Women in Tech: From UN Peacekeeping to global IT support with Branka Zelenbaba
The Women in Tech series puts the spotlight on women who are championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital innovations across UNDP. By sharing these inspiring individual stories, we hope to encourage others to choose this path and spur gender equality in the digital sector.
IT Support Analyst with UNDP, Branka Zelenbaba’s professional journey with the United Nations began with a passion for languages and a desire to help others. She started her career as a translator for the UN peacekeeping mission in Croatia and later joined the Procurement Office of the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia in the 1990s during and after the Balkan crisis. Here she witnessed war and the challenges of humanitarian work in crisis contexts.
After experiencing the impact of humanitarian work in the Balkans, Branka knew she wanted to keep helping people. This is why, in 2003, she joined UNDP’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Helpdesk Unit based in Bratislava to provide functional and business process support.
Over her more than two-decades with UNDP, Branka has seen significant digital change. From the adoption of a new ERP system in 2004 to the launch of a modern service management system in 2020 and most recently the move of UNDP’s ERP system to the cloud. She has adapted to the changing technology needs and demands of UNDP’s personnel and embraced every opportunity to learn new skills and digital tools.
“I did not even have an email address when I started working with the UN”, Branka confirmed, yet today supporting others as they use corporate tools and platforms, is core to her work.
“I feel privileged to be among the first ones in the organization to learn about new tools and to be able to pass on information about every platform and application that the organization uses,” she added.
In her current role with UNDP, Branka provides support to UNDP personnel and partner agencies worldwide addressing IT support queries submitted in UNall.
“To help someone in Fiji who is using the same product as someone in Uruguay or New York is really rewarding. Spending time investigating and looking for the issues that the users are facing, and then you solve them, you feel like you really helped someone that day,” she explained.
She also highlights the importance of continuous learning, including learning from the different perspectives and the feedback received from users and UNDP’s tools and systems daily. Personally, she takes every opportunity to learn new skills to stay up to date with the latest technologies and topics such as the future of Artificial Intelligence and what this means for the support IT provides.
Branka is an inspiring example of how women can overcome adversity and thrive in tech roles as she uses her expertise to make a positive impact globally. She encourages other women and girls to pursue careers in technology and to become part of the digital change that UNDP is driving.
