Learning

The Office of the Ombudsman for UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNOPS and UN Women offers a range of learning and skills development sessions designed to strengthen healthy workplace relationships and support constructive conflict management.

These practical, interactive courses help personnel build core competencies such as effective communication, emotional awareness, trust-building, and collaborative problem-solving. They also provide insight into the role of the Ombudsman function and the informal resolution services available to address workplace concerns.
Our sessions focus on equipping participants with concrete, applicable skills. Topics include managing workplace conflict, navigating emotions during challenging interactions, preparing for difficult conversations, fostering civility and psychological safety in teams, and understanding how mediation can help resolve disputes and restore working relationships. Through real-life scenarios and practical tools, participants learn how to transform conflict into opportunities for dialogue, growth, and stronger collaboration.

For the full list of available learning sessions, check our catalogue here.

These learning opportunities are delivered both online and in person, allowing offices and teams across different duty stations to access them flexibly. Each session is tailored to the specific context of the requesting office to ensure relevance and impact.

To request a session, offices can contact the Office of the Ombudsman. The Training and Development Specialist will then meet with the requesting team to better understand their context, challenges, and learning objectives. Based on this consultation, the content and approach of the session are customized to address the office’s specific needs and priorities, ensuring a meaningful and practical learning experience.

We also offer at no cost these 5 e-learning courses:

Managing Conflict Effectively in  the UN Workplace

Innovative and unique (available also in French and Spanish) it explains in an interactive way how we all can prevent and manage conflicts more effectively, and which resources staff and management can access in addition to those of the Office of the Ombudsman.

Mediation as an Effective Way of Resolving Disputes

The Mediation Unit has developed an e-learning course to help you understand, specifically, the role of mediation and appreciate its effectiveness in resolving workplace conflicts.

Challenging Conversations at Work (and Beyond)

The course is composed of two modules. Using communication models, this module explains existing obstacles for colleagues to understand one another- and how that impacts our professional work environments.

Managing Emotions at Work: Fundamental Concerns

This course too is composed of two modules and it has been designed to help you better understand, and better manage, the powerful ever-present role that emotions play in communication and conflict.

Psychological safety

Psychological safety has been widely identified as a key component of highly productive teams and particularly important for stimulating learning behavior in organizations. This course will introduce the concept of Psychological Safety in Teams, its benefits and how it is measured.

Have a conflict at work?

If you need assistance on how to resolve conflict or want help clarifying what options you have to address a dispute, get in touch with us.

Managing Conflict Effectively in the UN Workplace