The finale of the Reimagine the UN Together Challenge—a Dragons’ Den innovation pitching event—is only a week away!

Over the past months, the Challenge has leveraged creativity, experience and skills from across the UN system to help reimagine the UN together, with colleagues putting forward ideas and solutions for how the UN can do things differently, embrace new ways of working and build a stronger and more collaborative system!

From 85 submissions, 6 ideas from 6 teams have been shortlisted and will be vying for the support of the “Dragons” (senior leaders from the UN and innovation spheres).

And with just over 7 days to go, we are excited to share with you the Dragons’ identities! This select group of individuals represent entities and stakeholders around the system and are committed to innovation and new ways of working for the UN:

  • Kelly Clements, Deputy High Commissioner United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Vice-Chair of the High-Level Committee on Management (HLCM)
  • Guy Gibbs, Head of Design & Innovation, Knowledge and Technology Directorate Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
  • Sylvia Lopez-Ekra, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Morocco
  • Mourad Youssef Magdi Wahba, Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States, UNDP
  • Jens Wandel, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on UN Reforms and the Secretary-General's Designate for COVID19 Recover Better Fund
  • Jayathma Wickramanayake, Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth


On November 12, the Dragons will hear the pitches of the 6 teams selected for the final round, ask questions, seek more information from each team and make their final deliberations.

Join us 12 November 2020 at 2:30-4:00 PM CET/ 8:30-10:00 AM EST
to see which team(s) make it all the way!

Attend the virtual event or watch the live stream on UN WebTV

The challenge has been developed and is driven by an alliance of interested individuals, networks and departments across the UN system, such as the UN Development Coordination Office, the UN Innovation Network, #NewWork, the UN System Staff College, Young UN: Agents for Change and the Office of Information and Communications Technology, in consultation with staff unions and other key bodies. Interested partners are welcome to join at any time!

Members of the Alliance who have in their personal, network or organisational capacity submitted ideas or projects to the Challenge, have not been involved in any part of the assessment of ideas, including the review of ideas, access to documentation about the shortlisting of projects or scoring criteria, or participation in selection meetings.