Geneva Internationals: Improving storytelling in international development

Meet Joan Okitoi-Heisig, a communications specialist. Born in Kenya, she lived in Germany before moving to Geneva to help international development actors better communicate about their work. 

Joan Okitoi-Heisig is a freelance communications consultant. She helps big international organisations and small NGOs tell the public about their work. Her motivation is to amplify community voices so that they are heard on a global level. She writes, edits, and sometimes asks uncomfortable questions: what does the international development community get wrong about storytelling? 

Geneva hosts a vast variety of international organisations like the UN’s European headquarters and the World Health Organization. Switzerland’s second biggest city is home to about 750 non-governmental organisations and 177 diplomatic missions. More than 32,000 people from around the world work at these organisations. In our series “Geneva Internationals” we portray some of these people.