From left to right: Trephene (JPOSC), Wissam (Lebanon), Quynh (Vietnam), Patrina (Fiji), Jenny (Ecuador), Zeina (UNFPA Coordinator), Sasha (Ukraine), Prateek (UNFPA Coordinator), and Rodrigues (Togo)

The SYP is for Special Youth Programme, which is a fellowship provided by UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) and UNAIDS (United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS) to youths from developing countries between the ages of 20 to 24. 

The two organisations involved have different objectives for running the programme according to their UN activities.

For UNFPA the aim of the SYP programme is to:

1. recruit young people from developing countries in order to strengthen the youth-friendliness of UNFPA programmes;
2. to develop the capacity of a critical mass of youth leaders; and
3. to provide opportunities for both UNFPA and young people to address issues of mutual interest as they concern the development and rights of adolescents and youth.

For UNAIDS the aim is to:

1. create opportunities at appropriate levels of the organization to engage youth in policy development and programming;
2. to help build the capacity of young people and strengthen their leadership skills to contribute to the AIDS response, especially at the country level; and
3. to sensitize both the young people and UNAIDS staff on various modalities of working together to address issues related to HIV, particularly youth concerns, gender, GIPA and human rights.

Applicants must be from a developing country and living there and have had a study focus in the respective areas.  Age and nationality are defining criteria as this is a programme geared towards youths in developing countries.

The fellowship period is for 9 months.  The fellows are assigned to the headquarters location of the respective agency, UNDAIDS in Geneva and UNFPA in New York.  They may serve from 4.5 to 5 months in the headquarters location and the remainder 4 to 4.5 months in the country office located in their home country. This year, it is the third round with UNAIDS (starting in 2008) and the second one for UNFPA*. 
For 2010 there are 3 UNAIDS fellows and 6 UNFPA fellows enrolled in the SYP.  All of them come from different parts of the World (e.g. Fidj, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Ukraine, Nepal, Vietnam).

The JPO Service Centre (UNDP), based in Copenhagen (Denmark), is involved in the administrative process of the SYP. Trephene Andrea has been the focal point for this project since it started in 2008. The JPOSC gets involved from the selection stage of the fellow getting the information from the respective agency coordinator. Among other tasks, Trephene takes care of all the visa and travel matters, as well as insurance enrolment, stipend and accommodation payment and additional matters related to the fellowship assignment.  

Feedbacks on SYP seem to be very positive so far from both fellows and UN agencies. Then, the programme will slowly but surely grow in the coming years and continue to generate more vocations among youg talents to join the UN.