January 01, 2026 -
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.
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March 26, 2025 -
The International Personnel Services Agreement policy has been revised in Annex I: Recruitment standards and procedures for IPSAs, Assessment procedures section, paragraph A: Interview panel to clarify the necessary composition for interview panels as well as the levels and roles of other recruitment collaborators.
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May 10, 2023 -
The IPSA policy has been amended to remove inconsistencies in the approval authority for direct recruitments, and clarified the performance evaluation process.
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January 15, 2023 -
The International Personnel Services Agreement (IPSA) policy has been reformatted and amended in the following areas:- Clarification of general conditions and legal status of IPSAs
- Clarification of selection process for different types of IPSAs
- Duration of regular and short-term IPSAs
- Provisions related to issuance of regular IPSAs
- Clarification that IPSAs are not Internal candidates for UNDP staff vacancies
- Process for making modification to IPSA functions
- IPSA assignment travel entitlements
- Conditions for parental leave for birth parents during the first year of the IPSA contract
- Conditions for IPSAs to take unpaid leave
- Confirmation that IPSAs can undertake detail assignments
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January 09, 2023 -
The policy has been updated to reflect UNDP's transition to its new cloud-based management platform Quantum in January 2023, replacing its previous ATLAS system.
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February 15, 2021 -
The International Personnel Services Agreement (IPSA) is a new policy which fills a gap in existing contractual modalities related to project-based international personnel.
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