Our programmes are being developed and delivered in partnership with a number of top academic institutions, such as the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and the London School of Economics, leadership experts, UN agencies, NGOs, and the private sector.
We are also supported by an Executive Board that provides senior-level guidance and strategic direction, as well as a Technical Advisory Committee, composed of current and former leaders in the humanitarian and development sector to ensure our programmes are tailored to current, real-life needs within the system.
Our programme is hosted within the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
Our participants will be part of a growing cadre of change agents committed to transforming the leadership landscape into a more principled, effective, and collaborative one and in turn, impacting not only themselves, but their teams and the communities they serve.
We ask that organisations (UN, NGOs, Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement) support participants by releasing their staff to fully participate in one of our learning programmes, whether in-person or online as part of our blended learning approach.
GELI participants will be selected based on their wealth of experience and ability to nurture our mission of inspiring exceptional leadership.
All applications will be reviewed by the GELI selection committee against established criteria to confirm eligibility, in addition to a motivational statement that captures an openness to personal leadership behavior enhancement and the GELI mindset, interest in contributing to the enhancement of collaborative leadership teams and systems, and maximizing impact with a people-centered approach. Selection will account for gender parity and diversity, as well as balanced participation.
We will publish calls for applications on our website and social media channels. You can subscribe to updates to ensure you are informed as soon as course applications open.
Evaluation is central to GELI and our approach is to incorporate it early into the overall design of the programmes in order to ensure monitoring and adaptation of programmes with feedback from participants, facilitators and other stakeholders to measure programme effectiveness. Monitoring and evaluation tools will solicit participant reactions to learning, their application of the knowledge gained from programmes and the change that resulted from this application. GELI’s aim in gathering this data is to monitor behaviour change on the individual and team level, and our impact on more effective action.
GELI is the first and only executive leadership programme that brings together top level leaders from and across UN agencies, NGOs, and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to learn together and co-create the leadership cadre of the future.
This allows participants to foster a unique culture of collaboration, knowledge and skills-sharing aimed at achieving shared language, shared understanding, shared approaches and shared outcomes beyond their organisations and across the system.
Our programmes also bring academic and private sector leadership expertise together to deliver a blend of academic theory and highly practical support through bespoke leadership learning, professional and personal development, and opportunities for innovation, growth, and peer support for senior leaders working in highly complex environments worldwide.
GELI participants are top-level leaders based in countries of operation working to improve the lives of millions of people around the world.
More specifically, participants are members of senior coordination platforms, such as Humanitarian Country Teams, UN Country Teams, or NGO fora. Participants will be UN Resident Coordinators or Humanitarian Coordinators, NGO Country Directors, UN Agency Representatives or Heads of Delegation for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.