0comments UNICEF Junior Professional Programme Recruitment

The Junior Professional Officer programme (JPO) comprises a special category of staff members who are young professional men and women, interested in acquiring experience in the development field. These staff members are sponsored by their respective Governments to acquire experience in international development cooperation activities under the close direction of senior UNICEF officials, while contributing to the implementation of UNICEF’s country programmes.

The Programme also provides JPOs with a unique personal and cultural experience and allows UNICEF to identify talent that could become part of the organization’s human resource pool.

Minimum requirements

The general minimum requirements an individual must meet for entry into UNICEF as a JPO are:

■Citizenship of the respective country (Note: selected participating donor governments sponsor a limited number of nationals from developing countries*).
■Age: between 28 and 32 years.
■University degree equivalent to a Master's Degree or, as an absolute minimum, to a Bachelor's Degree;
■Two years of relevant professional work experience;
■Computer literacy in standard software applications;
■Demonstrate a keen interest in the work of the United Nations (UN), and of UNICEF in particular, and have a personal commitment to UNICEF’s mission and to the ideals of the UN Charter; and
■Demonstrate the ability to successfully interact with individuals of different cultural backgrounds and beliefs, which includes willingness to try, understand and be tolerant of differing opinions and views. Languages: Fluency in written and spoken English and another UN working language, i.e. Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish or Russian.

How to apply

Please note that not all nationalities can apply to the Junior Professional Programme, therefore before you proceed, please review the below list of donor governments participating in the UNICEF JPO Programme.

If you are a national from a developing county:

Please keep in mind that only a few JPO donor governments sponsor a small number of positions for nationals from developing countries within the Junior Professional Officer programme in UNICEF. Please refer to the "current vacancies" link and apply as instructed.

You should write directly to:

Human Resources Officer (JPO)
DHR, CDS (TA-26-78)
UNICEF House
3 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
E-mail: jpo@unicef.org

On the other hand, we receive a large number of applications and, thus, the selection process can be extremely competitive. Accordingly, we regret we are unable to respond individually to all applicants and we will limit our response only to successful candidates and those in whom the organization has further interest.

Interested candidates from the Netherlands and Canada are invited to submit their application, CV and a completed United Nations Personal History (P-11) form (which can be downloaded from http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_apply.html) directly to UNICEF at the address above. Candidates who are nationals of other governments are invited to submit their application to their respective government (contact information follows), which will review applications and make its recommendation to UNICEF.