Starvation, conflict, earthquakes, floods, epidemics: Alastair Cook has seen – and worked in – them all.

His 23-year career with United Nations was a long way from his Gibbston childhood, taking him from Kenya to Somalia, Pakistan to Malawi, Myanmar to Afghanistan, Gaza to Syria.

While the UN sometimes gets a bad rap, especially from some politicians, Alastair says its people do an amazing job wherever the need is greatest, be it humanitarian, peacekeeping, emergency preparedness, refugees, disaster response or food delivery.

For instance, during the South Sudan conflict, the UN World Food Programme he worked with delivered 4000 tonnes of food a day, a truck leaving every five minutes, to 8.6 million displaced people.

What of the future, with major UN funding and staff cuts, political attacks on its work and some governments refusing or limiting their access? “The world is in such a state of flux, nobody can say.”  But what Alastair does know is that the need for the UN is not going away. This is your chance to hear what it's like to be part of the UN team that helps meet humanity's needs, on the ground, every day…