On Friday 18 December 2020 – just before a lot of colleagues are leaving for the end of year holidays – the Regional Service Centre Entebbe (RSCE) held a celebratory Town Hall on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Centre’s existence. Since its establishment in 2010, the RSCE has reached ten years of committed service to support peace in Africa. Due to the current COVID-19 precautions, the festivities took place entirely online.

In the decade of its history, the RSCE has grown from a modest Service Centre with only fifty staff and five supported client missions to one of the largest Service Centres in Africa, supporting twenty-one client missions today, seventeen thousand clients and a workforce of over four hundred UN personnel.

The agenda for the celebratory Town Hall was jam-packed with addresses from different keynote speakers, presentations, video messages and performances. Among the speakers were Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Operational Support (DOS) Mr. Atul Khare, Assistant Secretary-General DOS Ms. Lisa Buttenheim, Director of Mission Support UNSOS/UNSOM Mr. Amadu Kamara, the Permanent Secretary of the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Patrick Mugoya, Entebbe Mayor Mr. Kayanja Vincent De-Paul, UN Field Staff Union President Mr. Mark Polane and our very own Director a.i. RSCE Mr. Paulin Djomo.

In his address, Director a.i. RSCE Paulin Djomo noted that it has been 10 years since RSCE started its operations in Uganda, a decade of learning and constant improvement, a decade of transfer of skills from the experienced UN serving staff to the newcomers. It has also been a decade of collaboration with the host country and their support to UN operations, a decade of coordination and support to clients. It is proved clear that the foundations of a shared service centre within the UN Secretariat are in the Ugandan soil.

Mr Djomo concluded his address by expressing his gratitude. He stipulated that the many RSCE milestones would not have been achieved without the RSCE personnel, their resilience, their dedication and their commitment to the UN ideals. The people of RSCE have now paved the way for a global shared service infrastructure. He also spoke out a special thanks to those that have been with the RSCE for the full ten years as these colleagues are the pioneers on whom we’ll look for the RSCE’s historical memory.

In addition, video testimonies were sent in by long-serving RSCE staff members Robert Kayitare and Etse Baliddawa Arigye. The attendees of the celebratory Town Hall also enjoyed watching a photography presentation titled ‘RSCE Then and Now’ which included pictures from the early RSCE years together with footage of remarkable events hosted at the RSCE throughout the decade. To top it all off, the Entebbe Support Base Christian Fellowship Choir had sent in a highly appreciated music video wherein they performed three festive season themed songs.

Onwards to the next ten years of committed service to support peace in Africa!