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 eight Millennium Development Goals, which have been broken down into 21 quantified targets that are measured by 60 indicators.
 
As was outlined in the report of the Secretary to the general Assembly in September 2011, the UN system’s process of developing a new frame work post 2015 is likely to have the best development impact if it emerges from an inclusive, open and transparent process with multi-stakeholder participation. UN Millennium Campaign has for the last 8 years led UN efforts to build partnerships with civil society, private sector and citizens to contribute to the achievement of the MDGs. This has been done through the use innovative communications campaigns, advocacy, social mobilization and policy dialogue. The focus has been to seek to influencing policy, the generation, allocation and effective use of resources, ways of working and the democratic governance environment to accelerate the progress toward MDG achievement.
 
In this regard, the UN Millennium Campaign is taking the lead in designing and implementing a strategy for outreach to stakeholders; both within and outside the UN including key leaders across civil society. Our post-2015 outreach is an attempt to bring the voice of citizens, civil society and the myriad of other stakeholders directly into the debates and conversations that will shape the development agenda.
 
MY World, a global options survey, has been designed and developed to ask citizens what would make the most difference to their lives and that of their families. It will be disseminated through different channels to ensure both scale (to create political and media traction) and representativeness (for credibility of the results). The outcome of the Phase I will be to present regular analyses of the results to the High Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda to inform their work. It is envisaged that MY World will continue to 2015 and help to develop an engaged constituency to strengthen accountability for the next development agenda.
 
As part of its strategy, UN Millennium Campaign is supported by a multilingual team of interns or youth advocates that renews regularly. The Youth advocates team provides support to raise awareness of the platform among civil society to increase the number of individuals that vote on MY World, which in turns informs the process at the international and national level and influence decision makers, along the negotiation.
 
After reaching more than 1.25 million votes in less than 10 month, UNMC has set the challenge to reach 10 million votes by the coming General Assembly in September 2015. In order to meet this ambitious target, new tools and partnerships have been developed, while exiting partnerships have to be followed up in order to ensure continuity of results and deliverables. Building on the expertise of the UNMC and as part of the Youth advocate team, the intern selected is expected to develop an outreach strategy to Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and provide guidance to peer partners to promote its use, allowing as many users as possible to express their top priorities for My World [myworld2015.org]. The intern is also expected to actively promote the use of MY Campus, among universities, model UN and high schools to engage students around the world to take the survey and take specific action at the community level.
 
As part of the second phase of MY World, UNMC, is rolling out the campaign “Have a say”, which consist of a Podium signed by the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, which is meant to travel around the world to symbolize a platform on which individuals can voice their concerns and ideas to the world and to the United Nations more specifically. The intern is expected to support in the logistic of this campaign.
 
Applicants should have a background in CSO outreach, student mobilization and/or social media engagement. 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, Portuguese, Spanish and French. Any other language will be considered as an asset.
 
At least a total of 25 hours per week of work is required.
 
3 candidates will be selected,  focusing on: 
  • 1) management and monitoring of activities; 
  • 2) data analytics; and
  • 3) mobilization of partners in specific regions.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance of the My World Project Manager, the Youth advocate will be the focal point of a region: 
  • Spreading awareness regarding the Initiative My world among the CSOs pertaining to his/her area of intervention, with special emphasis in those representing excluded/marginalize groups;
  • Generating interest and wider engagement in the post-2015 debate;
  • Increasing the number of SCO registered in My world and provide follow up and back up support to the existing ones;
  • Achieving a realistic target number of votes on www.myworld2015.org;
  • Actively promoting MY Campus among Universities, Model UN and high schools in his/her area of intervention;
  • Provide follow up support in promoting MY World to UN Country team focal points in his/her area of intervention;
  • Bringing activists, bloggers and tweeters together around post 2015 choices, web platforms, and social media accounts;
  • Facilitating the use of the Communication toolkit among the My World partner network;
  • Drafting short MY World data analysis and reports to various countries and/or constituencies visiting MY World exhibit;
  • Drafting story of successful SCO campaigns in the field for media purposes;
  • Providing support to upload offline votes submitted by the MY World’s partners;
  • Providing administrative and other programmatic support.
Deliverables:
  • An outreach strategy to increase the awareness of the platform in the region involved;
  • Mapping of the CSO in the region to be contacted as part of the strategy;
  • MY World reports and data analysis, based on the data generated by platform;
  • Implementation and organization of ‘Have a say” campaign;
  • Weekly update on progress achieved, challenges and lessons learned.

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.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Enrollment in undergraduate or graduate-level degree programme in a development related field such as social science. 
  • Have completed at least four years of full-time studies at a university or equivalent institution towards the completion of a degree, if pursuing their studies in countries where higher education is not divided into undergraduate and graduate stages;

Experience:

  • Experience in CSO and media outreach;
  • Understanding of political issues in the region of intervention;
  • MS Office skills; Generally excellent computer skills;
  • 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;

Language:

  • Excellent knowledge of English;
  • Fluent in one or more of these languages, Arabic, Portuguese, and Spanish;
  • 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.

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

A completed UNDP internship application form (http://www.undp-act.org/data/articles/undp_internship_application_form_2008.doc);

 

A copy of the applicant’s most recent resume or curriculum vitae;
A letter from his/her university confirming current enrollment and graduation date;
A copy of his/her school transcript;
A letter of recommendation from a professor;
A signed UNDP Internship Agreement;
A Medical Certificate of Good Health;
Proof of medical insurance including provision for medical evacuation and removal of mortal remains or life insurance;
Copy of passport and US Visa/ US Identity Card.