The assignment

In connection with the UN climate convention in Denmark, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited tenders for the assignment of recruiting and hiring approximately 200 attachés and 60 UN assistants. The initial number of attachés and assistants was an estimate and in the end, the Foreign Ministry needed even more employees. Thus, execute.dk proposed a total of 350 candidates to the Foreign Ministry.

The attachés and assistants were hired to work before and during COP15. Their job was to make the convention run as smoothly as possible and, at the same time, be great representatives for Denmark.

The Foreign Ministry presented the assignment to any interested tenderers in a tender round which execute.dk ended up winning.

The attachés

In practice, the attachés worked for the Foreign Ministry and their job was to be in charge of any contact between the official participants at COP15 and the internal parties, including the Foreign Ministry and UNFCCC, as well as the external parties, such as the police, hotels, Copenhagen Airport and foreign embassies. The official participants counted delegations from a number of countries, consisting of ministers, government officers, journalists and NGOs. The Foreign Ministry requested four types of attachés which were named A, B, C and D.

The AA’s were working at the Bella Center, the airport and the hotels where their job was to assist all visitors in getting settled.

The B’s were attached to a Head of State or Head of Government with whom the attaché shared – as far as possible - a cultural and/or linguistic understanding. The attaché was attached to this person during his/her entire stay in Denmark.

The C’s, the press attachés, were to assist in connection with press-related tasks at the Bella Center.

The team leaders, the so-called D’s, constituted a special group whose job was to act as responsible coordinators for groups of employees. There were ten D’s in total.

The UN assistants

The UN assistants, also called E’s, were officially employed to carry out work directly for UNFCCC, and thus this particular group’s job was to handle any practical needs under the host country contract between Denmark and UNFCCC. The assistants had office-like functions in cooperation with the UNFCCC delegated staff, and their workplace was at the Bella Center.

The UN assistants’ tasks were many and varied, including being in charge of the registration of the more than 45,000 accredited participants, which was a very important and central task. Further, the assistants were to assist UNFCCC by guiding the delegates to the meeting rooms, distributing documents, assisting at the UNFCCC’s offices, etc.

It was crucial that the UN assistants were curious by nature and happy to work in an international forum. The assistants were very service-minded and professional, and they were enthusiastic about making COP15 run as smoothly as possible. Since they were working at the Bella Center’s core areas, they were very close to the delegated participants, ranging from ministers to journalists. Thus, the UN assistants were a great part of the visitors’ experience during COP15.