UNDP JPO Mentoring Programme

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is a developmental relationship between a mentee and a mentor. It aims at helping the mentee to help himself/herself, takes place over a long period of time and is led by the mentee. The process takes place through dialogue and reflection and the mentee learns with the mentor.

It is a voluntary programme, based on the intentional relationship between the mentor and the mentee, where the mentor is a more experienced member in the organization or within a particular practice area. A successful mentoring relationship depends on mutual participation, open communication, respect and trust. Such a relationship can provide the mentee with an introduction to the organizational culture, a broader perspective on the challenges faced by UNDP, accelerated training, understanding of potential career paths within UNDP, coaching and support regarding challenging situations, etc.

The UNDP JPO Mentoring Programme objectives

The objective of the UNDP JPO Mentoring Programme is to support JPOs in their assignments. JPOs from the following organizations can participate: UNDP, UNCDF, UNV, UNDOCO and UN Women.

The Programme matches JPOs with either experienced JPOs in the second or third year of their JPO assignment, Special Assistants to the UN Resident Coordinator (SARCs), or former JPOs who are current UNDP staff members.

The Mentoring Programme is offered to JPOs at any stage in their assignment, although it may be particularly useful during the initial stage of the JPO assignment. The objective is to offer job support to - and development of - new JPOs, who are facing unfamiliar challenges and territories. The Mentoring Programme offers a frame for knowledge sharing and mentoring. Via a mentoring relationship, mentors will assist in shortening the learning curve of new JPOs by providing: insight into the organization’s culture; experiential knowledge on how to achieve strategies for work-life balance; support during the introduction process – including how to acclimatize to a new field or office culturally, organizationally and professionally; as well as assistance in gaining new skills that will help them as they advance in their careers.

In general, the Mentoring Programme will evolve around the needs of the mentees, be they specific knowledge, help to get through a difficult change process, guidance in relation to personal developments related to the job or help in finding the right balance between work and family life, just to mention a few examples. The mentoring relationship is first and foremost the responsibility of the mentee and will only be successful if the mentee sets aside time and energy to define his/her own needs, be open to feedback and be willing to reflect and find his/her own solutions. If these conditions are met, the potential benefits are tremendous in terms of personal development, improved self-confidence, better understanding of how the system works, etc.

The UNDP JPO Mentoring Programme does not provide supervision, management, on-the-job training or sponsorship of the mentee. A mentor will not act as a mediator between the mentee and their supervisor, but will complement the guidance and supervision offered by direct supervisors and managers.

Values

It is paramount that the mentoring relationship is characterized by confidentiality, mutual trust and respect, openness and knowledge sharing. By signing up as a mentee or mentor you agree to respect and pay particular attention to these values.

Success stories and feedback

Njeri's experience with the UNDP JPO Mentoring Programme:

"The e-mentoring experience has enhanced my knowledge and developed my competence as a JPO. Through sharing experience and advice, I can now easily access information e.g. on Atlas, intranet, ensure that I keep a healthy work-life balance, I can easily get along with colleagues at work and I now have a set career aspirations and goals."

You can read more success stories here.

Practicalities

It is very simple to sign up to become a mentee in the UNDP JPO Mentoring Programme. All you need to do is fill in a User Profile in the mentoring platform. It only takes a few minutes, since most of your personal information is automatically uploaded from Atlas.

The fact that mentors and mentees are not situated in the same country, and in some cases maybe not even in the same region, means that most of the mentoring will take place by e-mail, phone or Skype.

In acknowledgement of the fact that it can be difficult to build a relationship of trust where no face-to-face encounters take place, we strongly encourage mentors and mentees to arrange personal meetings if at all possible. Within reasonable limits and subject to agreement by the duty station, it could be possible to cover costs in this respect from the DTTA balance of the individual JPO.

Please do not hesitate to contact any of the members of the team: Barbara Koegs Andersen and María Segovia Aguirre if you have any questions, suggestions or concerns.