Carl Gray's farewell message on his retirement after 36 years at the United Nations
Carl Gray with Secretary General BAN Ki-moon
Dear friends and colleagues,
I have come to the end of a most fruitful and rewarding career at the UN. I first set foot in this place exactly 37 years ago to work for the General Assembly session in 1972. I started my UN career the following March. All 36½ years and six months were spent in DESA, including a four-year assignment to the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
On the occasion of DESA’s recent long-service award ceremony, Rob asked how it was possible for anyone to survive 25 years, or longer, in DESA. On reflection, I realized that the answer to that important question was that I believe I was able to adapt and adjust to changing circumstances in the department throughout the years.
I can share memories of some of those changes and adaptations that took place over three decades in DESA (in its various incarnations and name changes) with new and old colleagues alike, which can be summarized as follows:
I started in the equivalent of DPAD in the late 1970s running LINK econometric models of Eastern European countries. Running models in those days (as a G-4 Statistical Clerk) meant updating data bases, re-specifying and re-estimating equations and running simulation and forecasting exercises on the models). I was shifted briefly to the project that built African models for inclusion in LINK.
I studied Input-Output analysis at NYU and was assigned to work on the Global Input-Output Model (GIOM) project in the Division. This model was built by Wassily Leontief who won the Nobel Prize in 1975 for the development of Input-Output analysis. I had the good fortune of working (and publishing) with Leontief at his institute at NYU when I took a year’s special leave from the UN. At the institute, we ran simulations on the GIOM to model the effects of disarmament and reallocation of financial resources from the arms trade to development.
Unfortunately for me, Input-Output analysis fell by the wayside as one of the primary analytical tools in economics. Our version of the Global Input-Output Model was removed from the mainframe computer in due course to make room for the LINK model in the relocation of LINK Central from the University of Pennsylvania UN.
My first professional job as an EAO required knowledge of FORTAN programming. That particular skill became less valuable when PCs were placed on everyone’s desk. Even though I was one of the first people to jump on the PC bandwagon (I used to lug an Apple II computer with two disk drives and a monitor to the office in a big suitcase) I had to find something else to do as an Economics Affairs Officer.
I spent an initial two years at ECA and extended the assignment for two additional years. There I became less of a number-cruncher, even though that was an essential component of economic survey work at ECA. I wrote the chapter on the external sector for three issues of ECA’s flagship Economic Report on African.
When I returned to DESA, one of the smartest young economists ever recruited by the UN had the “Africa desk” for WESS (and later WESP) monitoring and coverage. That individual was then a junior P-2; now he is a D-1 in the UN system.
So, I covered merchandise trade for the WESS for three years after I returned from ECA. I managed the trade data base, known then as the World Trade Program, which compiled global and regional trade numbers and I wrote the sections on merchandise trade of developing countries and commodities (price and market trends).
I finally got a portfolio of African countries to monitor for WESS/WESP. However, that assignment gradually became less important as geographical coverage shifted to the regional commissions and UNCTAD provided the main inputs on trade and commodities for the WESP.
I spent the last three years (and my last major change in assignment in the Division) working on economic dimensions of political issues such as sanctions, conflicts and the challenges of post-conflict reconstruction and development. I also contributed to some of the recent CDP reports and the handbook on LDCs. My last contribution to WESS was in 2007 but I had a hand in more than twenty of them since 1985. I was on team that produced the first WESP in 1998 and contributed to every issue since then until my move to CDP in 2006. As this of this wonderful career comes to an end I look back with pride in knowing that I am one of a handful of people who have worked in all Branches and substantive areas of the Division. This includes work on WESS, WESP, LINK and CDP and a few other activities in earlier years that have been long forgotten.
I will also take pride in keeping track of the work of new colleagues that have just joined us for a long time in the future.
*****
Carl Gray
23 September 2009
CDP – Committee for Development Policy (a group of about 20 prominent experts in the social sciences who reviews, advises and guides the UN’s work in economic and social development
DESA - Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations
DPAD – Development Policy and Analysis Division (of DESA)
EAO – Economics Affairs Officer (economist)
ECA - Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (regional headquarters of the United Nations in Africa)
GA - General Assembly of the United Nations
LINK (Project LINK) - A global network of 80+ teams of specialists in econometric modelling and policy analysis founded and headed by Professor Lawrence Klein (Nobel Prize winner in economics) at the University of Pennsylvania
NYU – New York University
P-2 (junior professional)/D-1 (director/manager) – grade levels in the UN system.
UN - United Nations (Secretariat)
UNCTAD – United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (major UN office in Geneva concerned with international trade and development issues)
WESS – World Economic and Social Survey (UN publication)
WESP – World Economic Situation and Prospects (UN publication)
