Page 17 - CoESPU Magazine 2017-3

INTERVIEW TO THE DIRECTOR OF

THE UN GLOBAL SERVICE CENTRE IN BRINDISI - ITALY

We are glad to welcome this opportunity to
introduce our readers in the UN Global Service
Center (UN-SGC), located in Brindisi – Italy,
thanks to the interview kindly granted by Mr.
Paul Buades, UNSGC Director.
Born in September 1956 in Oran, Algeria, Mr.
Paul Buades is the current Director of the Global
Service Centre since 2 November 2015. He has
served with the United Nations since 2006, when
he acted as the Director of the Procurement
Division for the Department of Management. In
2010, he was appointed as Director of Mission
Support of the United Nations Organization
Stabilization Mission in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). From
September 2013, he was appointed as Director of
Mission Support of the United Nations
Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization
Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Prior to joining
the United Nations, Mr. Buades spent twenty
years as an International Civil Servant in various
capacities, with the NATO-SHAPE (Belgium). Mr. Paul Buades, UN SGC Director
Let’s start with the interview!

Dear Mr. Director, for more than 20 years the United Nations Logistics Base, UNLB, provided
support to the Peacekeeping Missions. In 2010, UNLB became the Global Service Centre (GSC).
Could you explain what is the mandate of the GSC and in which ways it differentiated from the
former UNLB?

Providing support to the field has always been and continues to be our mandate and our DNA,
despite the fact that we were UNLB and today we are GSC. What has changed over the past 10
years is four folds: (1) the modality in which GSC operates in order to respond to the wider, more
complex and dynamic scenarios and requirements of our clients. This required an internal
transformation of the Organisation for which our Staff and Management are committed to make it
successful. (2) is the client base which is growing from the Field Missions to UN Secretariat and
System and likely tomorrow non UN Clients. (3) involves the portfolio which has been extended to
embrace new and additional functions like the Occupational Health & Safety (OSH), Environmental

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