Dear Colleagues,

As we go into the holidays ending the year 2023, I want to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate each one of you for a great job serving our clients even during these challenging times. A few highlights of the major activities in 2023.

The drawdown of MINUSMA is currently on schedule with successful departure of troops and civilians mainly in Northern Mali. The UN bases have been handed to the Malian government. The RSCE team on the ground in Mali assisting in the drawdown efforts has done a commendable job in processing separations, entitlements and travelling staff leaving the mission. We are also working with UNITAMS preparing the closure of the mission schedule for February 2024.

I also commend the Forward Support and Deployment Hub (FSDH) for the successful re-direction of over 400 Purchase Orders of goods worth over U$76M that were inbound to MINUSMA, to other client missions, RSCE Reserve and UNGSC Reserve. It is a herculean task as the POs were in various stages of shipping with items scattered in many ports and supplier locations around the world.

On 19 October, we hosted the 13th session of the Client Board meeting, this is the forum where we discuss strategic matters of mutual benefit to us and our client in a bid to improve cooperation and service delivery. This time round we did not have many operational issues which is an indication of the great stride we have made in improving our service delivery and in satisfying our clients’ needs, this is majorly attributed to you and the work you do behind the scenes, and I congratulate you for that.

The Global Procurement Support Section (GPSS) held another successful Business Seminar for the global business community on “How to do Business with UN”. The aim was for the business community to increase the number of services they provide to the UN. It was also an opportunity for vendors to interact with Chief Procurement Officers from UN missions and Agencies who had concluded a week-long conference at the RTCC.

The Senior Women Talent Pipeline (SWTP) returned to the Regional Training and Conference Centre (RTCC) in November. This weeklong conference sponsored by the UN Department of Operational Support (DOS) is a career programme aimed at promoting gender parity at senior level for qualified female candidates for P5, D1 and D2 level positions in UN Peace Operations.

We also hosted the 6th Joint Steering Committee Meeting on 8 and 9 November. The Steering Committee is the governing body of the RSCE and Kuwait Joint Support Office (KJSO). The Committee, headed by the Assistant Secretary-General for Support Operations, Ms. Lisa Buttenheim brainstormed on sustainability of both centers as we witness a reduction in footprint in client entities and a changing global political landscape.

Umoja, is upgrading Umoja BI to Umoja Analytics and the Enterprise Resource Planning Solution Division (ERPSD) were at the RSCE in October to introduce the new key features to senior administrative users of Umoja. We hosted personnel from 8 different missions for this training at the CPT Computer Lab. Some of the features of the platform include the seamless integration with the Enterprise Datawarehouse and the Umoja security roles and the ability to access analytics on mobile devices.

On 14th November, we signed an airline discount agreement with the Lufthansa Group of Airlines that has the potential to lower the cost of travel for RSCE clients. The discount is applicable to both official and personal travel for all RSCE clients and covers all regions of the world where the Lufthansa Group operates. With this agreement, depending on the route, the airline, and seat availability, we can achieve savings for the organization, improve travel times and potentially increase our client base as the agreement can extend to apply to other UN entities.

I wish to extend a word of thanks to the Legal, Audit Response and Risk Management Unit for hosting a successful Fraud Awareness Week in November. It was refreshing to see you all show up in big numbers and take an interest in understanding what fraud is and how fraud can manifest itself in the various processes and functions of the RSCE.

On 30th November, UNCAP alongside NATO Communication and Information Agency launched the first ever Virtual Instructor Led Training facility in Africa at the RTCC. The facility is donated by NATO under their Defense and Related Security Capacity Building (DCB) Initiative in partnership with the United Nations. The state-of-the-art facility will be used by UNCAP, RTCC, RSCE, Peacekeeping missions, and other UN partners to deliver courses and trainings virtually. With the VILT, we will be able to handle more trainings to our clients in a much more affordable way.

What a year it has been? We expect more activities in 2024 as we engage in a journey to set our vision for the next few years and attract more business for the center. I know I can continue to count on your support.

Finally, I thank all who have contributed to previous editions of the RSCE Newsletters and the communications team for their efforts to make it happen. If you have an interesting story, contact the RSCE Communications Team through rsce-communications@un.org.

I thank you and happy holidays!