Outcome FIJ_O_4

Nurturing an empowered workforce and advancing an inclusive UNWomen culture

In 2025, UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office (MCO) demonstrated substantive changes in institutional performance and staff behaviour that together signal progress toward a more empowered, accountable, and inclusive organisational culture. These changes reflect how workforce systems, leadership practices, and learning pathways are increasingly shaping how staff exercise responsibility, collaborate across functions, and internalise UN values in their day-to-day work. Importantly, these shifts mark a clear departure from patterns observed in the previous year, indicating not only improvement, but consolidation of new ways of working. At an institutional level, people management systems functioned with greater consistency and predictability, strengthening trust and organisational confidence. Timely completion of annual performance management and development reviews reached 92 per cent , representing a significant increase compared to 65.2 per cent in 2024 . This marked year-on-year change indicates that structured performance dialogue between supervisors and staff has moved from being uneven and delayed to becoming more routine and embedded in office practice. The shift reflects not only improved compliance, but a behavioural change in how performance planning is approached, with clearer expectations, more regular feedback, and greater staff ownership of individual contributions to Strategic Note priorities. A similar pattern of change was evident in organisational learning and compliance. Completion of mandatory corporate trainings reached 93.25 per cent in 2025 , compared to 79 per cent in 2024 , pointing to a strengthened culture of professional responsibility. Ethical conduct, safeguarding, gender equality, and accountability are increasingly treated as core professional standards rather than administrative requirements. This improvement suggests both stronger institutional signalling of expectations and a shift in staff behaviour toward timely engagement with mandatory learning as an integral part of their roles. Workforce management reforms further reinforced these changes. The full transition to the UNDP Personnel Services Agreement (PSA) modality reduced fragmentation across contract types and clarified employment conditions, contributing to a more balanced and transparent relationship between staff and the institution. Regular validation of salaries and entitlements strengthened confidence in HR systems and reduced uncertainty during a period of staffing transitions. Collectively, these reforms indicate that core HR processes are becoming more stable and institutionalised, supporting continuity of performance and reducing reliance on ad hoc problem-solving that characterised earlier periods. Behavioural change among staff was also evident in how learning and leadership responsibilities were exercised. Increased engagement in goal-setting, performance discussions, and programme-embedded learning reflects growing confidence and initiative among staff to shape their professional development and apply new skills in complex operational contexts. Leadership was increasingly exercised beyond formal managerial roles, particularly through coordination, facilitation, and adaptive problem-solving within multi-country programmes. This points to a gradual shift in internal power dynamics, where leadership is more distributed and collaborative rather than position-dependent, reinforcing shared responsibility across teams. Participation in inter-regional and HQ–field knowledge exchange further contributed to these behavioural shifts. Staff engagement in cross-regional dialogues and global convenings strengthened the ability to situate Pacific priorities within global policy debates and evidence bases, while translating comparative learning into practical programme and coordination functions. These experiences supported changes in how staff work across portfolios, reinforcing collaboration between normative, programme, and coordination roles and reducing siloed approaches. Learning gained by a small number of staff was intentionally shared through internal discussions, documentation, and planned knowledge-sharing forums, extending its influence beyond the immediate participants and supporting wider organisational learning. Together, these changes reflect an evolving organisational culture in which accountability, continuous learning, and collaboration are increasingly normalised. While initiatives related to staff wellbeing and satisfaction remained at preparatory stages during the reporting period, the completion of foundational tools and the planned launch of a staff wellness and wellbeing survey indicate that attention to staff voice and care is becoming more systematically embedded. As baseline data becomes available in the next cycle, these efforts are expected to further reinforce an inclusive and supportive work environment. Overall, the combination of strengthened institutional systems, more balanced professional relationships, and changing staff behaviours demonstrates meaningful progress toward a workplace where staff are empowered to lead, supported to perform, and aligned around shared values. The contrast between 2024 and 2025 performance trends underscores that this progress reflects a genuine shift in organisational practice rather than incremental adjustment, contributing substantively to UN Women Fiji MCO’s ability to sustain a diverse, motivated, and high-performing workforce and advance an inclusive UN Women culture.

Nurturing an empowered workforce and advancing an inclusive UNWomen culture

The UN Women Fiji MCO has shown progress in strengthening its organizational capacity and effectiveness through staff development initiatives throughout 2024. The office has implemented an approach to building a workforce that embodies UN values, reaching approximately 80 staff members across multiple Pacific countries including Kiribati, Samoa, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. With an average recruitment process time of 14 weeks, the office has maintained progress in building its team. A key part of this effort has been the implementation of a learning program that combines training, coaching, and collaborative learning opportunities. The office achieved a 79% completion rate for mandatory corporate learning courses by the end of 2024, marking a 13% increase from mid-year. This improvement reflects the office's commitment to professional development and compliance with organizational standards. The MCO has worked on creating an inclusive learning environment through its induction process for new staff, covering operational areas including finance, procurement, travel, human resources, communications, and programmatic aspects. Weekly learning sessions have been established to ensure ongoing skill development and knowledge sharing, while individual coaching sessions have addressed specific needs of staff across different geographical locations, showing a commitment to including everyone in professional development opportunities. Ten staff members benefited from inter-regional and cross-regional knowledge exchange opportunities, including participation in the Gender Equality Village, the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction 2024, and the Sexual Violence Research Initiative Forum, surpassing the target of six staff members for such exchanges. An important event in strengthening organizational effectiveness was the four-day staff planning retreat held at the Hilton Fiji Beach Resort in September 2024. This gathering brought together staff from across the Pacific region, creating a space for strategic planning, capability building, and team strengthening. The retreat included sessions on unconscious bias, stress management, and strategic planning, while also providing opportunities for cross-team collaboration and knowledge exchange. Performance management has improved, with the office achieving a 65.2% compliance rate in Performance Management and Development (PMD) by the end of 2024. This reflects an approach to talent management that emphasizes regular dialogue between supervisors and supervisees, ensuring participation in goal-setting and performance evaluation. These initiatives show UN Women Fiji MCO's commitment to efficient and effective business processes through an approach that prioritizes capacity building, inclusive participation, and continuous improvement. The office has created a supportive environment that enables staff to contribute to UN Women's mandate while developing their professional capabilities and advancing gender-responsive organizational culture. This approach has helped ensure sustainability and institutional embedding of good practices across the Fiji MCO.

Nurturing an empowered workforce and advancing an inclusive UNWomen culture

The very nature of the Fiji MCO underlines its cross-border and inclusive nature. As an implementing agency covering 14 Pacific Island Countries and actively programming in six of these nations, the Fiji MCO is demonstrating a commitment to inclusivity by working in diverse cultural and geographical contexts. This approach recognizes and respects the unique needs and perspectives of each country. Although the Fiji MCO had a high separation toll of 12 in 2023, the recruitment of 20 new members of the workforce (FTA and SSAs) in 2023 was a strategic approach to expanding the workforce and leveraging a diverse skill set. Capacity building for staff was high on the Fiji MCO’s agenda, particularly to enable the implementation of a new corporate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System (Quantum) and ensure that employees are equipped with the skills necessary to adapt to and leverage new technologies. In its commitment to knowledge-sharing, the MCO commenced a rollout of the training to other countries. This approach ensures that staff members at various levels have access to the necessary skills and information to operate efficiently. In addition, there were other training opportunities for staff in areas such as RMS-Quantum linkages, Communications, and Resource Mobilization, to name a few. Furthermore, the inclusion of staff members from Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu in a work-exchange-based approach in PNG demonstrates a commitment to inclusive training initiatives, promoting collaboration, cross-cultural understanding, and the exchange of best practices among staff members. The completion of all staff reviews for 2023 and the emphasis on performance management is the Fiji MCO’s commitment to recognizing and acknowledging the contributions of the workforce – an approach essential for building a positive workplace culture and fostering employee empowerment.