E-Learning Course on Ethics & UNRWA Standard of Conduct

The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution No. 302 (IV) on 8 December 1949 creating

the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in

response to the plight of refugees in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. UNRWA's current

mandate expires on 30 June 2011.

With its roughly 29,000 staff, UNRWA provides basic education, health services, relief and social

services and microfinance and micro enterprise services and carries out infrastructure and camp

improvement projects for more than 4.6 million Palestine refugees in lordan, Syria, Lebanon, the

West Bank and Gaza Strip, referred to as the Agency's five 'fields' (for details please check

www.unrwa.org).

UNRWA is intending to develop an e-learning course on Ethics and the Agency's Standards of

Conduct that shall be made available to its entire staff members Agency-wide via the UNRWA

Intranet and local Installations, with a particular focus on reaching out to locally-recruited 'area' staff

in remote locations, which make up the bulk of UNRWA's work force. The e-learning course will

complement other learning activities and initiatives within the ethics area. UNRWA has currently no

Agency wide ethics training programme. The current training is delivered on an ad-hoc basis as

workshops or instructor-led classroom training.

The amount of locations spread out in 5 different fields, and the number of staff working in UNRWA

makes e-learning a necessary delivery method in order to reach all staff.