What Is a Roster?

Within WIDE, a roster is a dynamic compendium of pre-qualified experts who are interested in undertaking long- or short-term assignments within their respective field of expertise.

A roster is a sophisticated data base where pre-selected experts upload and update their profiles, outlining their skills sets, areas of expertise, level of professional experience, references, personal contact information and other relevant details. Roster managers can sort and search among these categories to identify the talent that they need.

WIDE rosters also enable roster managers to:

• communicate with experts in the roster, collectively or individually, directly through the platform;
• keep track, within the same online system, of recommendations and references made on rostered experts;
• render experts active or inactive, according to availability, performance feedback, responsiveness to updating their profile, matching requirements, or other factors; and
• track experts’ assignments referred through WIDE.

Institutions build rosters of experts in WIDE because the timely identification of qualified professionals meeting the requirements of an assignment and available to undertake it is central to effective delivery of human development results and an important contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Having a roster(s) of experts enables institutions to be ready to quickly source the best talent available from among the experts who have undergone rigorous screening processes.

Nine New Rosters of Experts to be Established on Democratic Governance

The Network Facilitator of the Democratic Governance Group (DGG) of the Bureau for Development Policy (BDP), Ms. Sylvie Babadjide, met with the WIDE team on 8 September 8 to confirm the group's decision to establish nine new rosters of experts. The new Rosters will strengthen each thematic area of the Democratic Governance practice such as Justice and human rights, electoral systems and processes, e-government, public administration and anti-corruption. The rosters will operate as a federation, sharing selected talent pools to complement the important support provided to Member States.




The disCussion of the Democratic Governance Group to establish the new rosters with the WIDE Roster Platform expands the partnership between the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation and BDP in this area. In 2006, BDP and United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the use and continuous improvement of the WIDE Roster Platform, now an integral part of the Global South-South Development Academy.




Broadening access to expertise and talent through carefully selected talent pools is an activity that contributes to the organization in many positive ways. It reduces the time required for sourcing talent when needed, it mitigates many risks in providing and using services, and it promotes diversity and inclusion by sourcing Southern experts, including women. But above all, it enables roster managers to gain a deeper understanding of the competencies and knowledge available and in demand, develop talent intelligence and evolve their rosters into a resourcing centre for development in their respective areas.



2010 Roster Managers Workshop held in Geneva
On 24 November 2010, the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation hosted a professional workshop on the Web of Information for Development (WIDE) roster management software at the Global South South Development Expo 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland. Thirteen WIDE roster managers from the UN system and across geographic regions participated in the day and a half of activities.


The workshop was intended to:
Foster knowledge exchange among WIDE partners. The dialogue focused on how WIDE partners can take advantage of the vast possibilities of the WIDE system as a sustainable and efficient part of their business;
Showcase successful and innovating experiences in roster management;
Discuss the WIDE roster system strategic directions and strengthen WIDE as a communication tool.
In view of these objectives, the workshop was structured around a strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis through which all participants provided insights on their experiences with the WIDE system.
The workshop highlighted a number of innovative ways in which the WIDE roster platform is being used by its diverse group of roster managers. In most cases, requests for referrals should be sent to the Roster Manager, who is prepared to conduct the search with the proper domain knowledge. Each roster powered by WIDE has a roster manager in charge. WIDE provides roster managers with different options for granting access to their rosters. Few rosters provide public access, given the value and sensitivity of the information.
Environment and Energy Roster
The UNDP Environment and Energy Expert Roster provides an excellent example of an organization that has taken its roster to the next level. The Roster not only functions as a pool of selected experts as part of their efforts to strengthen service delivery and execution capacity, but it is also an intrinsic part of their human resource strategies as all vacancy announcements for consultancies are disseminated through the Roster, giving all experts in the Roster access to them.
Crisis Prevention and Recovery Roster

One of the main roles of Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) is to provide strong support for UNDP country offices in the implementation and formulation of programmes in crisis and recovery contexts. Adequate recourse capacity with the required technical aptitude in the short time frame that crisis-related situations often demand is of importance. BCPR has therefore customized its Roster, utilizing the Roster as a human resource system, including only UNDP staff with specific qualifications who can be readily deployed in emergencies. Established during the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in 2004, it also proved to be very useful during the Haiti crisis in 2010.
TIKA Talent Bank

The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) has facilitated its provision of Turkish technical expertise by developing a Turkish experts talent bank in collaboration with UNDP for the Ministry of Agriculture and furthered its customization by developing the roster in Turkish to broaden access to it and increase its utility.
UUN Common Consultant Roster, Bangkok

The Common Services Roster has exemplified the possibilities of WIDE to serve as an effective communication tool, with a focus on the transfer of knowledge by being the only Roster that has created a network involving multiple agencies. The Roster is comprised of the best experts from all UN agencies based in Bangkok.
Regional Centre Cairo

The Arab States Expert Roster is part of the UNOD management strategy for the Arab States and their effort to strengthen South-South cooperation and knowledge-sharing. This Roster is tailored to function both at the regional and the country level for different priority areas within UNDP.
The DPA Mediation Roster

The Mediation Support Roster, United Nations Department of Political Affairs (DPA) is comprised of mediation experts who have been selectively chosen to complement the headquarters-based Mediation Support Unit and Standby Team. The Roster has come to be an inherent part of the menu of mediation support sources. DPA offers mediation services regarding peacemaking, preventive diplomacy and other settings as well as a wide range of tasks such as support, coordination and assessments. The Roster and the WIDE platform benefit from a flexible structure which facilitates the coordination of experts in an efficient and timely manner since the nature of the assignments demands quick deployment.
Workshop Conclusions

The workshop was highly successful at accomplishing the outcomes that it had set for itself.
The detailed feedback provided by the workshop participants indicated that a vibrant community of practice around the WIDE platform exists and was further solidified by the activities of this workshop. Most of the roster managers appreciated that this tool was invaluable to their daily business and was not being provided by any other institutional organ. The user community had significant feedback on both how the software can be improved and how communication between its users can facilitate more productive use.
The WIDE management team agreed to act this valuable feedback.