Presentation
Background
Established in 1963, the JPO Programme provides young professionals pursuing a career in development with hands-on experience in multilateral technical cooperation. The JPO Programme represents a form of development aid through the United Nations System, especially targeted at benefitting the Least Developed Countries. The programme may also support specific goals of the donor in promoting and advancing priority areas in targeted countries.
The JPOs serve primarily in one of the country offices of the participating UN agencies in developing countries. A limited number of JPOs (currently some 28%) are posted to various Headquarters locations. Under the supervision of a senior staff member, JPOs work with international and national staff and are involved in the identification, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the UN agencies-supported programmes. Purposes of assignments vary and may have a country-specific, regional, sector-based or thematic focus.
As such, the JPO Programme represents a continuous flow of technical cooperation personnel from various donor countries and provides room for privileged relationships with the donors because of the continuity and history of their programmes. It also allows for opportunities for national counterpart colleagues and beneficiaries to experience cross-cultural relationships in many specialized areas of professional work.
Benefits to the donor Government
JPOs are considered to be UN/ UNDP professional staff members for the duration of their assignment. Historically, being a JPO represents one of the best entry points towards becoming a long-term staff member of the UN system, thereby greatly increasing the "representation ratio" of the donor Government. Based on the results of a recent statistical study, around 40% of JPOs get absorbed by the UN system at the end of their three-year JPO assignment. More and more former JPOs are kept on board (upon completion of their JPO assignment) either through the medium of UNDP's LEAD programme or by country offices under various short and medium-term contractual modalities. As many as 21% of the current UNDP professional staff members are former JPOs.
It is also worth mentioning that a very significant (and ever-increasing) proportion of senior UNDP staff members are former JPOs. For instance, approximately one in three current UN Resident Coordinators are former JPOs and several other former JPOs serve at the Assistant Secretary General level. Another option of interest to some donor Governments is have former JPOs return to their home country key ministries and cooperation agencies, bringing to bear their development experience gained in the course of the JPO assignment and thereby enhancing national capacity.
Great flexibility of the JPO Programme
For Government interested in pursuing this initiative, there are two ways in which opportunities can be further explored. The Government may either sponsor its own nationals or it may decide to fund a certain percentage of citizens of developing countries. In either case, all participating donor countries enjoy a lot of leverage in terms of placement of JPOs with regard to their priority regions, countries and practice areas. In a similar vein, if the Government is willing to sponsor JPO assignments of the developing country nationals, it will be in a position to make decisions as to nationals of what countries will be eligible for consideration.
Even after signing the Memorandum of Understanding with respect to the JPO Programme, there is no obligation on the part of the donor Government to sponsor any number of JPOs during any given year. At the same time, should the Government wish to fund some JPOs, it will be able to decide how many should be recruited, based on the budgetary situation or other factors. We follow a "no surprise" policy meaning the estimated cost of each JPO assignment is known in advance and the Government will be in a position to endorse it or otherwise.
Last but not least, the JPO Service Centre will take care of all the administrative aspects of the JPO Programme to ensure that its running does not place a strain on the Government's capacity to deal with other priority issues. The Government may either fully outsource the short-listing, interviewing and selection of candidates to the JPO Service Centre or it may wish to get involved in some of these processes.
