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UNDP's COVID-19 mission with EVA: skills and availability for crisis response

The October 2021 case study revisited: use a conversation to understand expertise and the people available to contribute.

In October 2021, EVA published a case study about supporting UNDP's COVID-19 response. It described automated engagement campaigns to collect consultant skills and availability, helping the organisation understand the expertise it could consider for deployment.

01

The historical context

UNDP's response to COVID-19 involved helping countries address urgent needs while continuing its wider development mission. The case study focused on the workforce information behind that response: what expertise consultants could contribute and when they were available.

This was a specific programme in a specific period. The original case-study date is retained here. It is separate from EVA's 2020 announcement that UNDP had chosen the platform and from subsequent updates about the wider deployment.

02

Why skills and availability belonged together

A profile describing someone's experience answers only part of a deployment question. Teams also need to understand availability and the requirement they are trying to fill. The historical campaign brought those questions into a conversational information-collection process.

The resulting records could support review of possible expertise for a mission. Collecting a response did not, by itself, vet that expertise, authorise an assignment or confirm that deployment had happened. Those distinctions remain important when interpreting the story.

03

Read the campaign as an operating method

The published case study described an engagement campaign, skills mapping and availability collection. The useful sequence is to define the information needed, invite the relevant population, clarify responses and make the results usable for the team considering deployment.

That sequence connects conversation design to workforce decisions. It also makes data quality visible: which records were updated, what evidence they contain and which questions still need attention. A response count should not be confused with the number of people assessed or deployed.

04

What this means for a programme today

For a current organisation, the starting point is its own mission requirements, participant population and information gaps. Agree the questions, evidence standards, role-based access and review responsibilities before running a campaign.

EVA's separate UNDP announcement page contains a clearly dated September 2026 deployment update and the current published figures. Keeping that update separate preserves the history of this case study and avoids presenting results from different periods as one measurement.

Explore the example

Explore the method behind the mission

An explanatory reconstruction of the process, not a live UNDP interface or a new outcome measurement.

What we know

Define the expertise and availability information required

How to read it

A useful campaign begins with the questions the deployment team needs answered.

The next useful action

Translate those questions into a clear participant conversation.

Compare all 3 cases
All example cases and next actions
CaseKnown informationNext action
AskDefine the expertise and availability information requiredTranslate those questions into a clear participant conversation.
UnderstandKeep reported skills and dates connected to their sourcesSeparate missing evidence from an actual gap in expertise or availability.
Consider deploymentCompare the requirement with relevant, available expertiseComplete the organisation's agreed review and assignment process.
Put it into practice

A workforce conversation is most useful when its questions are designed around the decision that follows.

Explore the relevant EVA capabilities

Sources & further reading

Historical context is preserved from EVA's October 2021 case study. See the separate announcement for the dated current deployment update.