Our employee surveys, which are part of the #UNDPListens framework, ensure that we get regular feedback from personnel on their workplace experiences. This helps us to shape the working environment that we aspire to achieve and to live up to our commitment to leave no one behind in our offices and teams. 

Our comprehensive policy on harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination and abuse of authority provides a solid basis for creating a respectful and safe workplace for everyone. 

As part of the effort to foster a thriving working environment for all, UNDP has introduced a set of family-friendly policies, including a policy on flexible working arrangements and a modern parental leave policy, which provides 16 weeks of paid parental leave for staff who become parents, and additional 10 weeks for those who are birth parents.

These and other measures have helped us to achieve full gender parity among UNDP staff and close to parity among UNDP wider workforce (visit the UN System-wide Gender Parity dashboard for more information). 

UNDP has also been recognized for its overall commitment to gender equality:  

• UNDP consistently scores among the top performers on the UN System-Wide Action Plan (SWAP) Gender Equality report card, which measures each UN organisation against 17 indicators related to gender equality.
• UNDP was assessed against the EDGE (Equity, Diversity and Gender Equality) standard, a leading global standard for workplace DEI, resulting in the renewal of its EDGE Move Certification and the award of an EDGEplus Certification. 

Ensuring equal opportunities for persons with disabilities is another important priority.  As part of this work, UNDP is striving to eliminate barriers for persons with disabilities in our workplace through the following initiatives: 

• UNDP has a centrally managed funding facility and a Guidance Note on Reasonable Accommodation to support personnel with disabilities throughout the employment cycle, thus allowing them to benefit from many employment and career opportunities UNDP offers to all our personnel.
• UNDP provides learning resources and guidance to increase the understanding of and promote disability inclusive practices.
• Since 2019, UNDP has worked with the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) to deploy more than 50 young professionals with disabilities to UNDP country, regional and headquarter offices through the UNDP-UNV Talent Programme for Young Professionals with Disabilities. 

Committed to protect the dignity of all personnel, UNDP also promotes anti-racism in our internal culture and programmatic work through the following initiatives: 

• UNDP’s  Policy on Harassment, Sexual Harassment, Discrimination, and Abuse of Authority prohibits all forms of discrimination or harassment based on any grounds, including race, nationality, colour, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, language, religion and other factors.
• UNDP provides learning resources and guidance to enable all personnel to improve self-awareness and practice respectful behaviours.
• UNDP continues to advance action to further strengthen the overall organisation culture including promoting civility in the workplace, transparency, respect, and freedom from fear. As part of these efforts, UNDP has launched a Speak Up Culture initiative which aims to foster a culture where employees feel empowered to speak up, shaping their workplace experiences and creating an inclusive working environment.
• UNDP has conducted an anti-racism assessment of its programmes and policies and is dedicated to advancing anti-racism in its development programming.