The World Trade Organization (WTO) Young Professionals Programme (YPP) is a unique opportunity for qualified young professionals from eligible developing and least-developed country (LDC) WTO Members, to enhance their knowledge and skills on WTO and international trade issues.
The Programme aims to widen the pool of professionals from these countries who can later be more competitive with respect to recruitment in the WTO and/or other regional and international organizations.
This is a limited programme that offers selected young professionals with the opportunity to gain work experience in the WTO.
The selected Young Professional will be placed in a specific Division of the WTO Secretariat in accordance with the needs and priorities of the Organization; based on the identified areas of interest of the Young Professional. Each Young Professional may express interest in not more than three areas of WTO work, and in order of preference.
WTO Young Professionals Programme Areas of Work
The areas of work may include, inter alia, the following (in alphabetical order):
- Accessions
- Agriculture
- Council and Trade Negotiations
- Dispute Settlement
- Economic Research and Statistics
- Government Procurement
- Intellectual Property Rights
- Market Access (tariffs and non-tariff barriers)
- Media and External Relations
- Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures
- Technical Barriers to Trade
- Trade and Development
- Trade and Environment
- Trade Facilitation
- Trade in Services and Investment
- Trade Policy Analysis
- Trade-Related Technical Assistance.
- Trade Remedies (anti-dumping and countervailing duties)
WTO Young Professionals Programme Eligibility
Applicant should possess an advanced university degree in law economics, or other international trade-related subjects relevant to the work of the WTO;
Minimum two (2) years of professional experience relevant to the work of the WTO;
- Fluency in English. A good working knowledge either French or Spanish would be an advantage.
- Other knowledge and skills:
- General knowledge of the work of the WTO.
- Good drafting skills in English. Ability to draft in French and/or Spanish would be an advantage.
- Ability to work independently and in a team.
- Demonstrated strong interest in international trade and the multilateral trading system.
- Commitment and passion for trade or WTO-related work.
Additional Information
Preference shall be given to nationals from WTO Members without any representation at the professional level in the Secretariat; and have not participated in previous cohorts of the YPP. The list of such WTO Members as at 1 March 2019 is set out below:
Albania, Angola, Kingdom of Bahrain, Belize, Brunei Darussalam, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Congo, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Eswatini, Fiji, Gabon, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Israel, the State of Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, People’s Democratic Republic of Lao, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Niger, North Macedonia, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Tonga, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Yemen
WTO Young Professionals Programme Benefits.
- Selected applicants will receive CHF 3,500 monthly salary
How to Apply for WTO Young Professionals Programme.
Applicants must submit applications through the e-recruitment system along with cover letter of motivation. Instructions to add the cover letter is as follows: Once the application for the Young Professionals Programme has been submitted, your application will be displayed under the “My Applications” tab.
Applicants should click on the button “Add” for the specific vacancy under the “Covering letter” column. Cover letters added in other sections of the applicant profile such as “Additional Information” or “Additional Documents”.
Application Deadline (CET): 15 April 2019
