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UNSA: A Platform for Opportunity An Interview with Darko Petrovic

Updated: Jan 31

"UNSA is a platform for opportunity," says Darko Petrovic, founder of the UN Student Association Maastricht. The existence of this association can be life-changing, as it brings people with different perspectives, opinions, and ideas together on specific subjects. The diversity of people lets ideas flow.


The United Nations (UN) serves as a mirror of the world, requiring us to address complex themes, challenges, problems, and conflicts from diverse perspectives. If you are stuck in your bubble, you will not find a sustainable solution to any of these. Darko emphasizes that the beauty of this association is that it is “a door-opener”. It brings all these different voices together and creates opportunities for people to find themselves in the future and whatever they want to pursue.


The inspiration behind creating UNSA


For Darko, human connection and making a difference were the guiding principles. He wanted to bring people together around a cause, promoting the critical work of the United Nations, and the values it stands for. His passion took root with Model UN during high school in Germany and continued in Maastricht, where he realized the absence of a similar initiative.


"Why don’t we have something like this here?" he asked. Conversations with like-minded students inspired the creation of UNSA. The initial goal was modest: a delegation or a conference. But soon, it evolved into something much larger – and it had to. "Let’s think bigger," as he recalls. "Let’s create an association that can cater to various needs, with Model UN as just one component."


First UNSA event: disarmament


The first UNSA event was a lecture on disarmament at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (FEBA), attended by around 20 to 30 people. Soon after, the association expanded its activities to include educational excursions, MUN delegations, a mix of events, charity balls, journals, and NGO projects.


In the second year, following a volunteering opportunity in Madagascar, Darko came up with the idea of creating the project committee, nowadays known as the development committee, which does NGO work in other countries. “It grew more and more.” And with growth it just confirmed the initial assumption that we need something that reflects the diversity of interests among UNSA members, that brings people together, lets ideas flow, and that can create a meaningful impact.


Thinking big and bigger is the driver of making a difference


Darko’s vision had always been expansive. "Not everyone is interested in Model UN, but they are interested in the many topics the UN addresses," he explains. That is how UNSA came around having more to offer – events, journals, and trips to make it attractive for different audiences. Thinking big was a driving force. "Deep down, I was sure it would be successful, and giving up on that vision never occurred to me as an option," he says, even though initially he faced logistical and financial obstacles.


UNSA’s role in Darko’s career


UNSA brought Darko on the professional path, and some of it can also be attributed to serendipity. “I believe that you are the builder, the crafter of your luck in a way,” he reckons. If it was not for his dedication to UNSA, and all the doors and lucky moments it opened along the way, he would probably not be at the UN right now.


Organisation and leadership skills, working with people from different backgrounds, finding common ground, and negotiating over the organization of events and committee themes are all very tangible skills that you acquire, which are indispensable in a working environment. “What you learn at UNSA, you most likely won't be able to acquire during your coursework,” he emphasizes. These are critical life skills.


Darko also revealed some lesser-known facts about UNSA’s origin story. “UNSA itself was also born out of failure,” he admits, referencing his rejection from the United Netherlands Model UN delegation in 2006. "It was disappointing, for sure, but this redirected me back to Maastricht and inspired me to create something more meaningful - an association offering more than just professional delegations." Some things in life are not meant to be. Maybe not now, maybe later, maybe never. But I think one has to learn to embrace the opportunity that can come out of failure and to normalize such experiences, saying: “Look, it’s not a big deal, what’s important is that you learn from it and keep going.”


From UNSA to Outplay Hunger: Darko launches the “Outplay Hunger” initiative at the World Food Program.


Darko is the spark behind the "Outplay Hunger" initiative at the World Food Programme (WFP), a strategic effort that aims to partner with the gaming industry and player communities to combat global hunger. While WFP had previously experimented with video games for fundraising and education purposes, these efforts were often "very siloed" and lacked cohesion or long-term impact. In 2022, Darko rediscovered his passion for gaming and realized its transformative potential for humanitarian work. As he describes, this was his "lightbulb moment".


Soon after, he set up an informal research team of WFP staff and gaming experts to analyze past efforts and chart a new course. Their goal was to answer a critical question: "How can we meaningfully leverage gaming to fight hunger?" Through this process, the team developed a roadmap that would make the case for gaming and show a practical way forward. Darko pitched the idea to multiple directors, emphasizing its capacity to generate lasting impact. The road was long and anything but easy but, "It came at the right moment in time," he recalls. "People recognized the potential." 


Now serving as WFP's Business Development Consultant for Gaming, Darko works to build partnerships across the gaming ecosystem, leveraging the medium to raise funds, tell WFP's story, and strengthen its capacity to deliver on a Zero Hunger world. "My job is to develop meaningful opportunities with the gaming industry, to link them to the Zero Hunger cause, and make a tangible impact in people’s lives," he explains. Through the "Outplay Hunger" initiative, Darko demonstrates how creativity, technology, and cross-sector partnerships can address global challenges.


UNSA as a global player


Darko also believes that within 5-10 years, UNSA can become a global player among youth-led organizations and that it doesn’t have to limit its presence and offering to Maastricht. "Building the brand is crucial," he says, comparing it to his work with Outplay Hunger. "In today’s world, we need to think big, scale up, and focus on impact. And multilateral institutions need all the help they can get. There’s no greater motivation than our shared responsibility for this one planet and humankind.”


Conclusion


Darko’s journey from founding UNSA to pioneering initiatives at WFP shows the power of vision, purpose, and collaboration. His story is a testament to thinking big, embracing failure, and building opportunities for others—the very principles at the heart of UNSA. “If you want to be effective at work, if you want to be an effective communicator, team player, leader, you better go through the UNSA program in one form or the other, because then you'll be more ready for a complex world of tomorrow”. UNSA is a great place to start,” he concludes.

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