Russia Has Joined ILO’s Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme

The Russian Federation will fund five positions for young professionals of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Ankara, Brussels, Geneva, Moscow and Rome. To that end, the official ceremony for the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding was held in Geneva on 30 October 2019.

News | 30 October 2019
GENEVA (ILO News) – The Memorandum was signed in attendance of Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General, by Mr Vsevolod Vukolov, Russian Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Protection and Government delegate to the ILO Governing Body, and Mr André Bogui, Human Resources Development Department Director.

This signature is marking is new benchmark in the development of a strong partnership between the ILO and the Russian Federation that has become a major donor to the ILO over the last years. It is the first ever Memorandum on JPO concluded by the Russian Federation with a UN organisation. Both sides welcomed this new development of the Russian-ILO partnership.

The ILO’s Junior Professional Officer (JPO) Programme has been in operation for over 40 years. It is an important and flexible tool of the ILO, designed to attract and retain young talented professionals. The Russian Federation has become a major donor to the ILO and is now joining the group of countries that currently sponsor JPO (at least one) in the ILO: Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Republic of Korea, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Sweden.

Between 2002 and 2018, 377 JPO have been working in the ILO and Almost half of them (47 per cent) have remained with the ILO afterwards. Currently, 32 JPO serve in the ILO (half of them in the field offices and the others in Geneva).