The UN Volunteer Recruitment Process

The recruitment of a national or international UN Volunteer normally ranges from 4-12 weeks from approval of the Description of Assignment until arrival at the duty station - see overview. The time between expressing interest in engaging UN Volunteers and their arrival at the designated duty station varies and depends on the urgency of the request, as processes can be fast-tracked to respond to emergency situations, the availability of talents required, the chosen category and the turnaround time on required inputs on the part of the requesting agency.

The accelerated deployment protocol refers to simplified recruitment procedures under a single decision-making authority. A host entity may request UNV to recruit candidates for emergency or crises operations. In order to gain speed and reduce deployment time, the fast-track recruitment workflow is activated. This permits skipping certain steps in the recruitment process, thus enabling the fielding of national UN Volunteers within 22 days and international UN Volunteers within 39 days. The steps skipped may need to be undertaken at a later stage. 

Direct recruitment is another mechanism for accelerated deployment. On an exceptional basis, UN host entity hiring managers may decide to fill an assignment outside of competitive recruitment and selection policy frameworks. To speed up the recruitment process, hiring managers may use direct recruitment, desk-reviews, and fast-track workflow. (See Policy, Memo and Template on Direct Recruitment)