The Istanbul Regional Hub (IRH) is UNDP’s main knowledge and advisory hub for the countries serviced by UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS (RBEC). The Gender Equality Team at the UNDP IRH supports UNDP Country Offices in 18 countries and territories in the Europe and Central Asia region with a range of advisory services to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. Specifically, IRH Gender Equality Team works to deliver opportunities and improve skills for women’s economic empowerment, especially in the future world of work, focusing on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) sectors; address and prevent violence and all forms of discrimination against women and girls; support Country Offices to close gender gaps and deliver gender equality results aligned with the SDGs as part of their national programs, and monitors the gender-differentiated impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; support UNDP Country Offices and interested partners to attain the Gender Equality Seal, a UNDP institutional certification programme that promotes gender equality both as a development goal and an integral part of organizational functioning. The Gender Equality Seal programme for RBEC aims to empower managers and accelerate changes needed to support national gender equality goals combining quality assurance with learning and capacity building of staffs with 14 participating offices for the year 2021-2023.

IRH Gender Equality Team also supports the design and implementation of regional and sub-regional initiatives to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, and tracks and presents the results achieved by UNDP programmes and initiatives in the region in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment. Among others, STEM4ALL is a regional digital platform launched by IRH Gender Equality Team in March 2021 and this online platform has catalyzed widespread interest in knowledge exchange, community building and cross-sector collaboration to overcome systematic gender barriers, break stereotypes, and access networks and resources to advance girls and women in STEM education and professional careers.

UNDP also recognizes the role women play in empowering other women as parliamentary representatives, supporting the emergence of gender-sensitive parliaments, and adopting gender-responsive policy and legislative frameworks.  In 2020, the IRH Gender Equality and Communications teams launched an interactive online platform, #Equal Future. The platform allows users to actively observe the progress on women’s political participation in 57 countries and territories around the world since the 1995 Beijing conference. By doing this, the platform contributes to informing the audience, researchers and policymakers about recent changes in women’s representation in parliament, as well as providing an overview of the evolution in the past 27 years, and developing forecasts and showcasing stories of women parliamentarians from the region. The platform has been updated in 2021 and 2022 with new data, key events and stories of women parliamentarians.

The intern will work closely with the  STEM4ALL platform coordinator and RBEC Programme Specialist and Research and Knowledge Management Analyst under the overall supervision of the Regional Team Leader of the IRH Gender Equality Team. The intern is expected to work in the following areas:

Research and coordination

• Support research and data collection on gender equality issues such as violence against women, unpaid care, women’s leadership and representation in parliament, and digital transformation, including STEM fields, in 18 countries and territories in the region to contribute to the work of IRH particularly in the context of the post COVID-19 pandemic and conflict
• Support the development of training and learning materials on gender mainstreaming (e.g. presentations, webinars, background briefs);

Communications and knowledge management

• Support the implementation of the Gender Equality Seal Programme in the Europe and Central Asia region participating in the regular coordination meetings organized with gender specialists and consultants from Country Offices, Regional Offices and HQ, drafting minutes and assisting in the facilitation of the Community of Practice;
• Support scan, curate relevant resources and tools on a regular basis for the STEM4ALL and Equal Future platforms and the Gender Equality Seal Programme and organize, improve the SharePoint Online spaces for IRH Gender Equality Team in cooperation with the Research and Knowledge Management Analyst;
• Support design and implement online advocacy campaigns, STEM4ALL virtual events, in accordance with key international days such as International Women’s Day (8 March), the Day of the Girl Child (11 October) and the 16 days of activism campaign, developing communications products and items, including newsletters, blog posts, podcast episodes, social media posts, etc.
• Support monitoring and evaluation of user engagement with STEM4ALL and Equal Future platforms.
• Support the organization of internal and external virtual regional meetings, workshops, and online events involving UNDP staffs and external gender equality practitioners (e.g., conferences, launch events for publications, internal presentations);
• Support the management of contact databases for STEM4ALL platform and the STEMinist Network;
• Support the overall work of the regional gender team work as required.

• Self-starter, with ability to multi-task and work to deadlines;
• Strong communications skills, especially in various forms of online communications and social media;
• Excellent relationship management and ability to work in a multi-cultural environment;
• Attention to details.

Academic Qualifications/ Education 

Applicants to the UNDP internship programme must at the time of application must meet one of the following requirements:

1. Be enrolled in a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher);
2. Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (minimum Bachelor’s level or equivalent);
3. Have graduated with a university degree (as defined in (a) and (b) above) in a degree programme in relevant discipline such as gender studies, human rights, international relations, social sciences, ethnology, public policy or related disciplines and, if selected, must start the internship within one-year of graduation.

Experience:

• Demonstrated strong interest and knowledge in theory and practice of women’s empowerment and gender equality issues;
• Familiarity with gender equality issues in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, is a strong asset;
• Experience in research on gender equality issues is considered a strong advantage;
• Excellent digital literacy, including Microsoft Suite, Canva, online tools and applications;
• Experience in content management system is an advantage.

Language skills:

• Proficiency in English, with excellent writing, research and analytical skills is a must;
• Knowledge of Russian would be a strong advantage.

Financial Issues:

Internships within the UN system are subject to conditions the applicant must get familiar with before signing his/her internship agreement. UNDP provide a stipend to all interns from January 2020. 

Any further costs associated with the internship must be borne by the nominating institution, related institution or government, which may provide the required financial assistance to its students; or by the student, who will have to obtain financing for subsistence and make his or her arrangements for travel, accommodation and other costs.

Candidates who are selected must submit following documents:

• Official letter from the University confirming enrolment in a graduate-level degree programme;
• Proof of medical and life/accident insurance valid for the location in which the internship will be carried out. Selected intern must have medical and life insurance.

UNDP only accepts interns for a minimum of 6 weeks and a maximum of 6 months. UNDP accepts no responsibility for costs arising from accidents and/or illness or death incurred during the internship. Interns are not staff members and may not represent UNDP in any official capacity. It is important to note that interns are responsible to arrange for their own visa and residence documents and need to plan for these well in advance.

Subsequent Employment:

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. More information available at:

http://www.eurasia.undp.org/content/rbec/en/home/about_us/jobs/internships/