|
The partnership training and capacity-building work of the Staff College dates back to 1998 when the UN Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP) provided seed-funding for a pilot project called ‘Training UN Leaders to Build Public-Private Partnerships’. This project was implemented in collaboration with the London-based Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF).
The original Partnerships project pilot-tested skills training, country-based workshops and produced The Guiding Hand, a ground-breaking publication on partnership brokers. The initial phase’s key lesson learned was that UN systems and skills would require significant changes to accommodate the partnership paradigm. With the acceleration of partnering activity and opportunity throughout the UN system in recent years, the need for capacity building and systemic change is even greater now than it was when the project was originally launched. Bringing together the UN system-wide learning activities of UNSSC and the wealth of experience and expertise of IBLF’s The Partnering Initiative, our current partnering training and capacity building activities represent a dynamic response to rapidly increasing demand. In 2005, UNSSC, IBLF, UNDP and Rio Tinto collaborated on the publication of The Brokering Guidebook, an expanded and updated resource for partnership brokers. The Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) demonstrate that there is international consensus on the key challenges that have to be addressed in order to meet the needs and hopes of people everywhere. The UN Global Compact provides strategic leadership on UN engagement with business and civil society, and a supportive value-based platform designed to promote institutional learning. The cause of “larger freedom” as envisioned by the Secretary-General can only be advanced by broad, deep and sustained global cooperation among States and non-state actors. Effective partnerships between States, civil society organizations and private sector businesses may, in fact, represent an appropriate means to support the achievements of the MDGs. Launched in December 2005, the Partnering Skills for Strategic Engagement course is designed to enhance the abilities of UN staff and their development partners to engage in and promote innovative and effective multi-stakeholder partnerships. Since its launch, the three-day course has been delivered 15 times in 10 different locations attracting more than 350 participants. We are currently focusing our efforts on UN programme staff and their development partners working at the regional and country levels as the project has become fully integrated into the Development Cooperation programme. The next course will take place on the UNSSC campus in Turin, 23-25 June 2008. For more information on the Partnering Skills course and other partnership training and capacity-building activities, please contact: Ritsu Nacken or Angelo Miramonti Development Cooperation Resident Coordinator System Learning Support UNSSC skills@unss.org |
