Loans, secondments and transfers are mechanisms to promote staff mobility within the UN Common system to foster the sharing of knowledge and expertise among UN common system organizations and to encourage career development. These movements are governed by the Inter-Organization Agreement Concerning Transfer, Secondment or Loan of Staff Among the Organizations Applying the United Nations Common System of Salaries and Allowances.
Staff members of organizations that are signatories to the Agreement and who have permanent, continuing, or fixed-term appointments may be eligible to proceed on transfer, secondment, or loan from an agency, fund or programme within the UN Common System to the UN Secretariat or vice versa.
The Inter-Organization Agreement does not give any organization the right to transfer, second or loan a staff member to another organization without the staff member’s consent. It does not of itself give the staff member rights which are enforceable against an organization. It merely sets out what the organizations will normally do. The agreement can only be enforced to the extent that either the organizations have included appropriate provisions in their administrative rules, or the parties have accepted to apply it in the individual case.
The movement is initiated once a suitable candidate is identified by the receiving organization following a selection process and thereby requested by the receiving organization for a limited period.
The movements governed by the Inter-Organization Agreement are referred to as Interagency Movements.
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