Ms Julie Bukikun: Leaving no one behind

Ready to chair the weekly Monday morning virtual staff meeting, she checks to make sure that telecommunications are fine at UNDP Papua New Guinea country office.

The strong office wifi sometimes has the tendency to drop out, here in Port Moresby, and the last thing she wants is to be disconnected from the Zoom meeting mid-sentence with participants joining from all over the nation.

Ms. Bukikun is the Assistant Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme in Papua New Guinea. She is the most senior Papua New Guinean national at the senior management level, within the UN system, in the country.

She says the role is highly demanding with complex issues, which can be challenging at times.

“The most important thing is to focus on why we are here, to ensure that those who are excluded, or disadvantaged, are given access and opportunities to have a voice - to participate in the development of PNG. The mantra of the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals of ‘leaving no one behind’ is the key principle I have when doing my work.”   

Ms Bukikun is a Lawyer by profession, with a mixed parentage of East Sepik Province and Milne Bay Province. Spending her childhood in the Highlands before moving to Madang for primary and secondary school education, she moved to Port Moresby to attend University of Papua New Guinea.

Later, on a British Chevening Scholarship, Ms. Bukikun studied her Master’s in Law - in International Commercial Law (LL.M) - at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Starting in the UN system in Papua New Guinea in 2007, Ms Bukikun joined the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which later became UN Women in 2012. The agency grew into a key UN service supporting key gender equality programmes across the country.

Ms Bukikun progressed through the ranks, joining UNDP in 2014 to take up the role of Assistant Resident Representative, leading the Governance Portfolio of UNDP Papua New Guinea.

Among her many proud achievements is the lead role Ms. Bukikun played in assisting Papua New Guinea’s first submission, in 2014, to the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund - critical support in the peacebuilding efforts of the governments of Papua New Guinea and Autonomous Region of Bougainville, under the Bougainville Peace Agreement. Ms Bukikun also recently contributed to the success of the 2019 Bougainville Referendum.

“I am proud to be contributing directly to the development of my country.

I am motivated that the work of the UN and UNDP is making a difference, and that the support I provide to the area I work on - such as democratic governance, peacebuilding, electoral support, parliamentary strengthening, finance management and anti-corruption - will mean a better Papua New Guinea in the future.”