career has been historic, in that she has shattered a glass ceiling in a decidedly male arena, and in one where Fiji has deep historical roots.
Fiji’s first contingent of peacekeepers was deployed to Lebanon in 1978 and then to the Sinai from 1982. The Republic of Fiji Military Forces states that peacekeepers are currently deployed in Syria, Sudan, Egypt/Sinai, Iraq, and Lebanon and Solomon Islands. Previously they’ve been deployed to Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Kosovo, Liberia, Namibia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Somalia and Timor-Leste. Since 1970 Fiji has contributed more personnel to UN Peacekeeping missions than any other state on a per capita measure.
“She is an inspiration”
Accolades for this highly decorated, yet very humble woman from the tiny island of Totoya, in the Lau Province of Fiji’s eastern sea borders, have been glowing.
“She is an inspiration to many young boys and girls to be the best version of themselves no matter what career options they find themselves in,” wrote Fijian human rights lawyer Romolu Nayacalevu on news of her appointment.
“A bonus to her inspirational streak is how our island girl from our dot in the world map, with a population of less than a million people took our Fijian veiwekani (family), veikauwaitaki(caring), veilomani (loving) and shared it with those traumatised by conflict and violence.”
“You make us proud peacekeepers.
“History will smile at this patriot of Fiji, a daughter of the Pacific, because she dared to dream.”
Reaction from the Fijian Government came a week after Vuniwaqa’s appointment in the form of a media statement released by the Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s office, Yogesh Karan.
Fiji is incredibly proud of the appointment by UN Secretary General of Ms Unaisi Lutu Vuniwaqa as the Assistant Secretary General in the UN’s Department of Safety and Security, he said.
“She is a fantastic role model for Fijians and Pacific Islanders and her extremely leadership is a great motivation for Fijians and for youths that with dedication, hard work and perseverance, we can achieve the best for our nation.”
In announcing her big promotion, UN SG Guterres made reference to Vuniwaqa’s leadership of UNMISS, implying that her record there was a huge factor in her assumption of the Assistant Secretary General’s job.
When she stepped down last October, UNMISS Police Chief of Operations, Francis Yiribaare made some observations about his former boss:
“She’s a woman of calibre who has touched all of us, police officers and senior management, and had an overarching effect on the entire mission.”
For her remarkable leadership on the global stage, her humility and resolve to stand and fight for what is right and fair, and for her caring and empathy and practical support for women and children in harm’s way, Unaisi Bolatolu Vuniwaqa is our Pacific Person of the Year, sharing the honours with another woman breaking through barriers, Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, current Prime Minister of Samoa.
