“We were having something to eat and threw some of the scraps out behind us,” Shearer recalls. “I remember looking back down the road and seeing some of the local kids fighting over the scraps. I knew then and there that I wanted to help.”

March forward to January 2017 and Shearer is back in South Sudan — this time as the head of the United Nations Mission in the country (UNMISS).

After resigning as New Zealand opposition leader in 2013, Shearer retained his seat at the 2014 election and remained in Parliament — until a chance phone call last year from then UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon. “He rang me and suggested I come to New York to discuss a job,” Shearer says.

The call wasn’t entirely out of the blue — before politics, Shearer had worked with the UN in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

Did he really understand what he was getting himself into when he quit politics for a job with the UN last December?

“I was fortunate in the sense that I had already worked with the UN around the world, so I had some knowledge of what to expect,” he says. “But I guess the enormity of the job hit home when I arrived in January.”

Since the country gained its independence in 2011, nothing has seemed to go right. Civil war has ravaged the country since 2013, with almost 1.9 million people fleeing, according to UNHCR. Famine has been declared and the UN has said that over five million people are in urgent need of food aid.

“Food is a massive problem … the rainy season has come and getting to certain parts of the country is almost impossible,” Shearer says. “The levels of starvation are the worst I’ve ever seen and we are trying everything we can to get food parcels across the country.”

Will the situation improve once the rains calm?

“It will help the fields, obviously, as they will be able to be sown with crops, but the issue is that there may be no one left to tend the fields.

“In the south of the country, thousands upon thousands of people have fled into Uganda. So there is now no one left behind to work the fields, so the food production doesn’t happen.

“This is a country based on subsistence farming but people are deserting their homes, leaving livestock behind.”

Solving the food crisis is an enormous undertaking on its own but Shearer also has the peace process to consider as well.

“Once independence came, South Sudan was really a perfect storm of calamity waiting to happen. It was seriously underdeveloped, they really had nothing when independence came. There was no proper process of state building, of ensuring tribes could live together, of changing ingrained mentalities that had separated people for many, many years.

“Now they all had to come together overnight and it was never going to be a simple solution. A sense of nationhood is going to be a generational process. But I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. The government is more dominant, militarily, and we are seeing a more conciliatory approach to the country’s problems.

“There are real efforts to work with regional countries for stability and for political settlement. These are encouraging signs.”

Shearer spends a lot of time interacting with the local people.

“I find them to be very resilient. Even in these dark times, they retain a sense of humour and seem remarkably optimistic that things will change for the better. I have complete admiration for them,” he says.

“They believe in the process but they know there is still some way to go. There are hundreds of thousands of people here in need of help and I believe there would be many, many more in dire straits if we weren’t here working on protecting them and building the peace process.”

So, in the midst of the incredible human suffering he witnesses, almost on a daily basis, how does he keep his emotions in check?

“They do fluctuate quite a bit, from sympathy to anger, from frustration to optimism.

“But in my job I have to be single-minded about what it is we are trying to achieve. It is hard at times but I’m comforted somewhat by what it is we are doing and how we are doing it.”

Most Friday evenings, Shearer retreats to a small bar in his compound, just to have a quiet beer at the end of the week.

It serves as a small oasis amid the daily horrors occurring in South Sudan.

He often drinks with the small contingent of Australians working there as part of the Australian Defence Force’s Operation ASLAN unit.

ADF personnel are not deployed in combat roles but work as military liaison officers or in aviation, logistics support and national support roles.

The Operation ASLAN unit comprises 25 personnel from RAAF, Navy and Army.

“The Aussies over here are fantastic,” Shearer says.

“The training team is doing excellent work — their professionalism is second to none. It’s with the international teams, like the Australians, that we can make a difference here.

“We’re all here for the same reasons — to help these people live better lives and hopefully
we are going a long way to doing that.”

MISSION TO END CHILDREN’S SUFFERING

FLIGHT Lieutenant Kelly Francis must remain professional at all times as she works in war-torn and famine-ridden South Sudan.

It’s how she copes with what most would find hard to stomach. But there’s a moment that elevates the job above the norm, a moment to make sense of it all.

Flt Lt Francis is one of 25 Australian Defence Force personnel seconded to South Sudan as part of Australia’s commitment in the country under Operation ASLAN.

A couple of months ago, she had visited an orphanage in the capital of Juba and was struck by the spirit of the children.

“We were able to raise $5000 for mattresses and other linen, which we purchased at the local market to keep the money in the local economy,” Flt Lt Francis says.

“It truly changed the children’s lives and the orphanage manager and director were very thankful for the donation.

“Moments like this are what make the job feel more rewarding. Being able to interact with the local kids and know we are helping to make their lives a bit more comfortable is a great way to remain motivated.

“Children shouldn’t have to suffer because of the conflict, and by giving them a better chance to live their lives, they can help to bring peace to their country as they get older.”

The contingent comprises UN staff officers and military liaison officers fulfilling roles in mission headquarters-level planning, operations, logistics and aviation safety.

“As staff officers, we can measure individual success by performing our duties with professionalism. We each have a small part to play in the overall success of the mission, but that success is difficult to measure as there are many different issues affecting South Sudan.

“We do what we can to the best of our abilities, and to me that is the success of the Australian contribution to UNMISS.”

Is there still much work to be done?

“Australia’s presence in South Sudan is making a positive impact on the ground. There is more to be done to work towards peace in the country, and Australia will participate in the mission while the optimism for an end to conflict continues,” Flt Lt Francis says.