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Financial Closure of Development Projects

Effective Date

Jan 09, 2026

Summary of Changes

This Operational Guidelines: Project Financial Closure have been revised to simplify requirements, clarify roles and enable faster processing of project financial closure — reducing the administrative burden for Country Offices (COs) while ensuring timely, accurate, and compliant project closure. These changes reinforce compliance and operational efficiency across the organization.

UN Agency Services

Effective Date

Jan 09, 2026

Summary of Changes

The UNDP Service Level Agreement (SLA) template has been updated to reflect the following revisions:

  • Centralization of Payroll and HR Administration Services: Effective 1 January 2025, payroll and HR administration services are no longer provided by UNDP at the local or country level. These services have been centralized under BMS/GSSC. As a result, BMS/GSSC now enters into separate corporate Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with UN Entities for payroll and select HR administration services. All references to these services have been removed from the UNDP SLA template and its Annex 1 to reflect this change.
  • Centralized Partner Personnel Services Agreement (PPSA): PPSA services are now provided centrally by the BMS/GSSC and BMS/OHR. A separate corporate SLA is established with UN Entities for PPSA services. Consequently, all references to PPSA services—specifically in Paragraphs 4 and 5(b), Appendix I—have been removed from the UNDP SLA template.
  • Clarification of Client Responsibilities on Ethics Matters: The section outlining client responsibilities for ethics inquiries related to staff holding a UNDP Letter of Appointment (LOA) has been revised for greater clarity. Paragraph 11 (formerly Paragraph 10) now specifies that staff members with a UNDP LOA, whose service is limited to the client, must first direct all ethics-related inquiries to the client’s Ethics Office before approaching the UNDP Ethics Office.

Salary Increments

Effective Date

Jan 07, 2026

Summary of Changes

The qualifying period has been technically revised to ensure alignment with the United Nations Staff Rules. Accordingly, the withholding provision has also been technically amended so that the same qualifying period applies.

Vaccinations and Malaria Prevention

Effective Date

Jan 06, 2026

Summary of Changes

The title of the policy has been updated from ‘Inoculations and Malaria Prevention’ to ‘Vaccinations and Malaria Prevention’ to reflect the more commonly used terminology. References to specific geographic regions with malaria have been replaced with the broader term ‘regions where malaria is present’ to avoid unintended exclusions. Additionally, the link to the WHO guidance has been updated.

Foundations

Effective Date

Jan 05, 2026

Summary of Changes

The Identifying and analyzing foundations for partnerships with UNDP procedure, Options for approaching potential foundation partners procedure, and Formalizing partnerships with foundations procedure are now available in French and in Spanish:

  • Identifying and analyzing foundations for partnerships with UNDP procedure: French | Spanish
  • Options for approaching potential foundation partners procedure: French | Spanish
  • Formalizing partnerships with foundations procedure: French | Spanish

Private Sector Partnerships

Effective Date

Jan 05, 2026

Summary of Changes

The Formalizing private sector partnerships through MOU procedure, Formalizing private sector partnerships through a Financing Agreement procedure, and Formalizing private sector partnerships through Pro Bono Agreement procedure are now available in French and in Spanish:

  • Formalizing private sector partnerships through MOU procedure: French | Spanish
  • Formalizing private sector partnerships through a Financing Agreement procedure: French | Spanish
  • Formalizing private sector partnerships through Pro Bono Agreement procedure: French | Spanish

National Personnel Services Agreement

Effective Date

Jan 01, 2026

Summary of Changes

The National Personnel Services Agreement (NPSA) policy has been revised, with main changes in the following areas:

  • Changes to conditions of service, such as applicability of flexible working arrangements to PSAs; sick leave entitlement inclusive of uncertified sick leave days.
  • Changes to contractual status, such as discontinuation of the maximum duration of contract; restrictions on simultaneous contracts to be held by one person; addition of termination indemnity for short-term PSAs, in case of termination without cause by UNDP; discontinuation of the payout of annual leave upon separation; and shortening of break-in-service between FTA to PSA from 1 month to 2 weeks.
  • Expansion of the use of PSAs, permitting the use of NPSAs for professional and support roles in functions, within an office/bureau/project or as a shared service, which may otherwise be outsourced to a company.
  • Detailed provisions on competitive selection process for PSAs have been removed from the policy, and now are provided in a separate Guidance on Competitive Selection Procedures for PSAs.
  • The Guide on Using Contractual Modalities has been updated to align with the revised policy.

International Personnel Services Agreement

Effective Date

Jan 01, 2026

Summary of Changes

The International Personnel Services Agreement (IPSA) policy has been revised, with main changes in the following areas:

  • Addition of annual remuneration increments and pension contribution for regular IPSA holders.
  • Other changes to conditions of service, such as applicability of flexible working arrangements to PSAs; eligibility for security-related entitlements for IPSAs; sick leave entitlement inclusive of uncertified sick leave days; cost-of-living (COL) component to be adjusted if there is more than 10-point fluctuation to the corresponding post adjustment rate, lowering the threshold from the previous 20 points; and introduction of office-arranged assignment/return travel for IPSA holders.
  • Changes to contractual status, such as discontinuation of the maximum duration of contract; restrictions on simultaneous contracts to be held by one person; discontinuation of exceptional compensation outside the remuneration band; addition of termination indemnity for short-term PSAs, in case of termination without cause by UNDP; discontinuation of the payout of annual leave upon separation; and shortening of break-in-service between FTA to PSA from 1 month to 2 weeks.
  • Expansion of the use of PSAs, permitting the use of IPSAs for professional roles in functions, within an office/bureau/project or as a shared service, which may otherwise be outsourced to a company.
  • Detailed provisions on competitive selection process for PSAs have been removed from the policy, and now are provided in a separate Guidance on Competitive Selection Procedures for PSAs.
  • The Guide on Using Contractual Modalities has been updated to align with the revised policy.

Service Contract

Effective Date

Jan 01, 2026

Summary of Changes

The Service Contract (SC) modality has been discontinued effective 1 January 2026, including the administration of SC on behalf of partner agencies. The Service Contract policy continues to be in effect only for the existing residual cases, and it will be abolished as soon as all remaining contracts are completed by 31 December 2026. The policy has been updated in the Engagement of a Service Contract Holder sub-section to reflect that paragraphs 33-41 are no longer in effect, as the Service Contract modality is discontinued and no new engagements of Service Contract are permitted as of 1 January 2026.

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