How do United Nations (UN) organizations provide capacity development support to training institutions? What do they do to assess the capacity of such institutions? Which methodologies do they use to help them with the provision of learning services and with non-core functions?

These and other questions were explored at the first Forum on UN Capacity Development for Training Institutions, which took place from 10-11 December 2019 at the UN Campus in Turin, Italy. The event was organized by the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) and the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC). Officials from 15 UN organizations came together to discuss approaches to capacity development and to identify opportunities for exchange of knowledge and experience. The Forum was a first gathering of interested parties in developing a network on UN capacity development. Taking the UN reform as a background, which includes a call for more coherence and leveraging synergies, the Forum participants noted in particular the idea of a common approach to capacity development across the UN Development System. With respect to capacity development for training institutions, participants shared their experiences, mostly focusing on how training institutions are engaged as multipliers. Some UN organizations actively engage in developing the capacities of training institutions further and approaches on how such institutions are assessed and supported were presented. The exchange on experiences with the engagement of training institutions led to the beginning of discussions that are now anticipated to lead to collaboration and further rounds of exchanges in the near future.