By
Magnus Bucht
Across the UN and humanitarian system, funding constraints are already translating into major organisational changes. UNHCR’s proposed 2027 budget is around 16% below its 2026 budget, alongside a significant reduction in budgeted personnel posts. Its leadership is explicitly linking the transformation to skills-based workforce planning, organisational design, mobility and leadership development.
For NGOs and development institutions, the context is different, but the workforce question is increasingly similar:
What capabilities do we need — and where should they sit?
That is a more useful question than simply asking which positions can be cut.
From positions to capabilities
A traditional workforce plan starts with jobs:
How many Programme Officers do we need? How many HR staff? How many people in headquarters?
A more strategic approach starts with capabilities:
What skills are critical to our mission?
Which capabilities are becoming more important?
Where do we already have them?
Where are we duplicating expertise?
What work can be automated or simplified?
What should move closer to programme delivery?
Which capabilities could be developed internally rather than recruited externally?
This shift is particularly relevant as organisations reconsider the balance between international, regional and national roles.
Skills mapping becomes strategic infrastructure
For people and talent leaders, skills data can become as important as headcount data.
A clear skills map can help organisations see where critical expertise sits, identify gaps, support internal mobility and build stronger succession plans.
It can also change the conversation around recruitment.
Instead of automatically replacing a departing employee, leaders can ask:
What capabilities are we actually losing?
Perhaps some work can be redesigned. Some skills may already exist elsewhere. Other capabilities may need to be strengthened through reskilling or a targeted external hire.
That is a very different approach to workforce reduction.
Smaller does not have to mean weaker
The challenge facing our sector is not simply how to operate with fewer people.
It is how to protect and strengthen the capabilities that matter most while simplifying everything around them.
For people and talent leaders across the UN, NGOs, development banks and international organisations, this means putting workforce planning closer to organisational strategy:
Map the skills. Identify the critical capabilities. Understand where they sit. Plan for the capabilities you will need next. Then design the workforce around the mission.
Budget pressure may determine that organisations become smaller.
It should not determine what they become.
Interested in an Impactpool Recruiter seat to support your workforce planning? Get in touch