Celebrating 76 Years of UNESCO: Interview with Krista Pikkat, Director of UNESCO Almaty

Established in 1994, the UNESCO Cluster Office in Almaty has been promoting education, science, culture and communication in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The Office’s current Director, Krista Pikkat, has been serving the goals of UNESCO for more than 24 years.

Ms. Pikkat’s experience is vast and varied: from starting at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris at the Programme for Central and Eastern European Development (PROCEED), the Sector for External Relations and Cooperation, to the Office of the Director-General, and the Bureau of Strategic Planning. She then moved to the field and worked as the Head of the UNESCO Tashkent Office and now as the Director of the Almaty Office.

In honor of UNESCO’s 76th birthday we would like to share Krista Pikkat’s story to describe the work of an international civil servant in fulfilling UNESCO’s mission in the world.

Manshuq

November 16th, 2021

The opportunity of a lifetime

While working on her master’s dissertation at the University of Tartu, Krista Pikkat received an unexpected call from one of her professors asking her to work for the Estonian National Commission for UNESCO at the Ministry of Culture. Under the leadership of the well-known Estonian poet, Doris Kareva, who was working as Secretary-General of the National Commission, Krista learned more about UNESCO and grew committed to its mission statement: build peace in the minds of people.

When helping with the preparations for the ‘Baltic Culture Day at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, Krista was invited to work in the French capital for six months at the Programme for Central and Eastern European Development (PROCEED), following which she applied for the UNESCO Young Professionals Programme.

"The competition for joining the programme was tough. There were many applicants from various countries, including some from under-represented and unrepresented ones. There were many rounds of evaluation during the selection process, starting from written essays and ending with an interview with a group of representatives from various departments of the UNESCO secretariat.” Luckily, by this time, Ms. Pikkat already had a solid amount of professional experience, which was crucial in landing her the job.