In 2002, I was recruited to join the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). UNDP was founded in 1965 to “eradicate poverty and reduce inequalities through the sustainable development of nations.” When founded, UNDP was one of only a few global development players, and its mandate was to fund development programs in emerging and post-crisis economies. By 2002, the world had changed and new players like the Gates Foundation and hundreds of large nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were now offering services. I was asked to restructure the training and development and knowledgemanagement functions so that UNDP could operate as a more modern advisory services organization in the business of global development.

I was not hired for my grip on global poverty, the environment, or post-crisis development challenges, but rather for my experience with organizational learning and knowledge-based organizations. Mark Malloch Brown, then head of UNDP, was attempting to transform the organization from a funding agency to an advisory and professional services firm specializing in development. The United Nations had recently passed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that served as the new development framework. For the first time, most countries in the world agreed to a broad-based and common development agenda with goals, desired outcomes, and time lines.

To support the MDG effort, we restructured UNDP (leading change was something I was familiar with) to focus on six key practice areas:

The largest of the practice areas was sustainable energy and the environment, which had an investment of over US$10 billion in the decade prior to my joining. All of these practice areas and the original MDGs form the heart of what we now call the “global sustainability agenda.”

As I started my new job, I tasked myself with building greater foundation knowledge in our core practice areas.