Background

Background

The United Nations Millennium Declaration was adopted in 2000 by world leaders, committing their countries to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out time-bound goals on meeting the needs of the world’s poorest. These goals, to be achieved by 2015, formed the basis for what are now known as the Since 2002, the UN Sustainable Development Goals Action Campaign (UNSDGAC), formerly known as the UN Millennium Campaign (UNMC), has led UN efforts to build partnerships with civil society, private sector and citizens to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs and now the SDGs. This has been done through the use of innovative communications campaigns, advocacy, social mobilization and policy dialogue. The goal has been to influence policy, the generation, allocation and effective use of resources, ways of working and the democratic governance environment to accelerate the progress toward SDG achievement. During the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015, more than 150 world leaders came together at the UN headquarters in New York to formally adopt an ambitious new sustainable development agenda, known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This historic agenda will serve as the launch pad for action by the international community and by national governments to promote shared prosperity and well-being for the next 15 years and beyond.

In the lead up to the SDG Summit in September 2015, the UN SDG Action Campaign led in designing and implementing a strategy for outreach to stakeholders; both within and outside the UN including key leaders across civil society. Through the MY World Global Survey and the World We Want, the UNSDGAC collected the voices of over ten million people across the globe. MY World 2015 was designed to bring the voices of individual people into the political deliberations on the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Over 9.7 people responded to the survey, and the results were fed into every part of the political process for creating the new goals. MY World 2015 has been cited as part of the High Level Panel deliberations, the Open Working Group discussions, the PGA consultations and the Independent Expert Group on Data.  MY World 2015 survey showed that it is both possible and useful to bring peoples’ voices directly into policy making at a global level.

The SDG Action Campaign will continue this momentum, building muti-stakeholder partnerships to empower and inspire people across the world to take action in supporting their government with the implementation of the SDGs. The SDGAC will continue to provide tools for citizens to participate in the monitoring process and to communicate the desires and realities of people around the world.

The UNSDGAC will be launching a second phase of MY World, developed as an adaptable platform for citizen generated data and engagement with the SDGs. The MY World 2030 options survey will allow people from around the world to tell the UN which SDGs they are most passionate about and to reflect on SDGs' progress over the next fifteen years. The project will collect globally comparable data - both at scale and nationally representative – and nationally adaptive data to report back on SDG progress whilst also building dialogue between decision makers such as parliamentarians, local governments, mayors, and citizens in order to contribute a “people’s perspective” on how to implement the new agenda at different levels.  The intern selected is expected to work in conjunction with the partnerships and communications team to support the outreach strategy for current and new potential partners, to help build a cohesive strategy for launch MY World in these pilot countries, and for setting the stage for the roll-out in other countries.

The UNSDGAC Youth Advocate will support on communications to help capture and promote the stories of citizens who are taking action on the ground. Such projects include the Humans of MY World and UNVR. In conjunction, they will support the SDGAC team with event planning, logistics, and the drafting of communications such as invitations, social media, and blogging related to these events as well as the promotion of partnership successes.

Applicants should have a background in CSO outreach, student mobilization and/or social media engagement, basic web-design skills and blogging. The candidate is expected to be active on social media and motivated in providing substantive support to the campaign. The candidate is expected to have an excellent knowledge of English and be fluent in one or more of the following languages: Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and French. Any other language will be considered as an asset. Any experience with website development or graphic design will also be considered a strong asset.

At least a total of 25 hours per week of work and at least three full working days in the office is required.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance of the UNSDGAC Project Manager, the Youth advocate will support the UNSDGAC partnerships and communications team in the following tasks in close collaboration with other team members:

  • Events and logistics including the drafting of correspondence, guest list management, vendor follow up to ensure timely delivery of signage, catering, A/V, other production needs as necessary;
  • Communication materials such as Social media, blogs press materials;
  • Data and knowledge management and the generation of toolkits;
  • Research of new potential partnerships with special emphasis on those representing excluded/marginalize groups and/or youth outreach;
  • Administrative and other programmatic support.

Deliverables:

  • Support of Partnerships outreach strategy to increase the awareness of the UNSDGAC;
  • Drafting of UNSDGAC messaging for social media as well as blog stories;
  • If applicable, support on data and knowledge management;
  • Support on logistics for events and administration with Virtual Reality Equipment.

Competencies

Core Competences:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Functional Competences:

  • Demonstrated ability to interact with individuals of different national and cultural backgrounds and beliefs, which includes the willingness to understand different views and opinions;
  • Ability to work under pressure, to prioritize and to show a spirit of initiative and a capacity to work in an independent way with limited supervision;
  • Self-management and emotional intelligence;
  • Excellent communication skills;
  • High degree of organization and initiative;
  • Ability to multi-task and work independently;
  • Alibilty to prioritize and work under pressure.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Enrollment in a related field of study at the Graduate School level from an accredited institution.

Experience:

  • Experience in CSO and social media outreach;
  • Knowledge of UN processes, including the post-2015 and Sustainable Development Agenda
  • Experience in the use of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, Access, etc); good knowledge and experience in handling of web based information management systems;
  • High degree of organization and initiative;
  • Ability to multi-task and work independently;
  • Ability to prioritize and work under pressure;
  • Strong inter-personal social skills and ability to work within a team environment as a contributing member.

Language:

  • Excellent knowledge of English;
  • Fluent in one or more of these languages: Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, and Spanish; or any other language is an asset.

Important information:

UNDP may accept interns provided the following conditions are met;

Interns are not financially remunerated by UNDP;

UNDP accepts no responsibility for the medical and life insurance of the intern or costs arising from accidents and illness incurred during an internship;

The purpose of the Internship Programme is not to lead to further employment with UNDP but to complement an intern’s studies. Therefore, there should be no expectation of employment at the end of an internship.

Candidates who are shortlisted for an interview must submit prior to the interview the following documents:

  • Official letter from the University confirming enrollment in a graduate-level degree programme.

Only a successful candidate will be required to submit the following nine documents: