Applying to jobs at the United Nations can be overwhelming. There are too many grades and contract types, and the information is unclear or incomplete, i.e. if you find it. In this article, we bring clarity and provide knowledge about the different non-staff contracts of the United Nations.
a) Consultancies
b) Flexible contracts
c) Service contracts
d) Volunteering
e) Internships
PLUS: learn their grades and requirements, and which have little or no diversity requirements.
As we wrote in a previous article, the United Nations is using the term 'contract type' to distinguish between different employment opportunities. And they use staff and non-staff to distinguish between career position (staff) and other contracts such as consultancies, internships and volunteer assignments as non-staff. As an applicant all the different contract types may be confusing, and the information provided on the career page are not complete, nor clear. In fact, chances are that you end up applying for a job without knowing what contract type you are applying for.
The different types of contract have impact on the job security, career opportunities and of course the benefits and entitlements that comes with the job. The UN may not agree, but we think it is fair to say that in general non-staff are disadvantaged to staff in the UN system. However if you understand what you are applying for, you can make this opportunity a golden ticket to a UN career.
Flexible contracts
The non-staff contract categories are seen as the ‘flexible’ contract option by hiring manager’s within the UN system, for those contract types the office can decide themselves, only the office manager’s sign off is needed, no external compliance body will look at the recruitment process from an objectivity, transparency or diversity perspective. You don't have to worry about a tedious selection process, these recruitments are in general faster.
Little or no diversity requirements: The fact that these contracts are outside the qouta and diversity calculation has caused several unwanted results; it is no doubt that a non-staff contract is a good first step to a staff contract, it gives you a foot in the UN door so to say. Within the staff categories the UN strives towards a diverse workforce, and even if the UN has not succeeded completely, the diversity figures gets a lot of attention from member states, donors, etc and it is internally an ongoing debate, you don't want to stand out being non-equal. However all non-staff contract types fly under the radar. As they don’t get the same attention the diversity figures in some UN organizations therefore looks really bad, as bad as 80 percent male to 20 percent female for their Service Contract population.
What confuses the use of non-staff even more is that neither the UN themselves are consistent in the use of the different non-staff contract types, it is unclear when organizations use consultants or service contracts. It is however clear for both categories that the functions performed should not be core functions, meaning permanent functions of the organization. The functions should instead be related to project functions or specific functions related to a certain time period. Some organizations use the Service Contract type as the contract type for project personnel in the field, it is used instead of national consultants as they want the project personnel to have a closer relation to the organization.
Also some UN organizations select service contracts too acknowledge the personnel and appear as a better employeer, the benefit and entitlement's package is better for service contract holders than for consultants. For project personnel in headquarters (HQ) locations working on a project that lasts longer than a few months should hold a FTA or TA contract. However, even here you see inconsistencies, UNOPS uses their IICA/LICA (consultants - non-staff) for HQ project posts, this has not yet spread in the system, but given the financial constraints the UN system faces, it wouldn't surprise if you would see more of this moving forward.
In this article we focus on non-staff categories. You will find all different non-staff contracts described and this list could help you as an applicant. According to the UN staff rules, non-staff are defined as all personnel that don’t have a letter of appointment promulgate by the Secretary General. As of today, below is the complete list of non-staff categories of the UN.
Service Contracts (SC)
In some organizations this is a very common contract type, it is used for all project personnel in the field. Impactpool offers a grade converter, and that chart will shortly be made available for members. In that converter scheme you will be able to convert and compare the actual grades with grades of the UN and of other International Organizations. This said, Service Contract has 5 grades – SB1 to SB5. The Service Contract category contains wide spectra of profiles, from profiles that require primary education to profiles that requires master’s or PhD.
Grades and requirements:
- SB1 or SC1/SC2 – Primary/Secondary education) Messenger; Manual worker; Labourer; Cleaner; Driver
- SB2 or SC3/SC4 – Secondary education) Senior driver; Clerk typist; Receptionist; Registry clerk; Administrative Clerk; Finance Clerk; HR clerk; ICT Clerk; Procurement Clerk
- SB3 or SC5/SC6/SC7 – Secondary education/ First degree/ Advanced degree) Senior Admin Clerk; Senior Program Clerk; Help Desk Assistant; Senior Accountant Clerk; Senior Secretary; Senior HR Clerk; Program Assistant; Admin Assistant; Senior Accountants Assistant; Executive Assistant; HR Assistant; Senor Admin Assistant; Senior Program Assistant; Senior Accounts Assistant; Webmaster; Senior HR Assistant
- SB4 or SC8/SC9 - First degree/ Advanced degree) Assistant Project Officer; Administrative Officer; HR Officer; Systems Analyst/Programmer; Assistant Accountant; Project Officer; Admin Officer; HR Officer; Systems Analyst Developer: Accountant Officer
- SB5 or SC10/SC11 - Advanced degree/ PhD) Project Specialist; Project Manager; Administrative Specialist; HR Specialist; IT Operations Specialist; Senior Accountant Specialist; Senior Finance Specialist; Project Advisor; Project Coordinator; Operations Advisor; IT Advisor; HR Advisor; Financial Advisor
International Consultants
The services and/or functions procured by an International consultant (IC) are often professional to its nature. Most IC’s require an advanced degree, more than 5 years’ experience and additional requirements such as a degree of specialization, specific education or experience in excess of the required minimum years of experience. However, there are also several opportunities that require fewer years of experience and also a first level degree. In some cases International Consultancies can be home-based, or home-based with expected travel to different areas, on Impactpool you can select Other/Home-based as duty-station to review all current home-based opportunities.
Please note that International Consultants are named differently in different organizations, and below are probably the most common names:
- IC (UNDP) – Individual consultancy
- IICA (UNOPS) – International Individual Consultancy Agreement
- SSA – Special Service Agreement (please note that SSA can also be local)
Grades: IC´s are in most organizations not graded, however, UNOPS has recently started to use a consultancy type called IICA which they grade in accordance with the professional staff grades of the ICSC (see more information about these grades in the Professional and higher categories (P and D) in the most recent article or click to download our Grade Converter.
National or local consultants
In most cases National or Local consultants are procured to carry out service and support functions. However, UNOPS has implemented a local consultancy type (LICA Specialists) that actually focuses on local specialist consultancies.
When you look for a local consultancy, you should look for the following abbreviations:
- NC (UNDP) – National Consultancy
- LICA Specialist – Local Individual Consultancy Agreement
- LICA Support (UNOPS) – Local Individual Consultancy Agreement
- SSA – Special Service Agreement (please note that SSA can also be international)
Grades: NC´s are in most organizations not graded, however also forthis category UNOPS has started to grade in accordance with the staff grades of the ICSC. If you consider a IICA with UNOPS it is good to know that the salary package looks quite ok, however if you compare with a FTA (staff position) what is missing that is most alarming is the Education grant and the Pension. For a family these two can add up in a quite considerable amount.
UN volunteers
Neither International nor national UN Volunteers nor Online volunteers are in any way considered staff members of the UN. We have three other blog posts that take a deep dive into the UNV programme, we encourage you to read these blogs to get a broader understanding.
International UN Volunteers
International UN Volunteers are mainly recruited through the UNV website, where applicants register their profiles in UNV’s global talent pool. International UN Volunteers serve outside their own country of nationality. UN Volunteers are recruited to fill positions detailed by respective descriptions of assignments drafted by the organizations hosting the volunteers. There are different types of International UN volunteer, click here to learn more about different volunteer opportunities.
Grades and requirements:
No grades, however all International UN volunteer assignments require a minimum of 2 years relevant work experience and a first level degree.
International UN Youth Volunteers
International UN Youth Volunteers are mainly recruited through the UNV website, but on a case-by-case basis meaning that they are not recruited via the roster. Part from differences in the requirement, the Youth Volunteer has many similarities with the International UN Volunteer.
Grades and requirements:
No grades, however all International UN Youth volunteer must be between 18 and 29 years of age throughout the entire duration of their service.
National UN Volunteers
Being a national UN Volunteer means that the volunteer ’assignment’ takes place in your own country of nationality, i.e. they are not open for candidates from other countries. National UN Volunteers are recruited one-by-one and most often found on local UNDP websites, but in some offices applications are still received in the lobby.
Grades and requirements:
No grades, however national UN volunteer assignments require a minimum of 2 years relevant work experience and a first level degree.
National UN Youth Volunteers
National UN Youth Volunteers are mainly recruited through the local UNDP website, Part from differences in the requirement, the Youth Volunteer has many similarities with the National UN Volunteer.
Grades and requirements:
No grades, however all National UN Youth volunteer must be between 18 and 29 years of age throughout the entire duration of their service.
Online volunteers
UN Online Volunteering service offers excellent opportunities for those of you who want to support the greater good, but are not able to leave your current location. Being a UN Online Volunteer is an excellent opportunity for you to get in touch with international development organizations worldwide (non-profits).
A UN Online Volunteer lends time and skills over the Internet. It can be as a writer, editor, graphic designer or translator of a publication, or as the developer of a website, project and much more.
Grades and requirements:
No grades, requirements are specified in the assignment posting, however, some may not require any previous work experience.
Internship
Internship offers excellent opportunities for those of you who want to obtain some experience while completing your Master's degree at University. You can read a complete article how to secure an Internship by clicking on this article.
Grades and requirements:
No grades, it is required that you are enrolled in a Master's degree programe at a University.
Photo: by iStock
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