AcademiaPNUD

What it is

The UNDP Mexico Academia Platform, which calls itself the Centro de aprendizaje digital (digital learning center), is the online course space of the UN Development Programme in Mexico (Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo, PNUD). The course page describes it as a "espacio digital que agrupa la oferta de cursos del PNUD en México" (a digital space that brings together UNDP Mexico's course offer), built to spread knowledge "mediante capacitaciones innovadoras enfocadas a temáticas del desarrollo a través de un sistema integrado único, intuitivo y seguro para ambientes de aprendizaje personalizados" (through innovative training on development topics, delivered on a single, intuitive and secure integrated system for personalized learning).

It is a learner product with a public-service slant. Several courses are written for public officials, one for Mexicans living abroad, and others for anyone who wants to understand a development issue in depth. That gives it its place among government course portals, run by UNDP's office in Mexico, and among open online course catalogs.

How it works

The learning center has its own menu: home, courses, personalized services (servicios personalizados), registration, login and contact. A learner registers, signs in and enters a course through its "Entrar al curso" (enter the course) button. A personalized services section sits beside the catalog, and the wider platform describes the center as offering a broad range of digital courses together with specialized services: "Aprende y capacítate en diversas temáticas del desarrollo con nuestra amplia oferta de cursos digitales y servicios especializados" (learn and train in a range of development topics with our wide offer of digital courses and specialized services).

The course pages list no prices or fees.

The course catalog

The "Encuentra tu curso" (find your course) page lists each course with a short description that shows both the subject and the angle it takes.

Gender-based political violence. The largest group of courses deals with violencia política en razón de género (VPRG), political violence based on gender. An introductory course, "La violencia política en razón de género", presents the political rights of women and LGBTIQ+ people and the violence aimed at them. Focused courses follow it: one on Afro-Mexican women, one on Indigenous women that gives participants tools to identify cases, one on violence against the LGBTIQ+ community that gives tools to deal with cases and act on them, one on violence inside political parties, and one on violence in the digital sphere with tools to intervene. A related course, "Agendas políticas con perspectiva de género y derechos humanos", covers building public policy with a gender and human rights perspective. For an electoral official, a party staffer or a public servant working on equality, this is a full sequence on one problem.

Equality in public administration. "CEDAW y Plataforma de Beijing en la Función Pública: Construyendo Igualdad desde las Acciones Locales" is presented as a training workshop for public officials. As its title says, it works from CEDAW and the Beijing Platform toward building equality through local action.

Human rights, business and migration. "Empresas, Derechos Humanos y Movilidad Humana" is an online course that sets out, in a simple, practical and accessible way, the essential elements for understanding business, human rights and human mobility. "Migración y Desarrollo" is a training program of 4 modules on migration, development and rights.

Civic education abroad. "Formación de Promotorías de Educación Cívica para Mexicanas y Mexicanos en el Extranjero (FOPEME)" trains Mexicans living outside the country as civic education promoters. The description speaks directly to the learner: you learn about your rights and why it matters to promote them and share them with your community.

Environment. "Manejo y Destrucción Ambientalmente Adecuada de Bifenilos Policlorados en México" covers the environmentally sound handling and destruction of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which the course calls a priority on the global environmental agenda. It is the one technical course in the list and suits people who handle or regulate PCBs.

Financial inclusion. "Modelo de Inclusión Financiera para mujeres" presents a model of financial inclusion for women, defining financial inclusion as access to and use of formal financial products and services.

The platform around it

The learning center sits inside UNDP Mexico's Plataforma de Análisis para el Desarrollo (PAD), described as a public space with digital tools for consulting and analyzing data, learning and training online, and making evidence-based decisions on development. According to its about page, the PAD was launched in 2020 as a public tool for consulting data, building visualizations and downloading documents, and has since been updated and expanded with new tools "que contribuyen a la construcción de un México más sostenible" (that contribute to building a more sustainable Mexico).

For a learner, the neighboring tools are useful companions to the courses. They include a data portal for making and downloading charts, state and municipal fact sheets, monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals, a knowledge bank with a searchable digital library of specialized literature, and a corruption risk self-assessment for public institutions that ends in a report with results and recommendations. The PAD's interface can be switched between Spanish, English, German, French and Portuguese, while the course titles and descriptions are in Spanish.

The PAD presents itself as UNDP's Digital Strategy 2022-2025 put into practice in Mexico, and names the aims it serves: accessibility, so that everyone can use its resources and adapt the content to their needs; quick dissemination of tools for sustainable development; scale, reaching more users; and keeping its tools current with technology and changing development needs.

The platform's terms say it follows UNDP's data principles and its privacy and personal data protection policy, and that the content is the work of UNDP Mexico.

Who it suits

The digital learning center suits Mexican public servants and political actors who work on equality, elections, human rights or public policy, and who want a structured course from UNDP on the problem in front of them. The run of courses on gender-based political violence is its clearest strength: a learner can start with the general course and move to the one that matches their setting, whether a political party, digital spaces, Indigenous communities or Afro-Mexican communities. The migration, business and human rights courses serve officials and companies dealing with human mobility, the civic education course serves Mexican communities abroad, and the PCB course serves environmental managers.

It suits less well a learner looking for a broad general catalog, since the courses concentrate on a few development themes, or someone who does not read Spanish, since the courses are written in it. For a public institution, the personalized services section and the PAD's analysis tools sit one click away.