Organizational Ethics
During my last decade with UNRWA, I worked as the first Chief of the Agency’s Ethics Office. In this capacity, I served as a member of the Ethics Panel of the United Nations since its inception in late 2007, including as its Alternate Chair from November 2018 until November 2019. With a mandate similar to that of other UN ethics offices, I was responsible for providing confidential ethics advice; training and outreach on the standards of conduct applicable to personnel; protection (of whistle blowers) against retaliation; prevention of conflicts of interest through financial and other outside interest disclosure; and policy support and standard setting. Key projects on which I have worked during the decade include production of an UNRWA ethics handbook, development of a comprehensive ethics e-course, and development and delivery of face-to-face training on social media and neutrality, ethical leadership, anti-fraud & anti-corruption, as well as sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.
I am keen to make this expertise available beyond my retirement from UNRWA through writings, teaching and consulting.
Global Ethics & Integrity Benchmarks 3rd Edition
The 2020 edition of the Global Ethics & Integrity Benchmarks (GEIB) was published in March. I had the privilege to serve as an Expert Panelist for updating the GEIB. It serves as a valuable resource to enable organizations in the private and public sectors to assess their ethics programmes against a set of state of the art benchmarks.
United Nations Ethics Handbook
Taking the experience gained through my tenure as the first Chief of UNRWA's Ethics Office from 2008 until 2019 and the simultaneous membership of the Ethics Panel of the United Nations (and participation in the work of the Ethics Network of Multilateral Organizations) as a starting point, I am embarking on a project to research and write what I hope will be the first United Nations Ethics Handbook.