Background

UN Women 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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Economic empowerment is one of the priority areas of UN Women. UN Women works with Governments and multilateral partners (UNDP, ILO, World Bank, regional development banks) to promote women’s economic empowerment and increase their access to economic opportunities, especially for those who are most excluded.

Unit/ Project Background:

Around the world, a record number of women are now migrating to seek work and better lives. For many, migration yields these benefits; for others, it carries dangerous risks, such as exploitation in domestic jobs, and a heightened vulnerability to violence. Migration policies and practices have been slow to recognize these risks and take steps to make the process safe for women, and protect their labour and human rights. During the 19 September 2016 UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants, global leaders agreed on the New York Declaration (A/71/150), which launched the preparatory processes towards the adoption of a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration in 2018. During the first phase of the preparatory process (April 2017 to November 2017) informal thematic sessions, regional consultations and multi-stakeholder meetings were held. It is within this this context, that UN Women is working towards the integration of a gender perspective in the global compact, including by providing technical support on how to make the global compact for migration gender-responsive. To this end, UN Women together with leading experts from treaty bodies, UN agencies and civil society organizations developed a set of expert recommendations on addressing women’s human rights in the global compact for migration and these recommendations serve as the main advocacy tool for the Expert Working Group on addressing women’s human rights in the global compact for migration for which UN Women is the substantive Secretariat. 

Further, UN Women is part of the Global Migration Group (GMG). The GMG brings together heads of agencies to promote the wider application of all relevant international and regional instruments and norms relating to migration, and encourages the adoption of more coherent, comprehensive and better coordinated approaches to the issue of international migration. UN Women’s role is to ensure that a gender perspective is integrated into the outputs of the GMG.   

Duties and Responsibilities

Description of Responsibilities & Learning Objectives:

• Support UN Women’s role within the Expert Working Group on addressing women’s human rights in the global compact for migration, including: assistance in planning; organizing and implementing side events, meetings, and workshops; taking minutes; drafting background notes and talking points; coordinating with other members; and developing substantive inputs on the gendered dimensions of migration for UN documents;
• Support UN Women’s work in relation to the Global Migration Group, including: participating in meetings; taking minutes; drafting background notes, talking points and other documents; and doing background research;
• Support with project proposals. Duties will include: compile countries’ migration profiles; provide background research; draft and edit relevant documents;
• Any other relevant tasks related to the migration portfolio.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Strong knowledge and understanding of gender and migration;
• Strong writing, research and analytical skills, with excellent attention essential;
• Capacity to plan, prioritize and deliver tasks on time;
• Familiarity with the work of the Global Migration Group (GMG) and the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration desirable;
• Knowledge of the work of the UN human rights treaty bodies, in particular CEDAW and CMW, desirable;
• Ability to work independently on tasks.

Core Competencies:

Accountability

• Hold colleagues and team members accountable for planned goals and competency standards;
• Practice giving and receiving constructive feedback.

Client Orientation

• Proactively inform clients and other stakeholders, to reduce loss of time and errors;
• Respond to questions, resolve problems, and help provide accurate information to clients;
• Identify, understand, and address client needs.

Commitment to Learning

• Learn about agency, its processes, structure, challenges, and environment;
• Contribute to knowledge sharing.

Communication

• Produce communication products (written and oral);
• Interpret key messages for and from clients with cultural sensitivity.

Planning and Organising

• Develop work plans;
• Implement activities in a timely manner, meet deadlines.

Teambuilding

• Coordinate work and roles with other team members;
• Support goals of the team;
• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Core Values and Guiding Principles: 

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Respect for diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
• Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Gender Studies, Migration Studies, Human Rights, or other similar subject at the university level;
• The applicant must either 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); or have graduated with a university degree and, if selected, must commence the internship within one year after graduation.

Experience:

• Some practical experience on gender and migration will be desirable.

Language:

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

Application Information:

• UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest;
• Selected applicants must provide the internship application, two letters of recommendation, proof of health insurance and school enrollment, passport, and visa (if applicable).
• Please note that an internship with UN Women is unpaid, and the selected applicant must be able to cover all costs associated with this position. 

Additional note on the creation of UN Women:

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.