Janeen Fernando received a scholarship from Gates Cambridge and graduated with an MPhil in International Relations in 2013. Now working as a UN Peace and Development Advisor in the Maldives, he tells us about the challenges affecting global peace and how his time at Cambridge influenced his decision to work in public policy.
Can you tell us about your personal journey to Cambridge and what life for you looked like before you joined the University?
I came to Cambridge, having never lived in the UK before. I completed my undergraduate degree as a distance learning student whilst living in Sri Lanka, which is where I am originally from. I had an academic interest in political philosophy and wanted to study international relations. Coming from Sri Lanka, Cambridge felt like a natural fit for me, and I decided to apply to the University for my postgraduate studies. I was fortunate to be awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which meant both my education and living costs were fully funded.
Being part of the Gates Cambridge programme was great because just like St Edmund’s College, Gates was extremely international. It had scholars from pretty much every single discipline in the University. There’s been no other point in my life before or after where I got to be friends with so many different people. From those studying glaciers in the Himalayas to those learning about the role of genetics in cancer research. It’s incredibly diverse.
I was lucky as I ended up with three different communities in the UK. I had my degree subject peers, the Gates Cambridge community and of course St Edmund’s College.
One of my most prominent memories of my time at Eddies concerns bagpipes and ceilidhs. Burn’s Night at the College was always fun. As you might imagine, haggis and whiskey are not a Sri Lankan delicacy, but I am most definitely now a fan of haggis.
How did your experiences at St Edmund’s College prepare you for life beyond graduation?
At St Edmund’s, I was part of an extremely international cohort of students. Over 60 countries were represented in the year I was studying. It was so international that it helped to shape my view of what I’d would like to do in the world. And for me that ended up being in public policy. Public policy is, in a way, the most interesting form of problem-solving because it indirectly affects the lives of so many people. It shapes our governments and the work of international development partners and that became the motivation for my career. Everything I have done since graduating has been in some way related to my interest in politics and public policy.
Can you tell us about your role at the United Nations?
My role as Peace and Development Advisor in the Maldives is primarily focused on supporting the work of the United Nations (UN) and its partners in developing and sustaining peace.
The work of the UN sits under three pillars: peace and security; development and human rights. Everything that I do as a Peace and Development Advisor relates to the interrelationship between development and peace. The UN works in a vast range of countries, many of which do not experience conflict but do experience challenges with social cohesion or climate change, for example.
The Maldives has a particular global image – one as an idyllic tourist destination – but like all countries it grapples with numerous challenges. The Maldives have 188 inhabited islands spread out across a large expanse of the Indian ocean, but with relatively small populations on each of them. Whilst the impact of climate change is obviously a problem, there are other factors that contribute to the country’s challenges. For example, how do you make governance accessible and relatable to people spread out over a such a large geographical area?
The challenge list affecting my work is long and that’s a reflection of how the world is today. The aspirations set out by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are extremely broad in nature. They cover everything from gender equality to climate change to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies that provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
I work to understand regional issues and develop policies that will help countries progress towards achieving the SDGs with a particular focus on SDG 16 which focuses on peace, justice and strong institutions. For the Maldives, that might include women’s political representation, the preservation of social cohesion in the digital sphere, or it might be to understand what the impact of climate change has on the cohesiveness of island communities’. I then work with national partners to develop strategies that help the Maldives achieve these goals.
What sort of advice would you give to the next generation of global leaders and thinkers?
I feel each generation is more educated than the last but some of the underlying values and lenses for making sense of the world remain the same. I think the advice I would give would be to remember that universities, and Cambridge in particular, is a good place to discover universals. Universal norms and values. At a time when you know the ways in which we consume information makes it seem that we are very polarised, but I think you find that kind of universality from people who come from extremely different places.
The Cambridge experience impacts how you see the world and how you approach the world. It’s not just a nice thing to have on your CV or somewhere to make friends. It can alter the way you approach negotiations and dealing with people, especially the diversity of experiences you gain outside of what you’re doing in the classroom.
What does the future hold for global peace?
You see a different set of challenges now, some of which were starting to take shape ten years ago. We live in a world with more information than we know what to do with. This muddies our ability to make decisions about our shared futures. Making sense of the world becomes more important than having information about the world.
One example is that we, as humans are facing an existential threat in climate change, but collective action has proved incredibly challenging. You realise that part of the problem is not about reaching a scientific consensus, but it is about reaching a political and societal one. Getting enough people to trust each other and agree, whether it is regarding how to tackle climate change or vaccination programmes or something else. We now find a strong pushback to some of these things, that we think of as truisms, yet are not universally accepted.
We have these huge challenges. Everybody knows about them, but we can’t necessarily agree on how to address them. I think that could be the challenge for the next generation of new students. How do you build consensus?
What advice would you give the next generation of global thinkers and leaders studying at St Edmund’s?
What I would say to people thinking of applying to St Edmund’s is that it doesn’t matter if you come from a completely different part of the world. You will find a community that resonates, and your experience will be positive. At least it was me.
The Alumni Festival takes places next month (26 – 28 September). St Edmund’s College shall be hosting a number of events, including the Alumni Society AGM and a sports-themed panel event hosted by the Master, Professor Chris Young. Visit our Alumni events page to find out more.
