Many mandates. One shared practice of hiring and learning.

Pro Learn Network is an independent peer network for the people who recruit, develop and move talent in UN entities, EU institutions and other international organizations. We compare what works under the conditions you actually operate in: staff regulations, procurement cycles, budget pressure, multilingual workforces and constant mobility.

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Commercial HR playbooks do not fit multilateral organizations.

International organizations recruit against geographic and gender targets, train staff across duty stations and time zones, and restructure under member-state scrutiny. The questions are specific, and so are the answers. They are best found among peers who carry the same constraints.

Hiring under staff rules

Competency-based selection, rosters, geographic representation and long recruitment cycles, with fewer posts to fill and more scrutiny on each one.

Learning under budget pressure

Mandatory training load, hiring freezes and licences negotiated through system-wide agreements. Every learning investment has to justify itself.

Mobility and transition

Reform, relocation and restructuring move people between duty stations, organizations and sectors. Staff need orientation, not only a contract end date.

Recognition that stops at the door

Each organization describes competencies in its own language. What a person has proven in one agency rarely counts in the next.

Three fields of practice

The network works where hiring, learning and recognition meet. Most of our exchanges touch at least two of them.

Hiring

Who do we need, and how do we reach them credibly?

Sourcing for field-based and hard-to-fill roles
Employer branding and staff ambassador programmes
Inclusive job descriptions and diversity sourcing
Internal mobility, talent pools and rosters

Learning

How do people build the capability the mandate requires?

Learning strategy and catalogue adoption
Administering and governing learning platforms
AI literacy for HR teams and staff
Evidence of application, not only completion rates

Recognition

How is capability seen, trusted and carried forward?

Competency frameworks and mutual recognition
Open Badges and verifiable credentials
Compatibility with the EU Digital Identity Wallet
Records that stay under the control of the person they describe

How the network works

Light structures, run by practitioners. Taking part requires neither a membership fee nor a platform licence.

Practitioner exchanges: Online sessions on one current question, introduced by someone who has worked on it in a comparable organization. Short input, open discussion, and notes shared with those who attended.
Co-organized masterclasses: Multi-week programmes designed with one or more organizations around a shared need, ending in a practical assignment and a digital badge for those who complete it. How co-organizing works
Working groups: Small groups that take a question further than one session allows, such as the work on mutual recognition of competencies across organizations.
Time-bound initiatives: Focused responses to a moment in the system. In 2025, Career Pivot Ally connected UN staff in transition with professionals from other sectors. See the initiatives

What we hold to

Independent of vendors

No platform allegiance and no commissions. Tools are discussed on their merits, next to the alternatives.

Led by practitioners

Content comes from people doing the work in comparable organizations, not from a sales presentation.

People before skills inventories

Skills make capability visible and portable. They are not a currency. Recognition should give people ownership of their own record, not turn them into tradeable assets.

Open across the system

Agencies, funds, programmes, EU bodies and international NGOs learn from each other as equals, whatever their size.

Since 2017

The network grew out of a community of practice and has kept its working habit: practitioners bring a question, peers bring what they have tried.

2017
A community of practice forms
HR practitioners from UN agencies and international organizations begin meeting to compare how they plan, hire, develop and engage talent. The group is run by Iryna Melnykova, Mian Nabeel Ahmad, Clarisse Ni Mhuineachean and Rolf Reinhardt.
2021
Mutual recognition on the agenda
A community session asks whether organizations could align their understanding of key competencies and recognize them across institutional borders.
2023
First masterclass cohorts
Four-week cohorts on employer branding, talent acquisition, learning administration and digital credentials. A Programme Committee takes up mutual recognition of competencies.
2024
Wider partnerships
A masterclass on future-proofing international associations with the International Council on Badges and Credentials (ICoBC), with reduced fees for participants from low-income countries in partnership with eLearning Africa.
2025
Career Pivot Ally
From June to August, professionals from other sectors offer short informational conversations to UN staff navigating career transitions.
2026
An independent initiative
The employer branding masterclass returns with a 2026 edition on brand ambassadors in the age of AI. After a period hosted by ICoBC, Pro Learn Network continues as a vendor-neutral initiative of Rolf Reinhardt Consulting.

People

Rolf Reinhardt

Convener

Rolf has worked with the UN system and international organizations on how they plan, hire and develop talent for two decades, and has co-run this community since 2017. He advises independently through Rolf Reinhardt Consulting.

Executive Committee Member, International Council on Badges and Credentials (ICoBC)
Global Council Member, OEB Global (Online Educa Berlin)
Council Member, Union of International Associations (UIA)

Listed in recognition of contributions to exchanges, masterclasses and initiatives. Affiliations are left out because they change. A listing does not imply endorsement by any person or organization.

Bring a question from your organization.

If your team is working on a hiring, learning or recognition question that peers elsewhere have already faced, write to us. You will get a straight answer on whether the network is the right place for it.

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