KEY POINTS:
David Shearer's CV reads like a list of the world's worst troublespots - he's worked in Somalia, Rwanda, Gaza, Lebanon and now Iraq.
For the past six months, the 50-year-old from Auckland has been the United Nation's deputy envoy in Iraq, co-ordinating its billion-dollar aid, development and reconstruction programme.
He says he's encouraged by his progress, but admits that fixing the war torn country "is such a vastly complex and complicated issue, it's really taken me these last few months to even scratch the surface of it."
Mr Shearer and his wife, Anuschka Meyer, were the Herald's New Zealanders of the Year in 1992. That year, they ran one of the biggest aid camps in Somalia during the civil war and famine that killed up to 330,000 people.
He has twice tried to enter Parliament as a Labour candidate, and for two years was an adviser to former Foreign Minister Phil Goff.
Back at the sharp end in Baghdad, Mr Shearer says Iraq is on a whole new level to any conflict he's been involved in before:
"There's the major regional influences of Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia; the three sectarian groups inside Iraq: the Shias, the Sunnis and the Kurds; and then more locally than that is the tribal level and the political parties, and how they're playing against each other
"Add to that oil, and how much oil Iraq produces - it's got the second largest reserves in the world - and the involvement of the world's only superpower."
"It's an extremely complex environment."
Mr Shearer divides his time between Iraq, primarily Baghdad, and neighbouring Jordan, where his wife and two children live.
You recently asked world governments for US$265 million in aid for Iraq. Why?
"Basically it's an additional emergency appeal to meet the needs of particularly those people who've fled their homes, displaced people, and more than 10 per cent of Iraqis are displaced."
Four weeks on from that appeal, how much money have you received?
"We're coming up to 20 per cent of what we asked for, but we've also got indications that quite a bit more is coming in."
How would you describe the security situation in Iraq?
"Certainly since I started in September it feels more positive. There's been a drop from about 85-plus deaths a day, a year ago, to around 20-something today. Unfortunately, there's been a bit of an upward tail in the last two or three weeks. But you have to put that into perspective. We have more deaths in a day than Gaza and the West Bank have in nearly a month."
How has the UN reacted to the recent Turkish incursions into northern Iraq?
"We'd already pre-positioned supplies and stock in case there was a mass movement of people, so we had tents and food and various other items ready to go. We also liaised with the Kurdish regional government to ensure everybody knew what we were doing. But so far we have not seen a major movement of people; it's been isolated movements. The Turkish operations have been fairly localised so it hasn't caused a big humanitarian problem, it's been pretty confined."
What about your own security? Are you able to visit problem areas yourself?
"Basically everybody who's working as an international in Iraq faces enormous security challenges. We're based inside the Green Zone of Baghdad. Everything's heavily fortified, and when we go into other parts of Baghdad we have to go in with a lot of security. So that doesn't enable us to do the usual kind of walking around meeting people, as you would in another country. It's completely different. I've never encountered this level of security before, and I've been in some pretty dicey situations.
"So the time we actually get out on to the ground is limited, and it has to be planned well in advance. It's not just a matter of jumping in a car, it's a matter of several cars, with armed people, armoured cars, and me wearing body armour and helmets."
How do you feel about working in such a hostile environment?
"Personally I don't like having guns around me all the time, but on the other hand I can see that this is an extreme situation and I knew that this was what I would need to get used to if I was going to take this job on."
And why exactly did you take the job on?
"It really is the cutting edge in terms of reaching people and rebuilding a country in conflict. There is no other more extreme place in the world. I wanted to see what we could do and see how we could do it, both from an operational point of view of helping people and also from an intellectual point of view. It's testing the very paradigm of the international humanitarian efforts to try and help people.
"You see the best and the worst in this sort of environment. You see the absolute horrors but also see the greatest humanity."
What have you been doing in Iraq since you got there in October?
"One of the main things has been to ensure that UN agencies have proper representation inside Iraq, while providing for their security, to expand our operations and our level of support.
"We have these enormous movement constrictions [due to insurgents] and we've been working with lots of different local organisations, local businesses, for example. In a sense we're devolving our efforts to some degree, so we can be more effective on the ground."
How do you feel about the progress you've made to date?
"I'm pretty encouraged actually. I've had very good voices of support in what we've been doing.
"It's a one year contract but I think I'll probably be here longer than a year to be able to be properly effective."
Some might say why expose yourself to that risk? Are you immune to it after working so long in war zones?
"Basically I calculate the risk. You've got to sit back and say: There's obviously a risk here, what are my chances? If I thought it was particularly dodgy I wouldn't do it. I think you also have to have reasonable confidence in the people you're working with that they wouldn't allow you to go into various places unless they were confident it was okay.
"Something that always sticks in the mind was when, in 2006, I went off to head the UN's humanitarian effort in Lebanon during the Lebanon War, and it had been on TV the whole time and I had to be off very early the next morning, and my son said 'I love you Papa, but don't do anything stupid'.
And I remember sitting in a car [in Lebanon], going down a road where some serious bombing had been taking place and thinking 'Is this stupid or not?'
"I used to be very independent, but when you've got kids you approach risk differently. I think as a father you put a different filter on it."
So you're in Iraq for perhaps another 18 months. What's your feeling about the future?
"I'm operating on the basis that things will continue to improve. However I'm also realistic and this is my 10th or 12th conflict that I've worked in, and conflicts never go in a straight line, there's always a lot of bumps in the road.
"This isn't going to be a smooth ride."
