Photo: UN Volunteer Rhea Mahanta, gender focal point for the UNMISS Civil Affairs' Bor Field Office, visits the Panyier Unified Military Training Center in Jonglei State where government and opposition forces undergo joint training to form South Sudan's National Army. Life in these environments is hard, and men and women have different needs. Undergoing training for months under these harsh conditions with almost no facilities, particularly in a State rife with conflict, can prompt many women to leave their training behind to return to their families. Rhea and her colleagues distributed sanitary napkins and hygiene kits for the women, for whom it was crucial to have those resources if they were to continue with their military training.
© UNMISS, 2020
Reassign your volunteer to meet your evolving needs
When operational requirements demand it, move quickly to reassign your volunteer to where their skills and experience will deliver the most value.
Feel empowered to make minor changes on your own with the volunteer. Involve UNV prior to effecting any significant changes to the assignment – here’s how:
Where only slight modifications to the Description of Assignment apply, you can make those changes directly, after consulting with your volunteer.
We do not need to take administrative actions for variations of this nature:
1. Edit background information, wording or spelling.
2. Amend the assignment title, without changing your volunteer’s responsibilities. For example, a ‘programme officer’ could be a ‘project officer.’
3. Change task descriptions while keeping the same assignment title, to adapt your volunteer’s role and responsibilities to new situations or needs.
4. Email ‘support@unv.org’ your updated assignment description.
You can authorize temporary reassignment or mission travel of your volunteer to a different project, duty station or mission area, with only minor changes to their responsibilities in their original Description of Assignment.
Inform UNV in advance of significant changes and reassignments of more than three months. Administrative actions must be taken before any change takes effect.
1. Reassure your volunteer that their monthly living allowance will continue to be paid at the rate of their original duty station, for as long as they’re working on this new assignment.
2. Tell them to expect wellbeing differential based on their original duty station for temporary assignments of less than one month. No additional wellbeing differential is paid for stay at the temporary duty station.
3. Confirm your organization is processing and paying for transportation (air travel, all types of terminal expenses) and UN Daily Subsistence Allowance. These cannot be covered by the proforma cost.
4. Arrange internally with your volunteer, email ‘support@unv.org’ to record temporary reassignment in the system.
If your volunteer has served less than 4 years and has no pending investigations or disciplinary issues, you can reassign them to something new or different. Their experience and qualifications must meet the eligibility criteria of the new position.
For example, you may:
- Change the volunteer category
- Change the host entity (agency or mission)
- Change the duty station (within or outside the country)
- Fundamentally change their description of assignment.
Ask us to reassign your volunteer before setting your volunteer work based on your new Description of Assignment. Leave the admin to us and wait for our approval.
Contact our Regional Office to help you through the process:
1. Create your new Description of Assignment (DOA) or edit where necessary. Find standard DOA Templates and Forms (tab) in the document library.
2. Complete the Reassignment Request template and remember, there’s no right or expectation that your volunteer will be transferred or reassigned.
3. Get consent from everyone involved. Agree to transfer your volunteer’s applicable accrued entitlements (annual leave, home visits) to the new position.
4. Confirm funding with your HR or Finance department. Consider the financial impact of reassignment for your volunteer and their dependents. See UNV financial authorization requirements and UNV Service Request Form.
5. Check your volunteer’s new contract starts one day after the old one so there’s no break and that the new assignment is longer than 3 months.
6. Ask your volunteer to update their profile on the UNV database for UNV to assess their suitability for your proposed description of assignment.
7. Email ‘support@unv.org’ asking to reassign your volunteer. Attach the completed Reassignment Request form and updated Description of Assignment. Confirm funding and that your volunteer is not subject to disciplinary issues or investigations.
8. See UNV Volunteer Services Centre swiftly process reassignment and pay related benefits and entitlements to your volunteer.