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A One UN Training Service Platform for Climate Change that supports and seeks to scale up coordinated training and skills development offered by UN agencies under a future international climate change regime is taking shape. This was the message and main conclusion of a UNDP/UNEP/UNITAR organized side event on Friday, 5 June 2009 in the margin of the ongoing Climate Change Talks, 1-12 June 2009 in Bonn.

“The Platform is a concrete example of the UN Delivering as One and a practical contribution to coordinated UN training efforts in countries to strengthen capacities in the area of climate change” said Veerle Vandeweerd, Director of Environment and Energy at UNDP in her opening remarks. The collaborative nature and value added of the initiative was also emphasized by Georgios Kostakos, UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) Secretariat, who welcomed the Platform as an integral part of the CEB’s One UN approach in the area of climate change, as called for by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Moderated by Kaveh Zahedi, Climate Change Co-ordinator at UNEP, the side event presented progress made in developing the concept for the Training Service Platform since the Poznan Climate Change Conference in December 2008, where the idea was first conceived. The event also provided an opportunity for some 55 participants to engage in a dialogue on how the Platform can best deliver effective services and meet the needs of constituencies in Member States and the UN system.

“The Platform is built around three distinct activity and service areas and seeks to foster ownership of UN partners and Member States”, explained Achim Halpaap of UNITAR, the designated host agency for the Platform. Initial activities in 2009 include development of a web-based Inventory of UN Climate Change Learning and Training Materials, pilot action to develop a One UN Climate Change Training Package, and conceptualization of a modular curriculum to support country-driven One Country – One UN Pilot Climate Change Workshops in 2010 that take into account the outcomes of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.

The interactive debate about the Platform was spearheaded by discussant statements from Sudhir Sharma, UNFCCC Secretariat, Shardul Agrawal, OECD and Felix Dodds, Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future. Discussant statements and interventions from the floor highlighted, inter alia, the importance of:

  • Developing human resource strategies for climate change which can foster sustainability of training and skills-development in countries through the involvement of national and local learning and training institutions
  • Linking training and skills-development to the achievement of measurable results
  • Using One Country-One UN pilot workshops as an opportunity to support implementation of the “individual level” capacity building pillar of the UNFCCC Capacity Building Framework
  • Engaging stakeholder groups in country-driven processes to strengthen human resource capacity for climate change at the national and sub-national level
  • Developing practical and focused services such as enhancing professional skills-development and offering user-friendly versions of complex material
  • Reaching out to all members of the UN system to ensure that the inventory of learning material is complete and thematic training materials are prepared through collaboration of concerned agencies
  • Working with donors and assistance agencies in developing the Platform concept further and supporting co-ordinated training and skills development in countries

To access a web cast of the side event made by the UNFCCC Secretariat please click here.

For the ENB coverage of the event, please click here.

The presentation about the platform concept can be downloaded here.

For additional information please contact: untsp4cc@unitar.org

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