What drives Umoja?

Objectives of Umoja

In recognition of the increasingly global arena of work and the many new challenges that the United Nations is facing, Member States have approved several reform initiatives. In accordance with these reform initiatives, the Secretary-General is committed to fundamentally modernizing the way the UN carries out its day-to-day work, by streamlining and simplifying processes. Umoja presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to equip the Organization with twenty-first century techniques, tools, training and technology.

The main objectives of Umoja can be summarized as follows:

1. To completely renew the way the United Nations manages human, financial and material resources, bringing the Organization up to accepted common standards commensurate with the size and nature of its operations;
2. To support decision-making by linking programmes and operations with the resources allocated, including the ability to show the utilization of resources;
3. To reduce the average time required for administrative processes, by streamlining, integrating and automating business processes;
4. To increase organizational efficiency by reducing the amount of staff time spent on manual processes, and thus enabling the redirection of resources to high priority and value-added work;
5. To support the implementation of IPSAS by the Secretariat;
6. To enable easy access to reports by Member States, United Nations staff and the public, as appropriate;
7. To support management reform by enhancing accountability, transparency, and internal controls for all transactions relating to resources.
8. To have a global system that captures accurate and timely core resource data from the global Secretariat at all duty stations, including peace operations and other field missions.

Vision Statement of Umoja

Umoja is a continuous organizational transformation, enabling high-quality, cost-effective service delivery for evolving UN mandates, anywhere in the world. By updating skills, harmonizing practices and applying global technology, Umoja maximizes productivity of the UN's human, financial and material resources. Umoja transcends organizational, geographical and functional barriers, fostering a culture of transparency, accountability, empowerment, sharing and unity across the United Nations.

Guiding Principles of Umoja

1. Integration – All functions and processes operate within a single integrated solution, reducing barriers to effective collaboration.
2. Cost Effectiveness – Processes are streamlined based on leading practices to eliminate waste and promote more efficient use of resources.
3. Location-independence – Activities no longer need to be performed in a specific geographic or organizational location.
4. Transparency – Open and appropriate sharing of information.
5. Automated Controls – Automated system controls reduce manual intervention in routine transactions, accelerating speed of execution while embedding compliance and control within the system itself.
6. Harmonization – Encourage standardization throughout the Secretariat to minimize system customization and maximize organizational coherence and consistency.
7. Service Orientation – Enhance the back office's ability to support mandate-related activities and thereby better serve our beneficiaries.
8. Staff Experience – Further develop UN staff potential by liberating them from manual transaction processing in favor of higher-value analytical activities.
9. Technology - Leverage cutting-edge technology in the most cost-effective manner to provide a robust information platform that (1) responds to the organization's functional requirements, (2) meets minimum systems performance levels to guarantee positive user experience, and (3) maximizes system up-time, worldwide.

Critical Success Factors

Umoja will bring significant benefits to the Organization, if the following key success factors are met and maintained:

• Endorsement of the change initiative as a top priority by senior management
• Funding and political support by legislative bodies
• Ongoing funding of a dedicated full-time core team and temporary release of subject matter experts (SMEs)
• Early and effective communication to create a shared understanding by the entire organization of the change process and the support of all staff
• Commitment of managers and staff to process review and redesign
• End-user involvement in all stages of Umoja implementation
• Pro-active oversight of the project, ensuring timely provision of decisions
• Transfer of technical and systems knowledge from specialist external resources to UN staff
• Effective end-user training and education
• Solid mechanisms for risk and quality management