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). The agreement is to engage the services of individuals to provide service to UNDP under a service-based contract modality. 

This modality has two key objectives: On the one hand, the NPSA 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 hand, 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 the NPSA Framework 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.

The NPSA may also be used by UNDP to contract individuals on behalf of UN entities (“partners”) to which it may provide such services. This facility is provided for in the related policy on Partner Personnel Service Agreement (“PPSA”). Such contracts will be administered by UNDP, while the contracted personnel will be supervised by the partner organization. 

The NPSA is governed solely by its expressed terms and conditions, including the Terms of Reference (“TOR”).