Recruiting a UNV - 1
Introduction
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- UNV volunteers - a motivated, cost-effective and sustainable alternative to satisfy human resource needs in your project/programme.
- UN Volunteer Specialists have minimum 5 years post-qualification experience in any of 538 specialist skill areas in 105 categories. There are normally 5,000 candidates on the roster at any one time.
- UNV Volunteers are supervised directly by the project/programme; UNV Office plays a supporting (and not a supervising) role.
What kind of UN Volunteers are there?
There are three different modalities:
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The UNV Specialist : must have degree, usually masters and/or PhD, plus minimum five (in actuality the average is eleven) years' post-qualification work experience in the relevant field. Normally posted in capacity-building/training at central level, and contracts are usually two years (shorter contracts can be arranged, with absolute minimum 6 months).
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The UNISTAR volunteer : under the Corporate/Private Sector (CPS) programme, qualified and experienced volunteers serve on UNISTAR missions for short periods (between 1 week and 3 months).
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The UNV Field Worker : comes from within the region (i.e. Asia), usually with at least 5 years' practical related work experience, and normally (but not necessarily) educated to degree level. More generalist and practical - less theoretical - works with local counterparts, often assigned at district or village level.
Which kinds of institutions are eligible to request for a UNV?
As long as the request for a UNV has a sound development basis, any kind of institution can request a UNV. Government organisations and institutions, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), even corporations and the private sector, provided that the request for support has a development focus. In all UNV assignments, priority is given to posts where the UNV will be transferring skills to local counterparts, thus ensuring sustainability of impact, even after the assignment is completed.
Why not explore the UNV roster?
Give the UNV Office a few key words (e.g. ‘Engineer', ‘Community Development Specialist'), and we can get sample fact sheets of candidates ready and available to take up a UNV assignment. If suitable candidates cannot be found on the roster, the UNV Programme Officer in Bhutan will advertise a post to colleagues in UNV offices worldwide to seek more candidates, and/or the Bhutan can seek UNV Headquarters assistance with a special recruitment and advertising drive.
How long will it take for a UNV to actually arrive?
It is best to assume that, from the time the post is established at RCSC, two or three months should be allowed - there is a series of fairly simple steps, but the most time consuming step tends to be providing time for an identified UNV volunteer to give notice to his/her former employer and sort out personal affairs, and arrangements for Druk Air flight into Bhutan.
How much should you budget for a UN Volunteer?
Although costs will vary (depending on how many children he/she has, how far away are they travelling from, how much their insurance coverage is., etc.) the pro forma cost is fixed, to ensure a standard ‘pricing' for UNV volunteers. Ask the UNV Programme Officer for up-to-date information regarding the costing for UNV volunteers.
We have no budget for a UNV. What can we do?
In the event that a host organisation has no budget allocated for a UNV volunteer , there are two options: one is to identify a project or donor which is able to fund the UNV post; the other option is to explore the availability of 'full-funded' UNV volunteer s. Some countries, recognising the cost-effectiveness of the UNV programme in the development effort, will full-fund their own nationals to serve as UNV volunteers. The best thing to do is to send a post description ( Terms of Reference or TOR) to us at the UNV Bhutan office, and we can explore the possibilities of a full-funded UNV filling the post. However this is highly competitive and depending upon donor preference as well. Bhutan has been supported numerous donor full-funded funds with exceptionally high rate so far.
How can we be sure of getting a Good-Quality UN Volunteer?
Money back if not delighted? No, because you, too, can take part in the selection process. If we give a really clear post description ( TOR ), then it is easier to get appropriate candidates lifted out of the roster. We will receive a number of CVs or fact sheets, and can select the ones we are interested in. In many cases, we can also arrange phone interviews prior to our selection. Then, once we have made the selection, a more formal interview is held by UNV Office in the candidate's home country - just to make sure.
Contact the UNV Programme Officer (telephone 322424 ext 164 - or email unv.bhutan@undp.org)...
- To see if any suitable people are sitting on the UNV roster - with a few key words, the UNV PO can search the roster and give you summary fact sheets (CVs) of candidates on the roster;
- To know the pro forma cost for volunteer placements in Bhutan;
- To look at the most recent 'spectrum', where all skill areas are listed, and numbers of people on the roster for each skill area;
- To get assistance with formal requesting of a UNV, including the filling in of the Post Description Form.
Download the Post Description Form (pdf file)