UNDP Junior Professional Officer Programme

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UNDP Junior Professional Officer Programme
UNDP Regional Workshop March 2007
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What is the UNDPJunior Professional Officer
Programme?

• Celebrating 40 years of existence, the JPO
  Programme aims at
• Providing young professionals pursuing a career
  in development with experience in multilateral
  technical co-operation
• Supporting the development agenda of developing
  countries and contributing to the achievement of
  the international development targets
• Giving UNDP offices access to motivated and
  promising human resources

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In a few figures

• 24 Participating Donors, usually only sponsoring
  their nationals
• 190 JPOs (average of 90 new JPOs each year)
• 90 Duty Stations
• 27 Nationalities

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Profile of a Junior Professional Officer

• Funded by Donors for 2 to 3 years
• Under 32 years of age (average 31 years)
• Masters degree (or equivalent)
• 2 4 years of working experience in average
• Proficiency in at least two official UN languages
• Key competencies results-oriented, analytical,
  team-player, flexible, good communications and
  stress management skills
• Strong commitment to development (former field
  experience is an asset)

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At a glance
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UNDP JPOs by Donors
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Main Fields of Activity

• Poverty Reduction
• Democratic Governance
• HIV/AIDS
• Energy and Environment
• Crisis Prevention Recovery
• UN Coordination

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The UNDP JPO Service Centre

• The JPO Service Centre is at the hub of the JPO
  Programme
• It acts as a one-stop shop and as a focal point
  with donors on day-to-day human resources,
  financial and administrative matters
  (recruitment, selection, placement, etc.)
• It supports the recruitment process of JPOs (by
  assisting the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in
  the recruitment of JPOs or by managing the entire
  recruitment cycle)
• It works closely with the UNDP Duty Stations
  around the world, providing advice and developing
  new tools to improve the JPO Programme.
• It provides post-JPO career development support

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Advantages for the Participating Donors

• The JPO Programme
• Presents a donor country with a mechanism of
  delivering development assistance
• Supports the priorities of the donor development
  cooperation policies and programmes
• Provides donor nationals with opportunities for
  training and expertise in international
  development management and cooperation
• Increases the respective donor representation in
  the UN System being a JPO represents one of the
  best entry points towards becoming a long-term
  staff member of the UN system

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The best entry point in the UN System

• For the period 2000-2006, the UN System absorbed
  40 of the 620 UNDP JPOs
• 25 returned to their home countries to continue
  work in the field of international cooperation
  (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NGOs, consultancy
  companies, research)
• Former JPOs also account for more than 20 of the
  current UNDP professional staff
• One in three current UN Resident Coordinators are
  former JPOs and several former JPOs serve at the
  Assistant Secretary General level

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Retention success stories

• UN Resident Coordinators in Equatorial guinea,
  Kenya, Bulgaria, Myanmar, Algeria, Fiji, Morocco,
  Afghanistan, Uruguay, Yemen, Moldova, Madagascar,
  Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia
• UNDP Deputy Representatives in Moldova, Congo,
  Madagascar, Guinea Bissau, Tanzania, Russian
  Federation, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Mexico, Bosnia
  and Herzegovina, Yemen, India, Georgia

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Advantages for Emerging Donor Countries

• Old EU member countries participate in the
  programme
• Reported as part of ODA (multilateral development
  cooperation)
• Excellent mechanism for building national
  capacities in multilateralism and a national
  resource base in the field of development
  cooperation
• Excellent mechanism for marketing own nationals
  with the UN System and best entry point into the
  UN System.
• Emerging donor countries have only few staff
  working at the professional level in UNDP. Out of
  the 1400 internationally-recruited UNDP, there
  are currently 3 Bulgarians, 1 Croatian, 2
  Czechs, 1 Estonian,1 Hungarian, 2 Latvians, 2
  Lithuanians, 4 Poles, 1 Romanian, 8
  Russians, 2 Slovakians, 0 Slovenians, 0 Thais and
  8 Turks

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To know more about

• The UNDP JPO Programme
• The UNDP JPO Service Centre
• Please visit our dedicated website (available in
  3 languages)
• www.jposc.org