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The UN is at a tipping point. Born from crisis, it now faces one of its own: outdated systems, rising demands, and shrinking resources.
Structural reform – mergers, mandate reviews, reorganisation – is only one part of the story. More than another reform, we need renewal.
This paper presents a vision for shifting how we work, lead, and collaborate across the UN system. It presents four shifts that we need:
Purpose
From defending turf to advancing shared mission
Participation
From top-down control to shared power and voice
Collaboration
From fragmented structures to a connected UN ecosystem
Renewal
From bureaucracy and burnout to courage, care, and creativity
The good news? These shifts are already sprouting across the UN. Teams, networks, and experiments are quietly showing what’s possible. Now it’s about connecting and growing those seeds.
This paper is an invitation to co-create. If you are working on similar questions, or tending seeds of change where you are, we invite you to share them – and to help shape what comes next.
This paper is brought to you by the Department of the Possible - a fictional UN department created by committed UN colleagues that invites us to collectively imagine new possibilities at this fragile moment in time.
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