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nierikahamaekers

Systems Transformation at the United Nations (UNDP)

During my collaboration with Chôra Foundation we joined forces with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to drive sustainable development and promote social and environmental protection in Latin America & the Caribbean. Chôra provided UNDP with a Framework for Strategic Innovation and System Transformation designed for complex and uncertain conditions.



Service: Impact Coach • Strategic Innovation


Client: United Nations (UNDP)

Project lead: Chôra Foundation

Participant profile: Members of UNDP Country Offices






My challenge:


To support UNDP's internal capabilities for dealing with uncertainty.

The value I added:

  • Facilitation of the process in collaboration with the Chôra Foundation

  • Dynamic concepts, processes, tools

  • Helped towards the articulation of strategic intents to enhance capabilities and resources

  • Engaged key stakeholders to generate transformative system actions.


Outcomes for participants:

  • Navigated uncertainty

  • Developed a direction towards a resilient (economic, social and environmental) sectors

  • Identified entry points to shift the system

  • Proposed measures to improve the policy framework and engage stakeholders at different levels.


Impact Coach - How this service can translate into practice:

Strategic Innovation

Let me help you build new capabilities for transforming and innovating the system by creating a space of reflection, of learning, of representation of how things might be, of how they could be.

Some methodologies I use are…

  • Sensemaking

  • Liberating structures

  • Heatmapping

  • Systems mapping

  • Future scenario planning


Next to coaching towards Strategic Innovation ,

I help individuals and teams with building and strengthening their 21st Century Skills ;

apply Learning Design to create Toolboxes and Bootcamps ; and

Facilitate & Moderate Team Days .










Still curious?

UNDP and Chôra Foundation

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is a UN agency that works to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality, and promote sustainable development worldwide. It provides technical assistance, advice, and funding to support developing countries in their efforts to achieve these goals. In the context of the text, UNDP is partnering with Chôra Foundation to strengthen its development programs and provide innovative advisory and policy services to government counterparts.


Chôra Foundation is a non-profit organization that focuses on the management of complex systems, including social systems. Its goal is to develop strategic solutions and initiatives that can enhance development effects, manage complexity, and resolve uncertainty. Chôra Foundation has partnered with UNDP to provide innovative advisory and policy services to government counterparts and to help establish an innovative space for governments, civil society, and communities to seek, attract, and engage other institutional and organizational entities.


Framework for Strategic Innovation and System Transformation

The collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)







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