Launch of the JPO Service Centre Website

Dear Colleagues,

The official inauguration of the JPO Service Centre was held on 6 November 2001 in the presence of Mr. Jan Mattsson, UNDP Assistant Administrator and Director of the Bureau of Management, and of the representatives of 16 out of 19 participating donor countries.

On this occasion, the pilot version of the JPO Service Centre website was launched. It aims at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the services delivered by the JPO Service Centre and will lay the groundwork for an electronic platform, which will optimise, streamline and simplify the whole range of administrative support provided by the JPO Service Centre. The website contains well over 1,000 links and can be accessed at the following addresses: http://www.jposc.org or http://www.jposc.dk
We made a conscious decision not to "overload" the web-site with hi-tech features in order to ensure fast and reliable connectivity.

The site is presently divided into seven chapters, each of them offering various sub-sections.

The first chapter of the website provides brief facts and links on the JPO Programme and the JPO Service Centre.It is divided into the following seven sections:

  • goals and modalities of the Programme;
  • the JPO Service Centre, its team and working process;
  • data and links on the donor countries;
  • brief presentation of the UN agencies participating in the Programme;
  • outputs of the Programme for each stakeholder;
  • links to JPO programmes administered by other UN agencies;
  • links and comments on the post-JPO employment opportunities.

Based on the comments provided in the replies to the JPO questionnaire, we endeavoured to develop the post-JPO employment opportunities section and to create a training opportunities section.

The second chapter of the website offers various on-line services:

  • the first section describes why we feel it is important to have a website dedicated to the JPO Programme;
  • the second section contains the "home-grown" computerised Offer Package. To download the offer package, new JPOs will have to request a password. The same password will enable access to the interactive sections featured in chapter five below;
  • the third section will provide you and other partners (country offices, donor counterparts) with various sets of documents and forms. This section is still under construction.

The third chapter of the website offers information on the JPOs and their duty stations:

  • the first section is a JPO Who's Who list: all current JPOs are registered and can be searched by nationality, duty station or agency. This section will be updated monthly;
  • the second section briefly details the distribution of the JPOs in Headquarters and provides HQ web links;
  • the third section briefly outlines the distribution of the JPOs in the field and offers hundreds of links to country offices-related websites;
  • a directory of former JPOs will be available soon in the fourth section.

The fourth chapter of the website is a thematic resources centre, that will be of special interest to all newly-assigned JPOs. Additionally, the first section, introducing the resource centre and providing links to some key corporate documents, is divided into eight thematic sub-sections:

  • Democratic Governance and Human Rights;
  • Poverty Reduction;
  • Crisis Prevention and Recovery;
  • Energy and Environment;
  • Information and Communication Technologies;
  • HIV/AIDS;
  • Gender/Empowerment of Women;
  • Population and Development/Reproductive Health.

New thematic sections - on micro-credit, procurement, industrial development, etc. - could also be developed in the future.

The fifth chapter of the website groups activities related to the development of a JPO Network. In order to take advantage of the features available under this chapter, please request your personalized password. Such password will let you have access to all the password-protected areas of the web-site.

  • the JPO Forum is already available. Once a JPO is registered, he/she can send, view or reply to any question posted in the forum;
  • the JPO Chat room will soon be available;
  • the JPO "Alumni Association" will be hosted under this section of the website. As this "product" will be of relevance to current and former JPOs as well as to other stakeholders, we will be grateful for your suggestions as to how this section should be organized.

The sixth chapter of the website concentrates on the JPO-specific news:

  • the first section will offer regular JPO newsletters, that will be distributed to all JPOs by e-mail;
  • the second section will synthesize the discussions from the JPO Network;
  • the third section will group administrative news;
  • under the fourth section, we intend to summarize your suggestions relating to updating/improving of the website and the activities performed by the JPO Service Centre.

All the above sections will be updated on a regular basis, as the website begins to take shape.

The seventh chapter of the website features the Site Map and the Frequently Asked Questions section.

Please note that this website was developed to become your website. The pilot version now available on-line will, therefore, be modified, based on your suggestions and comments. We fully realise that, among other things, quite a bit of editing is still required. It is also worth mentioning that this website can reach its desired degree of efficiency only in the event that the JPOs are deeply involved in its evolution and management. I sincerely hope that this potentially useful tool (as confirmed by your answers to the recently disseminated questionnaire) will meet with your interest and that we will exert a concerted effort to regularly improve and upgrade it. We will make it a habit to keep you informed of all the modifications and upgrades of this key platform for the JPO Programme and the JPO networking.