Transforming Systems in the Decade of Action
UNDP Field Guide for Human Development Report Dialogues
Building conditions and capabilities to shape new futures in uncertain times
How to build systems leadership capabilities
Read up on our recent blogs on "Shifting Mindsets to Shift Development Systems":
Why We Need to Move Inward so that We Can Move Forward on the 2030 Agenda and Cultivating the Conditions for Systems Transformation
How to join this journey?
- Login & follow the "Transformation" tag to join the community and stay up to date
- Find find more resources related to Systems Transformation on SparkBlue!
- Watch this space for opportunities to take part in and contribute to the movement!
- For more information, please contact us at: info@sparkblue.org
About this initiative
COVID-19 has changed the development landscape. Progress toward the SDGs has been reversed. The tectonic shifts and blind spots surfaced by our current moment have underscored the need for new capabilities to navigate the Decade of Action and seize emergent opportunities for systems transformation. Integrated solutions must go beyond optimizing the status quo. Deep systems change starts with fostering collective capacities to situate the ‘self’ in systems, to operate from a place of connectedness between our minds, hearts, and hands and between each other, and to move from ego-system to eco-system awareness.
Since June 2020, UNDP is partnering with Presencing Institute to build and sustain architectures of learning and connection for the cultivation of transformation literacy and action confidence within the UN system and beyond! In June-September 2020, we co-hosted a series of Summer Dialogues aimed at building such capabilities for awareness-based collective action.

Drawing on the energy and insights from the initial dialogues, it continued with a global Transformation Dialogue Series in the first half of 2021. These virtual gatherings and learning spaces invited UN staff into a unique space to understand and apply approaches from Theory U to the complex challenges at the core of our work. The sessions took the core questions of the 2020 Human Development Report on Human Development and the Anthropocene as a point of focus for co-inquiry into mechanisms for systems transformation.
If you missed the dialogues, watch the recordings and engage in the discussions:
?Dialogue 1 | ?Dialogue 2 | ?Dialogue 3 | ?Dialogue 4 | ?Dialogue 5 |
Co-Initiating: Uncovering Shared Intention | Co-Sensing: Seeing Reality from the Edges of the System | Presencing: Connecting to the Highest Future Potential | Co-Creating the Emerging Future: Doughnut Economics | Co-Evolving: Organizing the Future As It Emerges |
For an even deeper-dive into this process, a 4-month Action Learning Lab for UN practitioners provided an opportunity for staff to hone their action confidence by applying transformation literacy approaches to problems of their choice.
Transformation Dialogue Series
Applying approaches from Theory U to the complex challenges at the core of our work
UN Action Learning Lab
A four-month guided systems transformation journey for UN practitioners
Summer Dialogue Series
Catch up on this Awareness-based Collective Action series hosted in 2020
Collective Intelligence for Sustainable Development
Read up to understand how to embed Collective Intelligence principles and methods into SDG work
Learning Insights: Leading Systems Transformation
Reflect on the experience of the UN Action Learning Lab and learn how to support UN practitioners in navigating complex systems
Putting the 2020 HDR into Practice
Join the group and read up on the insights, lessons learned and concrete examples to actualize the 2020 HDR
Human Development Report 2020
Nothing short of a great transformation – in how we live, work and cooperate – is needed to change the path we are on.
Meet the Transforming Systems team
Get in touch
Browse past events
Or explore Systems Transformations specific events here.