This November, the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) achieved an international quality management standard – ISO 9001:2015 – following a rigorous assessment and auditing process that started in April 2019 (see here).

Zahir Tanin, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of UNMIK, highlighted this achievement as an “important milestone for a peacekeeping operation” and encouraged UNMIK Mission Support Division to share best practices globally.

Chief Mission Support Sandi Arnold underlined that this is the beginning of a three-year journey towards building sustainable practices.

The ISO achievement has potential for easy replication across the UN, and UNMIK is in consultation with three missions that have already expressed interest to follow suit. The general concept and lessons learned have been shared with UNICEF in Kosovo and UNFICYP as well as UNGSC in Brindisi.

“ISO offers a synergetic approach to link the mission mandate, UNHQ priorities as well as staff expectations. It also offers a template to improve the capability of staff and provides opportunities for growth within the UN system,” Ms. Arnold explained.

Looking ahead, UNMIK’s mission support team will continue rolling out business intelligence and data analytics tools. We support global performance management initiatives. And we are looking into implementing an environmental sustainability ISO standard (14001) next year.

Check out our journey…

Why did we do it?

The vision was clear: We are One Team. See our video.

How did we do it?

The strategy was clear: continuously invest in people, processes, practices, and performance. 

What did we do?

The action plan was clear: roles and responsibilities, targets, deliverables, timelines, and risk mitigation.  

How did we communicate our progress?

Through our monthly MSD newsletters.

Contact us: unmik-cms@un.org