The whole World recently had its eyes turned on one country for 30 days, as South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup in Football.
The UN is more and more recognizing the potential of sport for development and peace.
We took this opportunity to take a look into the work done by the UN in South Africa and met one of our JPOs, Patricia Rey, who is working there with UNIFEM. Read more...
UN Creates a New Structure for Empowerment of Women: UN Women - the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
UN Women will become operational on January 2011. It is important to note that, until then, UNIFEM will continue to be fully operational and work according to its mandate. All agreements made with UNIFEM, will then be transferred to and fully honoured by UN Women.Read more...
We are in period of summer holidays and the planning of home leave for the summer is ongoing... if not already done. The queries then also come along, e.g. on how HL points are accumulated and who processes the relevant payments. You will find most of the answers to those questions and useful information about the HL entitlement on the dedicated pages on the UNDP intranet or on UN.org. The UNDP Home Leave Guidelines also provide detailed information. Enjoy your holidays!
Email for voucher approval requests
In order to facilitate payment procedures, the JPOSC has created a new email address for all voucher approval requests. It will be used for any payments which needs an approval by the JPOSC. So you can address vouchers from now on to this email address for approval: jposc.payments@undp.org
To help facilitate the process – please forward the relevant supporting documents, i.e. invoices, payment authorization and/or supervisor approval, itinerary (if travel related), & breakdown of costs … etc together with the Atlas link to this email.
Upon verification of the supporting documents, the request should be approved within 3 working days. A confirmation will be sent to you.
JPOSC Staff corner
The JPOSC is very pleased to announce two new interns have join the team for 6 months:
Ana Biurrun Ruiz has joined the JPOSC, 21st of June 2010, as intern in the Communications and Partnerships team. Her internship is mainly focused on the JPOSC website and networks, but she is also assisting with the JPO Alumni Association, Facebook and LinkedIn groups, JPO Stories and CV Roster. She has 4 years of experience in Media (radio, TV) and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Audiovisual Communications. She is currently finishing her Master’s in International Cooperation for Development.
Linda Wuoristo joined the JPOSC on June 28th 2010 as an intern. She is primarily working with operations team for the 7th International Organisations Career Development Roundtable and in addition also facilitate coordination regarding UNDP internships. Linda has previous experience in administration and coordination of internship programmes. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Business Administration and is currently studying towards a Master’s in Public Administration.
Training on line
A new mandatory course has been launched: "UNDP Legal Framework: What Every Staff Should Know", an online certificate course for all UNDP staff and accessible at: http://learning.undp.org. The first five lessons of the course are mandatory. They cover the Basic Legal Framework of UNDP and Administrative law aspects that every staff should know.
New HRA Organisation for JPOs
There have been some organizational updates in the JPOSC team and some JPOs will now have a different HRA.
Please click here for details...
Welcome to our 8 new JPOs in July/August 2010
Boutin, Sophie (Belgium) UNDPRDC Congo Branders, Nuria (Belgium), UNRWA Israel Cakir, Aiko (Japan) UNDP Sri Lanka Coussement, Wouter (Belgium), UNDP Belgium Deman, Hilde Belgium), Rwanda UNFPA Ingenbleek, Luc (Belgium), WHO Benin Oleffe, Amandine Alicia (Belgium), UNAIDS Niger Veyret-Picot, Maude (Belgium), UNDP USA
We would like to say goodbye and wish all the best to the following colleagues who ended their JPO and SARC assignment in July and August 2010:
Bogren, Malin Kristin (Sweden), UNFPA Bangladesh Brezovich, Elizabeth (Austria), UNIFEM Nicaragua Ekberg, Hillevi (Sweden), UN Dev Coord. Rwanda Rackwitz, Christine (Norway), UNRWA Israel Vieira, Francisco (Portugal), UNDP Guinea Bissau.
Inter-Agency Knowledge Fair, September 2010
UN DOCO, in close collaboration with the Vienna based Agencies and the UN System Staff College, is organizing an Inter-Agency Knowledge Fair in September in Vienna on “Policy Advice vs. Implementation: How to find the right positioning for UN development activities at the country level?”. It will take place in Vienna at the Austria Vienna Center from 28 to 30 September 2010. Read more...
"Picture This" Photo Contest
Picture This: We Can End Poverty is a global photo contest seeking to show— in a positive way— what people around the world are doing to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight goals agreed on by world leaders to halve extreme poverty by 2015
UNDP's Young Talent
Special Youth Programme
2009 Surveys are available
The Newsletter is visiting the UNDP Head Quarter (HQ) to get an insight into the life of some of our Junior Professional Officers (JPOs) and former JPOs. Who best could describe the programme and their professional expectations than JPOs themselves? Read more...
Results of the 2009 JPO, Donor and Organization Surveys are online! We are proud to announce that the satisfaction rates continue to be very high, .i.e. 74% of JPOs are generally satisfied or very satisfied with their assignment, and results testify the continuous excellent administrative follow-up provided by the JPOSC with 94% of the respondents are either satisfied or very satisfied. Thanks to all respondents. Read more...
The SYP is for Special Youths Programme, which is a fellowship provided by UNFPA and UNAIDS to youths from developing countries between the ages of 20 to 24. The fellows are assigned to the headquarters location of the respective agency, UNDAIDS in Geneva and UNFPA in New York. Read more...
New UN Career Web Portal
The United Nations have recently inaugurated a new web portal that provides a wealth of information on careers at the United Nations. The portal gives information on the types of jobs available, profiles of staff members working in a wide range of occupations and duty stations, information on salaries, benefits and entitlements, and much more.
The new portal can be accessed at http://careers.un.org. From April 2010 onwards, all applicants must complete a new profile and application form in Inspira and use the new portal to submit applications for jobs in the United Nations.
JPOSC Staff corner
The JPOSC is very pleased to announce that Rana Irshaid Andersen joined the team on the 14th Jun 2010, as Human Resources Associate. She will be administering the appointment of JPO serving in New York, Brussels, Bonn and Copenhagen. Rana has 7 years of experience with UNDP, and has HR extensive experience working with UNDP offices in Arab States, Africa, as well as HQ locations. She was one of the first group of HR officers who participated in the establishment of the Benefits & Entitlements (BES) Unit in Copenhagen. She holds a degree in Architecture and is in the process of finalizing a second degree in International HR Management and Development.
UNDP Youtube Channel
Updated information on DTTA
The duty-related travel and training allocation (DTTA) information on our website has been updated to be more user friendly and clear.
You will find the updated guidelines here.
UNDP for Beginners 4th editon
A completely revised and updated beginner's guide to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is now available on our website. It establishes a brief yet concise overview of the organization‘s multifaceted structure and its ongoing transformations. It is written to give you a snap-shot of where UNDP stands now, as well as providing an overview of the basic structures and systems of UNDP. It is a highly recommended and interesting reading!
Welcome to our 18 new JPOs in May/June 2010
Abramova, Olga , (Netherlands), UNDOCO USA
Beeckmans, Ruth (Belgium), UNDP New York
Casear, Karolien (Belgium), UNDP Johannesburg De Groff, Keon (Belgium),UNDP Geneva De La Rosa, Diego (Netherlands), UNFPA Lao Del Pino, Sandra (Spain), WHO Philippines Filz, Uta Brigitte (Germany),UNRWA Israel Huerta Garcia, Esther (Spain),UNFPA Guinea Jagessar, Naroesha (Netherlands), UNFPA Zimbabwe Marjanen, Jutta (Finland), UNFPA Senegal Myhrman, Tove (Sweden), UNRWA Israel Nikulainen, Elina (Finland), UNFPA China Seruni, Gemala (Netherlands), UNFPA Sudan Schnell, Jan-Patrick (Germany), UNDP Kenya Shimamoto, Kyoko (Japan), UNFPA Tanzania Standaert, Laurent (Belgium), UNDP Belgium Tinti, Margherita (Austria), UNFPA United States Wehrstein, Katharina (Austria), UNCDF Sierra Leone
We would like to say goodbye and wish all the best to the following colleagues who ended their JPO and SARC assignment in May and June 2010:
Chege, Eunice Nyambura (Belgium), WHO Tanzania Christensen, Nils Rune (Denmark), UNDP Georgia De Mesquita Lima, Joana (Portugal),UNDP East Timor Flard, Helge (Sweden), UNDP Senegal Kurauchi, Yuko (Japan), UNDP Kenya Luntamo, Mari (Finland),UNAIDS Mozambique Titlestad, Ola (Norway) , WHO Switzerland Yajima, Aya (Japan), WHO Switzerland
Undp.org emails are being used for spam attack, this has caused our email addresses to be temporarily blacklisted at gmail/hotmail/yahoo meaning no UNDP staff was/is able to send mail to gmail/hotmail/yahoo users.
But please note that UNDP staff is able to receive messages from hotmail accounts.
We apologize for any inconveniences that this may have caused. We are trying to get the system back to normal as soon as possible.
Donor countries are very interested in the specific experiences of their JPOs/SARCs and JPOs/SARCs coming on board find it very valuable to get an insight into the work of UN. You could either follow the order of the questions, or give an account of your experience in an essay like format.
Most infrastructures in Haiti were severely damaged after the earthquake, and a nede exists to develop the cross-border logistics. Fabrice Hansé, JPO with UNDP, currently funded by Belgium, went from Vietnam to Haiti on a temporary assignement to help facilitate this with WHO. Read more...
Training
We would like to share this training news with you from the JPOSC website: The University of Copenhagen, Denmark, now offers a Master's programme in HIV - the first of its kind in the world - as well as week-long focused courses in HIV Epidemiology, Policy, Treatment and Care, and Virology.
The Duke Center for International Development at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA, is currently accepting applications for their Summer 2010 short term training courses on Democratic Governance and Human Rights in public policy.
Should you know about any training opportunities you would like to share please let us know we will be please to publish on the next Newsletter.
JPOSC Staff corner
The JPO Service Centre team will encounter some changes in the coming weeks as Ane Katrine Havsteen, Human Resources Associate has been selected to be new HR Analyst (P2) in the OHR/ Staff Admin. Services/ Benefits and Entitlement (BES), still located in Copenhagen...Ane Katrine started in BES in April 2004 and later joined JPOSC.We took this opportunity to ask her about her experience at the JPOSC. Read more
UNAIDS Induction Course in May
The new UNAIDS induction training as been announced: The next UNAIDS New Staff Orientation (NSO) training course will take place from 10 to 14 May 2010.
e-Mentoring
We are delighted to announce the launch of our new e-Mentoring Programme. The objective of the JPO Induction e-Mentoring Programme is to support new JPOs assigned to UNDP in taking up their assignment. The Programme will match new JPOs with experienced JPOs in their second or third year of the JPO assignment, Special Assistants to the UN Resident Coordinator (SARCs), or current UNDP staff members who were recently JPOs. It is the intention that experienced current JPOs, SARCs, or former JPOs will mentor new JPOs during the first six months of their assignment.
Temporary Disruption in Travel
During the last few days, several thousand flights have been canceled and an even bigger number of passengers around the globe have become stranded. Unfortunately, colleagues from UNDP have also been inconvenienced as a consequence of this event. Due to constantly changing and evolving information from airlines, UNDP Travel Services have offered assistance by responding to queries related to policy, providing latest information and/or directly influencing expeditious processing of cases by AMEX. You may contact the AMEX Office (tel# 1-212-906-5491) at UNDP HQ and re-confirm your flight details. Finally, until all flights are completely operational, all business units are kindly requested to strongly encourage travelers to postpone their travel within, to, from or via Europe, unless in case of emergency, and to instead resort to video and phone conferencing for any required meetings.
UNDP Travel Intranet site
We are pleased to confirm that the UNDP Travel Services Section has a new and updated intranet site. As you know, it supports the needs of business units and travelers for all UNDP offices. Please note that latest information on temporary Disruption in Travel and other travel related information will also be posted on the travel intranet site.
Welcome to our 5 new JPOs in Mar./Apr. 2010
BRUN, Sara (Norway), UNIFEM Uganda HAGGBLOM Anna (Sweden), WHO Bangladesh RANTAPUSKA, Ulla-Maija (Finland), UNDP Kosovo RODRIGUEZ RIBAS, Clara (MDG), UNFPA Bangladesh YOSHIMURA, Mami (Japan), UNDP Lesotho
We would like to say goodbye and wish all the best to the following colleagues who ended their JPO assignment in March and April 2010:
AARNIO, Mari Pauliina (Finland), UNDP Swaziland BRUNDSEAUX, Pierre-Yves Gabriel Jean Guy (Belgium), UNAID Congo DR ROBERT, Chloe (France), UNDP Geneva SAKAI, Yuichiro (Japan), UNDP Sierra Leone VAN DER REE, Marleen Elvi (Netherlands), UNFPA Headquarters (USA) WALCHER, Alexandra (Austria), UNDP Nepal WEYSS, Birgit (Austria), UNDP Swaziland
Previous News
UNDP on Facebook and Youtube
Did you notice the new menu on the top of our page and the UNDP Youtube Channel and Facebook stream here below? By adding these new elements to our site, we would like to promote UNDP's social networks, where you can get great information on this organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.
We also put forward our JPOs networks on Facebook and LinkedIn, which are meant to enable its members to communicate among each other on an informal basis.
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JPOSC Staff
Welcome New Colleagues on Board! We are pleased to welcome four new full-time members of the JPOSC team. Read more...
Welcome to our 35 new JPOs in Jan./Feb. 2010
ALCALA, Luis Angel (Spain), UNFPA Honduras ALMEIDA, Daniel (Spain), UNIFEM Ethiopia BLANQUER ESCRIBANO, Pablo (Spain), UNDP Senegal BRINKMANN, Dominik (Germany), UNDP Panama CARRASCO-I-MIRO, Gisela (Spain), UNDP Mozambique CHATELAIN, Anne-Lise (France), UNDP Lao CHEMLI, Nabil (Spain), UNFPA Haiti CLADOS, Miriam Sophia (Germany), WHO Switzerland Read more...
New disability awareness course widens workplace perspective Persons with DisAbilities, Ability, CapAbility, EmployAbility is a new e-learning course on disability awareness and aims at making UNDP a more modern and inclusive workplace for all.
2 October: International Day of Non-Violence
On the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the International Day of Non-Violence is an occasion to "disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness".
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.
16 October: World Food Day
On the occasion of World Food Day 2009, let us reflect and work together to make sure hunger is recognized as a critical problem, and solve it. Crisis or no crisis, we have the know-how to do something about hunger.
Celebrate the UN Day on 24 October!
The anniversary of the entry into force of the United Nations Charter has been celebrated as since 1948 and is traditionally marked throughout the world by meetings, exhibits and staff celebrations.
From Sweden to New York, via Guatemala...
After a roundabout as a SARC in Guatemala, Lotta Viklund-McCabe is now back to New York, where she works as a UNDG Liaison Advisor.
UN Creates a New Structure for Empowerment of Women: UN Women - the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
The JPOSC is very pleased to announce two new interns have join the team for 6 months:
A new mandatory course has been launched: "UNDP Legal Framework: What Every Staff Should Know", an online certificate course for all UNDP staff and accessible at: 
Picture This: We Can End Poverty
Results of the 2009 JPO, Donor and Organization Surveys are online! We are proud to announce that the satisfaction rates continue to be very high, .i.e. 74% of JPOs are generally satisfied or very satisfied with their assignment, and results testify the continuous excellent administrative follow-up provided by the JPOSC with 94% of the respondents are either satisfied or very satisfied. Thanks to all respondents. Read more... 
Undp.org emails are being used for spam attack, this has caused our email addresses to be temporarily blacklisted at gmail/hotmail/yahoo meaning no UNDP staff was/is able to send mail to gmail/hotmail/yahoo users. 
The new UNAIDS induction training as been announced: The next UNAIDS New Staff Orientation (NSO) training course will take place from 10 to 14 May 2010.
During the last few days, several thousand flights have been canceled and an even bigger number of passengers around the globe have become stranded. Unfortunately, colleagues from UNDP have also been inconvenienced as a consequence of this event. Due to constantly changing and evolving information from airlines, UNDP Travel Services have offered assistance by responding to queries related to policy, providing latest information and/or directly influencing expeditious processing of cases by AMEX. You may contact the 
Services Section
In need for democratic governance inspiration? Have a look at DG Insights!
New disability awareness course widens workplace perspective
2 October: International Day of Non-Violence
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009
16 October: World Food Day
Irina Gueorguieva Bokova: new UNESCO candidate to the post of Director-General
Celebrate the UN Day on 24 October!
From Sweden to New York, via Guatemala...