Margaret Otukile, HR Officer at ICGEB

Human Resources at ICGEB

Margaret Otukile recently joined ICGEB as Head of Human Resources, at HQ in Trieste, Italy. Her vision is to promote a culture of high performance, personal development and continuous learning across the Organisation.

“One of the main projects underway in the Personnel and Human Resources Unit is implementing sound Performance Management. Enhancement of Human Capital is one of the actions that ultimately result in ICGEB delivering on its mandate and creating value for the Member States. It is a process that supports the effective delivery of the ICGEB Strategic Plan and the Organisation’s contribution to achieving the UN 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

L-R: Margaret Otukile with Nurhaan Larnie, HR Assistant at ICGEB Cape Town, South Africa

Performance management clarifies expectations to engender greater accountability. In particular, Staff member feedback also presents an opportunity for supervisors to improve leadership skills and listen to their team members. We are working across the Components on this project, including ICGEB New Delhi, with Mr. Biju Mathew, Administrative Officer.

We are focusing on establishing critical policies within the Organisation, including harassment and discipline, contributing to the gender equality plan (GEP) and, above all, to staff development. There are numerous UN platforms that make training and development programmes available to staff working within the system that we are currently exploring.”

Margaret Otukile has worked for Puma Energy in both her native Botswana, and in Angola. She has also worked for the African Development Bank based in the Ivory Coast, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Egypt. She joined the ICGEB as Head of HR in 2021.

In early 2022, she visited the ICGEB Cape Town Component and met the newly appointed Administrative Officer, Nawala Nakashole, who joined the ICGEB in April this year.

Nawala Nakashole
Nawala Nakashole, Administrative Officer at ICGEB Cape Town, South Africa

Pleased to be a part of this month’s feature, Ms. Nakashole says “I am very excited to join the ICGEB team. I learn something new every day. I am so happy to add grant administration and more to my knowledge. Foremost, I’ve also realised that the ICGEB mandate is even broader and more inclusive than it looks from the onset.” Ms. Nakashole is from Namibia and joins the Cape Town team that comprises 14 nationalities.

Celebrating diversity, across the Components the ICGEB includes nationals from almost 40 countries.

“We are devising a performance management system to address process and cultural differences and to establish a clear line of sight between ICGEB’s Strategic Plan, individual’s and team’s goals and objectives.”

Margaret Otukile, Head of HR at ICGEB
L-R: Barbara Tamaro, Désirée Tomaselli, Margaret Otukile, Tiziana Feriani, and Ivana Bocci

“Further, at the New Delhi Component, six new staff members have joined during the last two years, to assist in the activities of the various units of the Component to strengthen the respective area of work,” adds Mr. Biju Mathew. These are Ms. Simmi Kochhar, Secretary to the Administrative Officer, Ms. Rashmi Joshia, HR Unit, Ms. Leeba Luka, Procurement Unit, Ms. Farha Khan, Academic Unit, Ms. Shweta Gupta, Meetings & Courses Unit, and Mr. Pushpak Roy Choudhary, Accounts Unit (pictured below at the entrance to the campus).