SURGE-ing together 🤝
UNDP partners share SURGE Induction experience
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) collaborates closely with United Nations (UN) agencies and partner organizations to ensure it has access to the right expertise and talent when confronted with a crisis. The last SURGE Induction Workshop in 2022, 28th edition of UNDP’s training for crisis professionals, had representation from UN Women, UN Volunteers and Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB).
This was the first time, staff from these organizations joined a SURGE Induction. Here are their reflections:
Learning how other agencies do SURGE is important for us to work better together in the field and find spaces to collaborate. Together we can deliver better emergency responses to those in need. UN Women and UNDP have a long-standing partnership in their development support and there are big opportunities to do this more extensively in humanitarian settings as well as across the HDP Nexus.
SURGE Workshop instilled in me the UNDP approach to crisis resilience that is fortified through proper planning and implementation, while expanding upon data-driven foresight to mitigate identified risks and challenges. It is with this gained knowledge and wisdom that I will build upon in any future role to serve as a SURGE Advisor.
The SURGE workshop has made the UNDP-UNV partnership stronger, and it will help UNDP respond to crises more effectively with UNV’s talent solutions. I’m glad to have learned that UNV is well acknowledged among colleagues at UNDP and considered as a critical part of SURGE deployments. I believe our support is crucial for UNDP’s crisis responses due to the unprecedented number of crises that have happened in the recent few years.
The SURGE Induction Workshop was eye-opening in understanding UNDP’s immediate response to crisis. It was also great to see that UN Volunteer solutions amplify UNDP’s response to crisis. I felt that the emphasis on teamwork distilled a sense of genuine camaraderie among colleagues. The workshop provided an enriching learning experience with all the tools I need in my backpack to be #SURGEready.
For me, SURGE Induction has essentially captured the know-how in turning theory into action when it comes to immediate crisis response without missing the blanks. By participating in the SURGE workshop, I have showcased that MSB is not only a standby partner but also a proactive one, always ready to engage with UNDP.
The SURGE workshop opens doors for partners to learn about how UNDP works around crisis through anticipation, prevention, response and recovery. We hope that such people-to-people connections and open exchange of ideas translate into mutually supportive relationships across agencies to leverage our comparative strengths.
Preparation for a crisis begins before it hits. The SURGE Induction Workshop prepares crisis professionals for the immediate response, imprints the SURGE spirit and builds trust among SURGE Advisors. By having participation from UN Women, UN Volunteers and MSB in the UNDP SURGE induction trainings, we set our crisis practitioners for better collaboration in the field and ensure a common understanding of the core values of the recovery efforts.
Standing-by in crisis
Under Standby Partnership (SBP) mechanism, partner agencies maintain a pool of experts that can be deployed to enhance UNDP’s response in different fragile contexts, conflict zones or to support climate action. UNDP has agreements with 11 standby partners — including Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), RedR Australia and Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
Standby deployments vary in duration, from just a few weeks up to three years, and complement UNDP’s Crisis Offer that helps countries anticipate, prevent, respond to and recover from crisis.
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) and German Center for Peace Operations (ZIF) are working closely with UNDP in implementing Humanitarian, Development and Peace Nexus approaches and supporting critical conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts in countries across Africa. In Iraq, Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is working closely with UNDP to help build policing capacities. Similarly, MSB and ZIF are supporting UNDP Ukraine to support relief and recovery amid the ongoing war.
UN Volunteers (UNV) also works closely with UNDP in crisis settings to preserve development gains and build back better. Since 2014, over 100 UNVs have been recruited to work alongside UNDP experts. UNVs have also been deployed as SURGE Advisors — UNDP staff deployed to boost country office capacities during or after a crisis.
