Here I am sitting in Abu Dhabi airport waiting for a flight to reach Muscat tonight. The week was spent at the Movenpick Dead Sea resort in Jordan. It was an opportunity to meet old friends and colleagues (Aloys, Thomas, Hanan, Gert, Mahendra, AbdulJelil,  Julien, Marzio, Munir, Sharad,), new colleagues since I went to Oman (Maria, Geeta, Roberto, Pierre, Dina, Samir, Ossama, Philippe, Jean Nicolas) and names I was used to hear but never met (Carel). For me the event had the taste of a revenge on the past:: I still remember my mood (bitterness, frustration) when I left the Middle East, exactly 6 years ago. Indeed I did not contribute that much because I did not attend the previous one and will not be at the next one.... but I enjoyed the atmosphere and realised that this kind of event could have been organised much better in West and Central Africa... I appreciated very much the leadership of the boss of the region in pushing her team to achieve results for the children.

Here are the faces of the futur in UNICEF. They will be more and more visible and will be at th forefront of the work of the organisation.