The UN System Staff College and UN DOCO, in close collaboration with the Vienna based Agencies, are proud to announce the upcoming Inter-Agency Knowledge Fair on Policy Advice vs. Implementation: how to find the right positioning for UN development activities at the country level? .

This event comes as a follow up to the online survey that was circulated to the members of the Coordination Practice Network (CPN) and Knowledge Management (KM) focal points from different agencies in March 2010. The theme Policy Advice vs. Implementation came as the most voted topic out of 14 areas on which practitioners considered most relevant exploring inter-Agency country experiences in support of national and regional development efforts.

The fair will take place in Vienna at the Austria Vienna Center from 28 to 30 September 2010. The purpose of this  face-to-face practitioners’ meeting is to provide UN staff from Headquarters, regional, sub-regional and country offices with a chance to interact, learn from each other, as well as to promote a culture of sharing experiences and improve working practices. It will also help to draw on the expertise available within and across the UN development system and provide knowledge for identification of lessons learned and good practices.

The fair is inspired by previous “share fairs” (organized individually or jointly by agencies) and independent initiatives of UN staff (knowledge cafés, communities of practices, the One Knowledge Initiative, etc.), which have aimed at improving organizational learning and increasing the UN system’s efficiency and effectiveness. This Inter-Agency Knowledge Fair will therefore provide a showcase for concrete case studies of joint field initiatives (selected through this Call for Papers) focusing on lessons learned, challenges and knowledge sharing strategies.

In order to participate, interested attendees must fill in the following to submit a proposal describing a concrete UN joint field initiative before August 13th 2010 to Ms. Fleur Vernat and copy Mr. Francesco Galtieri. Authors of the selected papers will be invited to present their case studies at the Fair and UN DOCO will cover for the costs associated to their travel and daily allowance (up to a maximum of four per country office). The form will help proposals to focus on the main lessons learned and challenges encountered, as well as on the knowledge sharing strategies possibly adopted.

Please do not hesitate to contact Fleur Vernat (fleur.vernat@undg.org) if you have any question or need further information.