A UNDP knowledge product is “a branded published piece offering new insights and analysis that advances learning or increases understanding about a development issue and leads to improved development policies, programmes, practices, products, skills and competencies.” It is produced for the purpose of informing or influencing decision-makers, professionals or the interested public. Knowledge products may be classified under eight types: report, technical paper, guidance material, contributing paper, findings, dataset, brief, and think piece.
Quality assurance for UNDP knowledge products is a three step online process conducted by the Issuing Office. The Issuing Office appoints a Knowledge Product Focal Point who: a)Submits the planned knowledge product details (scope of work, budget, target audience etc.); b)Once the knowledge product is produced, assesses it against the quality standards, and c)Uploads the product for publishing on UNDP's public site. Two key decision points in the process certify the product meets the criteria. It is the role of the Approver, the authorizing officer within the issuing office, to: a) “Approve” is when the approver -the authorizing officer- certifies that the knowledge product has been adequately justified and its design details have been satisfactorily thought through to proceed with the production stage, and
b) “Clear” is when the approver certifies that the product fully meets UNDP’s quality standards and can be finalized and issued. At each step the authorizing officer signs off on the Online Quality Assurance process.
Following its publication, the issuing office is also able to track and monitor the impact and the performance of the published knowledge product.
All UNDP knowledge products must meet six quality standards: (1) the product is relevant to the organization’s or programme’s priorities; (2) the product demonstrates thought leadership; (3) the product is well-designed and internally consistent; (4) the product is assured of reaching its intended audience; (5) the intended impacts are clear and measurable; (6) an appropriate roll-out plan is included. To certify these standards are met, the approver/authorizing officer signs a Quality Standards Certification form through the online quality assurance process.
A set of nodes that run containerized applications. Containerizing applications packages an app with its dependences and some necessary services. They are more lightweight and flexible than virtual machines. In this way, Kubernetes clusters allow for applications to be more easily developed, moved, and managed. Kubernetes clusters allow containers to run across multiple machines and environments: virtual, physical, cloud-based, and on-premises. Kubernetes containers are not restricted to a specific operating system, unlike virtual machines. Instead, they can share operating systems and run anywhere.
While international competition is the preferred mode of procurement in UNDP, national competition may be allowed when the value of the requirement is less than US $200,000, and when any one or any combination of the following circumstances also exists: a. The required goods/services/works are available locally at about the same or lower prices compared to those of comparable quality from the global market. b. The requirement is for construction works that are expected to be geographically scattered in various parts of a country and intensive in the use of local labour, and the country has a sufficient base of contractors with the qualifications and competence needed to complete the works. c. Services needed require a substantive depth of knowledge and understanding of the local environment, culture, language, socio-political dynamics or national systems that an international entity will probably not possess. d. There is a very low probability that an international entity will be interested in submitting an offer or partnering with national entities, so that the administrative and financial costs of opening to the international market will not yield any benefit.
Responsibility for NIM projects rests with the government, as reflected in the Standard Basic Assistance Agreement signed by UNDP with the government, and with the implementing partner, as agreed in the country programme action plan or United Nations development assistance framework action plan and respective annual work plan.
The National Personnel Service Agreement (“NPSA”) is a legal instrument, in the form of a contract modality, established by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in order to engage the services of individuals to provide a time-limited service to UNDP under a service-based contract. The effective date of entry into force of this policy is 1 June 2021, from which date it will replace the Service Contract modality. This new modality has two key objectives: On the one hand it aims to provide UNDP with a comprehensive, flexible and cost-effective contractual framework which responds to project, programme, operational and administrative, requirements. On the other, the NPSA will provide for attractive, stable and fair conditions of employment which ensure that UNDP is able to attract, select and retain the services of skilled, high-performing individuals. Individuals engaged under this instrument have the status of National Personnel Service Agreement Holders and are engaged in recognition of their skills and expertise in order to deliver on identified functional requirements. These individuals are not UNDP staff members, but are instead considered part of UNDP’s personnel and, as such, are not governed by or subject to the United Nations’ Staff Regulations and Rules. Nor is this contract modality governed by national legislation in countries where UNDP operates. Given that the services covered by the NPSA may only be provided by natural and not legal persons (e.g. duly formed/registered companies), as well as by non-incorporated partnerships, the NPSA falls within the overall scope of UNDP’s Human Resource management framework.
An information safeguarding strategy where user gets access only to the data that is clearly required for him/her to carry his duty. In other words it is a demonstrable and recognized purpose (business need) for accessing specific information.
The purpose of the night differential is to compensate staff members performing night-time duty functions. Hours of Night-Time Duty. For staff members stationed in: a) Headquarters duty stations, night-time duty hours are between 6:00 pm and 9:30 a.m. b) Non-headquarters duty stations, night-time duty hours are established by the Resident Representatives (RR), following interagency consultation.
A non-governmental organization (NGO) is defined as a non-profit organization, group or institution that operates independently from a Government and has humanitarian or development objectives. If a NGO is designated to implement a UNDP project, the NGO must have the legal status to operate in accordance with the laws governing NGOs in the programme country.
The non-reimbursable loan of persons from Partner Entities is permissible, subject to the provisions of Financial Regulation 5.07 and applicable procedures of the Office of Human Resources and this policy. A non-reimbursable loan is defined as a loan of the services of a person without any cost to UNDP for his or her salary or remuneration, allowances, medical, dental and life insurance or other benefits.
Positions not subject to rotation and include the majority of other IP positions which still have a mobility requirement. There is also a small number of highly specialized positions whose incumbents do not have a mobility requirement (e.g. Comptroller, Treasurer, certain positions in the Executive Office etc.).
Not allowed, not supported – Components or systems that have known compatibility issues or which have not been tested in standard UNDP environment. Not allowed or not supported components or system will not be serviced through normal UNDP ICT support channels. Not allowed and not supported systems are considered as non-compliance. Offices are not allowed to deploy, use or maintain such components or systems.