Shaping the future UN through learning

Repositioning the UN development system to enhance synergies and instil sustainable development learning is essential for realizing the 2030 Agenda. The relevance of UNSSC's customized learning programmes, guided by the principles of the 2030 Agenda, the Paris Agreement, and subsequent UN resolutions and legal frameworks, will continue to grow. Our strategy is to hone areas such as UN country programming mechanisms, UN norms and principles, results-based management, strategic foresight, systems thinking, strategic communications, advocacy, political acumen, partnerships, negotiations, client orientation, and equitable and sustainable financing.

As we envision the future, UNSSC is steadfast in its commitment to continuously enhancing its offerings to address traditional governance topics while elevating less conventional applied governance skills such as consensus-building, public policy shaping and transparent decision-making. One way we will do this is by reintroducing the UN Reflection Series, a multi-stakeholder learning forum that bridges the gaps between science, policy and practice for leaders from inside the UN and beyond. At the end of the series we will publish a policy compendium featuring policy briefs derived from those events.

To facilitate the shift towards a sustainable future, UNSSC will focus on identifying the unique learning needs of UN staff, development practitioners, civil servants, government leaders, civil society organizations and youth on topics related to digital technologies while also incorporating them in our learning programmes to make them more adaptable to learners.

UNSSC’s commitment to a rights-based approach to learning ensures that our strategies are rooted in inclusivity, equity and accessibility. This means creating meaningful learning opportunities for UN staff and partners to fully engage with and understand the core principles of the 2030 Agenda. UNSSC will enhance the accessibility, availability, adaptability and quality of its learning programmes, so they continue to be fit-for-purpose and accessible by all.

To propel sustainable development learning forward, UNSSC intends to expand its digital learning programmes, resources and tools, reaching out to more diverse audiences. We will leverage the latest technological advances, including virtual and augmented reality, game-based platforms, gamification tools, artificial intelligence, learner data analysis and the metaverse. UNSSC aims to develop Open Educational Resources (OERs) to democratize access to learning materials.

UNSSC aims to become a leading provider of context-specific and innovative learning materials and solutions for conflict sensitivity and conflict analysis as well as becoming an institutional capacity-building provider capable of supporting the work of inter-agency working groups. UNSSC products on conflict sensitivity and analysis cater to diverse actors, including UN Country Teams and UN entities. Our partnerships with the Resident Coordinator Offices in the South Caucasus region, our work with the Peacebuilding Fund in Sudan as well as our growing partnership with UNDP Somalia are examples of our relevance. Another goal is to mainstream regional and linguistic diversity by hiring subject-matter experts capable of speaking Arabic, French, Russian and Spanish.

Our Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) and Women, Peace and Security (WPS) courses assist to promote gender equality and youth inclusion in peace processes. We aim to enhance the legitimacy, sustainability and impact of the UN's work by equipping participants with the skills to conduct gender and youth-responsive analyses, develop strategies and implement programmes.

Our learning initiatives are rooted in theoretical knowledge and technical expertise, which can be adapted to the specific needs, languages and contexts of our diverse stakeholders, whether at headquarters or in field environments. By incorporating gender perspectives into the YPS Agenda and an age perspective into the WPS Agenda, we can strengthen peace and security efforts.

We are striving to enhance YPS and WPS Agendas within the UN system and we engage regularly with stakeholders and working groups including the Office of the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth (OSGEY)'s Youth 2030 Knowledge Management Task Team.

Since the development of the first climate, peace and security learning portfolio, UNSSC has been positioning itself as a knowledge broker for inter-agency training on climate related risk analysis and climate sensitive approaches for peacebuilding. We work with the UN Climate Security Mechanism, the think tank adelphi and we support the organization of learning events during the Member States forum at the annual Berlin Climate Security Conference. The focus of the coming years will be to build on the training capacities developed and knowledge acquired on climate-sensitive approaches to support requests from the UN system for peace-operations, special political missions and inter-agency workshops.

The integrated analysis and response portfolio has been met with growing interest from UN staff who are increasingly called upon to deepen their analytical skills to adopt a “trilingual approach” for prevention activities focusing on the humanitarian, development and peace sectors. Lately, aligning the UN Secretariat prevention initiatives with those of the work of UN agencies has become a system-wide priority. The Secretary General’s Integration Agenda balances the Nexus Agenda with the Integrated Assessment and Planning Policy Guidelines for the Peace and Security pillar, and UNSSC is uniquely positioned to provide the cross-sectoral training.

In 2022, UNSSC and its partners celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Safe and Secure Approaches in Field Environments (SSAFE) programme. SSAFE is the system-wide standard for safety and security training for UN and associated personnel operating in complex environments. In addition to its partnership with UNDSS, UNSSC is committed to strengthening its safety and security portfolio to meet the evolving needs of the UN Security Management System.

As new global threats to the safety of UN staff and operations emerge, UNSSC is exploring an expansion of its portfolio to include trainings in the organization and delivery of Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) and Emergency Trauma Bag (ETB).

Working with UN Human Resources and learning management leaders, we will continue to design programmes addressing the challenges faced by UN managers so they become more confident leaders and decision-makers.

UNSSC will grow as an inclusive learning community of UN leaders and managers motivated to foster connection, exploration and engagement. Our leadership and management certification programmes will continue shifting towards flexible modular designs where learners choose their own development paths that blend theory with workplace experiences. Our programmes will mix online learning with more frequent in-person encounters.

UNSSC will continue to improve the performance of UN personnel through innovative orientation tools, bespoke assessment instruments and mentoring and coaching for individuals and teams. Throughout the UN system those organizations with articulated people strategies increasingly rely on custom performance assessments and executive coaching services offered by UNSSC. We will continue to maintain a rich portfolio of relevant specialized programmes that focus on improving core competencies which prepare staff for the UN’s professional certification processes. In this context, a future initiative in leadership and management will be the establishment of cost-effective mechanisms to facilitate studies and certify the coaching capabilities of experienced UN personnel. This will be complemented by an internal marketplace that helps users identify executive coaching capabilities throughout the UN system.

We will continue to invest in the UN Leadership Culture Assessment and related tools like the UN Lab for Organizational Change and Knowledge (UNLOCK) that support management reforms and organizational culture change processes. The UN Innovation Toolkit will be tightly integrated into the Blue Line learning marketplace allowing the growing number of UN learners connecting through that tool to access new learning processes.

In recent years UNSSC, in partnership with other UN organizations and interagency networks, has played a growing role providing technical certification opportunities relating to UN business operations. The results have been positive, and demand is strong. This will translate into new training and certification opportunities in fields as varied as data literacy, evaluation competencies and foresight. Developing blockchain technologies in-house will enable UNSSC to offer digital micro-credentials through its own bespoke certification frameworks.

UNSSC will continue to invest in Blue Line as a common learning hub for self-directed on-demand learning opportunities and interagency knowledge transfers. In addition, UNSSC will continue developing its learning management technology and exclusive UNKampus ecosystem as a way of underpinning its own learning interventions as well as offering UN system organizations preferential access to such market-leading learning management system-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions. An increasing number of UN system organizations and institutions are approaching UNSSC for support in deploying bespoke online academies and learning environments that leverage UNSSC’s unique LMS technology and services. Continued investment in research and development, including into innovative artificial intelligence (AI) applications specifically trained for UN contexts, will enable UNSSC to increase the range of analytical tools, strategic insights and learning advisory services it can offer UN partners.