UN STAFF COLLEGE IN TORINO
TRAINING FOR THE FUTURE OF THE UN
Carlos Lopes bursts with ideas in his office at the UN’s Maison de l’Environnement, near Balexert, as he discusses some of the innovations at the UN System Staff College (UNSSC, www.unssc.org/web/index.asp) that he heads. At this centre in Torino, among other recent courses offered, UN security personnel train for hostage-taking operations with Italian paratroopers (“it’s not just Powerpoint”), a session on leadership is held with the Torino symphony , and a seminar with chefs and leaders of the “slow food” movement focuses on valuing products and input for a quality product. UNSSC does not repeat “training done by everyone”; its niche is for inter-agency training specific to UN-wide needs.
UN Special recently spoke with Dr. Lopes, Director a.i. (also Executive Director, UNITAR) of the Staff College, to which he commutes regularly from Geneva, about its programme.
What is the UN System Staff College?
The College is the only truly inter-agency
source of learning and training of the UN
system. It provides training services, knowledge-management tools and learning events
for UN employees worldwide. Its uniqueness
lays in the fact that its learning programmes
are not tailor-made for an agencyspecific
need, but rather they are driven by
the demands coming from the UN system as
a whole and therefore deliver results that
address system-wide issues.
For instance, we provide support to the concept
of a coordinated UN response to development
problems by organizing various
learning activities for Resident Coordinators
and Country Teams.
What were its goals on being
founded?
The idea of establishing a Staff College to
serve the entire United Nations system dates
back to 1969. The College itself began operations
in 1996 as a project but it became an
independent institution with its own Statute
only in 2002. However, its main goals have remained the same since its inception: to increase
the coherence and effectiveness of
the international civil service, to foster a cohesive
management culture across the UN
system and to strengthen collaboration with
the UN system in areas of common organizational
responsibility.
What are its main achievements?
Despite its lean and relatively small size (with
only about thirty staff), the College is currently
delivering inter-agency training and learning
services which encompass the entire range of
senior management of the UN: from Resident
Coordinators to Special Representatives
of the Secretary-General (SRSGs), to the Secretary-General’s top management team,
which now meets in Turin on an annual basis
for their retreat. The latest additions are a
new system-wide leadership course aimed at
senior managers and a new course for
Deputy SRSGs to be rolled out in 2009.
In terms of participants, the College has
trained over 8,000 staff worldwide in 2008
alone thanks to the excellent training of trainers
system it has in place.
What does its programme mean
practically for UN staff members in
Geneva?
The College offers programmes that could
benefit the staff in Geneva in many areas. For
instance:
- To enhance knowledge of issues and challenges faced by the UN, e.g.: human rights, sustainable environment, gender mainstreaming, capacity development, conflict prevention analysis and more;
- To develop programming tools, lessons learned and good practices in various thematic areas;
- To acquire specific skills through a programme on Safety and Security for staff;
- To learn more about the UN system through an introductory online course designed for new recruits (“Welcome to the UN”).
What are the facilities and resources
at its disposal?
The College is located within a residential
training centre, which offers a cost-effective
and very practical solution to face-to-face
workshops and events. However, we also
work in partnership with the local authorities
and foundations to offer “state-of-the-art”
training opportunities outside the campus.
As already mentioned, we are a lean organization
with only about thirty staff but we rely
on joint ventures with prestigious parts of the
academic world (e.g.: Harvard, the Wharton
School, Fordham University) and with
renowned experts in each subject area.
What are some innovations
in your approach?
The College has placed the concept of
knowledge management at the centre of its
business model. This means that it is moving
towards a direction where its main business
will be to create opportunities and facilitate
possibilities of sharing ideas and experiences.
This approach called “learning by sharing” is
designed to access immense level of knowledge
and experience available in various areas
throughout the system.
Another unique learning model to be
launched by the College soon is offering
technology-based learning that are creative,
user-friendly and cost-effective.
In general, the College is departing from its
traditional role of facilitating and organizing
learning activities to become a provider of
learning opportunities within the system.
Why was Torino chosen, and what are
its advantages?
Torino is not only home to the largest UN residential
training campus in the UN system
(the International Training Centre of the International
Labour Organization, ITC/ILO)
where UNSSC is based, but is also a city of
learning and knowledge. Over the last few
years, in fact this city has transformed from an
industrial reality into a dynamic and international
centre. The city’s Strategic Plan puts
forward a development model which focuses
on a knowledge-based society, investing in
human capital and in the internationalization
of the education system. It is therefore an
ideal location for a knowledge-management
institution such as ours and the enormous
support we receive from local authorities
shows Torino’s vocation to be a “centre of
knowledge”.
What should staff know, that they don’t generally, about the UN Staff College?
- The College is the system-wide centre of excellence for learning, training and management of knowledge.
- We provide learning and training opportunities for the staff rather than only facilitate and organize events;
- We are demand-driven and only focus in areas of inter-agency nature;
- We are the organization that is capable of accessing knowledge and experience throughout the system by means of our on-line communities and networks;
- We are an agile and dynamic institution that provides relevant learning and training programmes at a fraction of costs compared to what is available outside the system.
