Rewards for Unbridled Imagination

Posted: 21 July 2008

The Secretary-General has encouraged staff not to be risk-averse, to be creative, and to push the boundaries in order to innovate. At UNODC, we take this message seriously. In fact, for the second year in a row UNODC staff have won more than a fifth of the UN21 awards that honour staff initiatives to improve the effectiveness of UN programmes and services. More than 20% of the awards from an Office with less than 2% of the UN's staff! Not bad.

UNODC winners this year were awarded for the National Drug Control System that ensures that medical products containing controlled drugs are available for patients who need them, but prevented from being diverted into illegal channels. An award was also given to staff in human resources who developed an on-line Clearance System for staff departing the Organization.

A commendation was given to the Pre-Export Notification System that helps to control the diversion of precursor chemicals (used to produce illicit drugs). UNODC staff were also commended for a Mobile Office project which provides access to everything from everywhere for everyone (which begs the question, why come to the office?).  

In addition, one of our consultants - Timothy La Rose - was also recognized for his work in two projects: the Global Contact Directory and iSeek, the global Secretariat intranet.

How can I explain this plethora of prizes for the second year in a row? Part of it has to do with a culture of creativity. Tone from the top encourages staff to unbridle their imagination. Of course, the biggest reason is that we have great staff at the UN in Vienna.

We have raised the bar pretty high this year. Rest assured that we will try even harder next year.

The Winners:

National Drug Control System

(Award - Substantive Programmes)

Mr. Ameen SAFADI

Mr. Blas LLARENA

Ms. Claudia VIRTOPEANU

Ms. Hilda SARKISSIAN

Ms. Zeeshan TAHIR

Ms. Kristina KUTTNIG

Ms. Gert EIDHERR

Ms. Maher ABU GHALI

Mr. Phillip KRUSS

Mr. Vladimir ZEMSKOV

Mr. Alejandro CASTILLO

 

Online Clearance Procedures for Separating Staff

(Award - Process Reengineering)

Ms. Petra ZWICKL

Ms. Andrea SUCHEL

Ms. Christine TEBB

Ms. Karin SOCHATZY

Ms. Sharon REEH

Ms. Jill TOBIN

Mr. Muthana ALNAHER

Mr. Jozsef PUSTER 

Ms. Lynette BUTLER-MATAITINI

Ms. Margarete SOBRAL-KIEFL

Mr. Victor KISOB

Ms. Khurshid BHIMANI

 

The Pre-Export Notification (PEN) System

(Commendation - Substantive Programmes/Process Reengineering)

Mr. Ilya LAZAREV

Mr. Alexei TEPAEV

Mr. Tobias SCHOESSLER

Ms. Nadya BADR

Mr. Rossen POPOV

Mr. MaherABU GHALI

Mr. Phillip KRUSS

 

The Mobile Office

(Commendation - Working Environment)

Mr. Daniel BRIDI 

Mr. Abdallah ZABEN 

Mr. Getamessay ANDUALEM

Mr. Ernst HOENIG

Mr. Alex WIESSNER

Mr. Oussama KHREIS

Mr. Phillip KRUSS