Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

UN Women’s regional representation for East and Southern Africa (ESA) is comprised of 12 Country Offices (COs)[1], one programme presence (Somalia), and support to 11 UN Country Teams (UNCTs)[2] where UN Women is a non-resident agency (NRA). All are coordinated and supported by the Regional Office (RO) in Kenya. ESA is a complex and diverse region comprised of sub-regions ranging from countries with weak governance prone to crises that cross borders, while other sub-regions represent middle-income countries that are relatively stable.

The women’s economic empowerment context in the East and Southern Africa region (ESAR) remains complex and dynamic underpinned by climate related factors, conflict/displacement/fragility, micro and macro level shocks such as the COVID 19 pandemic as well as the on-going conflict between Ukraine and Russia that has negatively affected basic commodity prices, agricultural inputs, and food systems in the region. These have and continue to disproportionately impact women and girls due to pre-existing structural gender inequalities before and during the crisis.

The main agenda of the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Programme is to strengthen women’s economic autonomy through increasing access to quality livelihood opportunities, and support women and girls in their innovations, social enterprises, and capacities to secure social, economic and environmental assets and knowledge. The key focus areas for 2023 are: (1) Climate Resilient Agriculture and ensuring ajust transition to the blue and green economies; (2) The Care Economy; and (3) women’s empowerment through entrepreneurship development, decent work and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement.

UN Women ESARO seeks to hire an intern to support the WEE portfolio.

[1] UN Women Country Offices: Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa (multi-country office including Botswana,  Lesotho, Namibia and Eswatini), South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

[2] NRA countries: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius/Seychelles, Namibia, and Zambia

Duties and Responsibilities

  • Support the Policy Specialist for to review/conduct economic empowerment related research from a gender economics perspective;
  • Support the Policy Specialist in programme management and implementation;
  • Support the Policy Specialist in various communications tasks such as writing position papers, talking points, website articles, developing social media posts, etc;
  • Support the Policy Specialist on administrative tasks as required.

Learning goals include:

  • Enhanced knowledge on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment
  • Enhanced knowledge on gender and economics in development in Africa
  • Enhance knowledge on the programmatic and operational aspects of working at UN Women

Competencies

Core Values:

  • Respect for Diversity
  • Integrity
  • Professionalism

Core Competencies:

  • Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
  • Accountability
  • Creative Problem Solving
  • Effective Communication
  • Inclusive Collaboration
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:

https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

  • Demonstrable knowledge of gender economics;
  • Demonstrable Knowledge of development issues in Africa, preferably in East and Southern Africa;

Required Skills and Experience

Interns are selected on a competitive basis. Applicants to UNWOMEN internships must at the time of application meet one of the following academic requirements:

  • Be enrolled in a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher);
  • Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (minimum Bachelor’s level or equivalent);
  • Have graduated with a university degree in (as defined in (a) and (b) above) and, if selected, must start the internship within one-year of graduation;
  • Be enrolled in a postgraduate professional traineeship program and undertake the internship as part of this program.

Education:

  • Bachelors Degree in gender economics.

Language:

  • Excellent communication skills (written and oral) in English are required;
  • Working knowledge of another UN language is an advantage.

Renumeration:

Interns who are not in receipt of financial support from other sources such as universities or other institutions will receive a stipend from UN Women to partially subsidize their basic living costs for the duration of the internship

Application Information:

  • All applicants must submit a completed and signed P11 form with their application, which can be downloaded here https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc.
  • Due to the high volume of applications received, we can ONLY contact successful candidates.
  • Successful candidate will be required to provide proof of enrollment in a valid health insurance plan at the duty station of the internship, proof of school enrollment or degree, a scanned copy of their passport/national ID and a copy of a valid visa (as applicable).  

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.