UNV maintains, at its processing centre in Cyprus, a computer-roster of candidates interested in serving as UNV volunteers overseas. Any organisation wishing to recruit a UNV volunteer, such as DPKO, provides details of the work to be done. Based on these requirements a preliminary short-list of candidates is generated by searching the data-base with appropriate key-words.
The UNV processing centre can identify suitable candidates for the post. Their details are drawn from the roster, and the organisation will select those to be interviewed.
At anytime, the roster contains details of several thousand candidates, and daily, more and more applications come in. It is therefore a policy that, especially in those skills-areas where there are already many candidates on the roster, they will only consider additional candidates who excel in some way - perhaps extremely long experience, very high qualification, or some other aspect.
It should be noted, therefore, that even if you satisfy fully the minimum requirements to be accepted on the roster, there is no guarantee that you will be accepted. Indeed, more than half of all applications are rejected on the basis that there are already too many on the roster in the relevant skill area. Even once you are included in the roster, there is still no guarantee that you will be selected for a post as a UNV volunteer. On the other hand, if there are few requests from countries around the world for volunteers with your skills, then your details are likely to remain unseen for a long time, therefore please have patience and do not get disappointed.
You must be prepared to wait on the roster for some weeks, possibly even some months. Subject to reconfirmation of availability every six months, your name will be kept on the roster for two years. Please note that inclusion in the roster does not guarantee an assignment. Your candidature may be submitted with others to a requesting country in response to a specific request. If so, you will be called for an interview. If your candidature is chosen by the host country, you will be asked to confirm your availability for the assignment. Clearance (technical, government, medical, travel) is then obtained to enable you to depart for the assignment.
Important: You will normally have to be ready to fly to your duty station within two or three weeks of being recruited.