How To Apply for a United Nations Junior Professional Officer position

The JPO programme is open to applicants from donor countries that sponsor the programme. Our current donors are listed on the right.

Only a limited number of donor countries is currently participating in the programme and their nationals are eligible to apply to the UN JPO Programme. If you are a national of one of the participating donor governments listed you may express your interest directly to the respective Ministry of Foreign Affairs listed directly on the right.

There is no general age limit. Many donor countries require applicants to be under the age of 32 when applying to their JPO Programme, however the age limit varies depending on the donor countries, so please check their websites on the above right panel.

Currently only the Netherlands and Italy are sponsoring developing country candidates. Further information will be posted once available under JPO Vacancies. Please note that only for positions administered by UNDESA which are sponsored by the government of the Netherlands there is direct application procedure to the UN. In previous years Italy and Spain have sponsored candidates from developing countries as well.

View the participating UN departments. *Note that these departments do not take direct applicatons, all applications are to be made directly to the sponsoring donor countries via their websites listed.

Deadlines vary from vacancy to vacancy.

Yes, they are. Please check the websites frequently for any openings in the future.

Appointment is for a period of one year, with a possibility of an extension, depending on the performance and available funding from donor countries.

• Normally, applicants are under 32 years of age, however age limits vary depending on the donor country. Pleae check their individual requirements on their websites on the top right. • Must have at least a Master’s degree (or equivalent combination of a degree and work experience) • In most cases have a minimum of two years of relevant professional experience, however this varies between donor countries. • English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. Depending on the duty station, excellent oral and written English or French is essential. Proficiency in another United Nations language may be required depending on the job description. • Proficient computer skills.

You can access JPO vacancies announcements and the application procedure on the sponsoring Governments’ Minister of Foreign Affairs websites listed. Please refer to the specific instructions of individual donors websites for more information. You do not directly apply to the UN, so please send your application to the sponsoring donor governments.

The preliminary assessment of candidacies is carried out, in most cases, by the respective donor governments who take into account language skills, academic background and professional experience. A short-list is then submitted by the donor government to the United Nations for further processing.

Only short-listed candidates will be interviewed directly by the representatives of the various United Nations departments. The interviews can be telephonic, video or in-person, and can be done solely by the receiving office or in collaboration between the donor and the department. Once this process is finalized, the short-listed candidates will be informed of the final results.