MANAGEMENT uu uu uu uu uu The Office continued to ensure the timely recruitment and deployment of human rights advisers, in line with the United Nations Development Group’s (UNDG) Strategy for the Deployment of Human Rights Advisers. Towards the end of 2017, in close cooperation with the UN Development Coordination Office and UNDG, UN Human Rights secured funding from Member States to ensure the continuity of existing deployments in 2018, in response to the requests of resident coordinators and United Nations Country Teams. In light of deteriorating or potentially deteriorating human rights situations, UN Human Rights staff members were deployed to the following countries or regions: Angola to monitor the human rights violations committed in Kasai, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Bangladesh to monitor the human rights violations of the Rohingya population in Myanmar; Qatar to gather information on the impact of the Gulf crisis on the human rights situation; Guatemala to assist the country office with human rights monitoring related to the crisis in the child welfare system; Honduras to assist the country office with human rights monitoring following the crisis that unfolded after the elections; and Mauritania to strengthen human rights expertise in the humanitarian context. Through the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation, UN Human Rights provided resources to its field presences for the implementation of technical cooperation programmes designed to build strong human rights frameworks at the national level in 28 regions, countries and territories. In addition, with the support of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance for the Implementation of the Universal Periodic Review, 24 projects were carried out by UN Human Rights field offices. The objective was to help countries implement the recommendations emanating from the UPR in order to strengthen national structures to follow up on and coordinate the implementation of recommendations and develop and implement national action plans and follow-up databases. Support for the work of field offices was provided not only by headquarters, but also by other field presences, thereby promoting an exchange of good practices and lessons learned. A good example of this was work of the country office in Mexico in relation to human rights indicators. This good practice has been shared extensively with other presences in the region, including Bolivia and Paraguay. Security officers were deployed to the field on 33 occasions to provide substantive advice or conduct security assessment missions. GMO 6: OHCHR staff has the necessary competencies and skills to effectively implement OHCHR’s programme UN Human Rights made significant progress in developing the capacities, competencies and skills of staff members to support effective implementation of the Office’s programme. The Office undertook a range of activities, such as the adoption of an office-wide Learning and Staff Development Policy and the rollout of training opportunities, including on substantive human rights issues, management and administration, gender integration and results-based management. For example, since Umoja first went live in 2015, considerable efforts have been undertaken to ensure that staff members acquired the skills to effectively use the system, including by establishing a helpdesk, creating a super user network and facilitating the participation of all staff members in mandatory trainings. Within the context of reduced financial resources, alternatives were explored for the delivery of training. For instance, progress was made by providing online learning offerings through Lynda.com, which enabled staff members to sign up for online language learning licences. Training in certain substantive skills, however, such as human rights investigations, may not be suited to distance learning. UN Human Rights therefore will look for alternatives to meet this challenge over the coming years. A total of 87 per cent of the outputs planned for this GMO in 2017 were fully or substantially achieved. The following examples provide evidence of improvements made in relation to enhancing the knowledge, skills and capacities of UN Human Rights staff members. uu uu uu During 2017, more than 147 staff members based in headquarters attended trainings that were organized in relation to a variety of substantive topics. Access to learning opportunities for field-based staff members was supported through the promotion of the new learning platform, Lynda.com. A total of 153 staff members, primarily based in field presences, improved their human rights monitoring skills through nine training courses. In addition, 48 new staff members benefited from a two-day Orientation Programme on the mandate, strategy and functioning of the Office. Through targeted training sessions, members of the Treaty Body Capacity-Building Programme increased their knowledge and skills related to the human rights treaty bodies, received a basic introduction on human rights indicators, increased their understanding of the nuances between plans to implement the recommendations issued by the international human rights mechanisms and national human rights action plans. The participants are now UN HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2017 73