Background

Job Title: National Research and Communication intern

Project: Title/Department: “Financing for Sustainable Development in Uzbekistan” Sustainable Development Cluster

Duration of the assignment: 6 months (May – October 2020)

Work Status: Full-time, 8 hours per day

Duty station: Tashkent city

Expected places of travel: Not foreseen

Reports To: Project Manager 

 

Uzbekistan has embarked on an ambitious reform agenda, with the considerable attention being paid to development of medium- and long-term development vision. In 2017 the Government adopted the Action Strategy on Five Priority Areas of Development of Uzbekistan in 2017-2021 (the ‘Action Strategy’), which sets out a comprehensive agenda covering institutional and administrative, judicial, economic, social reforms and enhanced partnership and regional cooperation. This reform has been accompanied by the strong commitment of the Government to the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 with adoption on 20 October 2018 Uzbekistan of the national SDGs, including 16 national Goals and 125 national targets. The monitoring framework was established with the Government setting up a list of 206 national SDG indicators in March 2019.

 

Uzbekistan is facing a number of challenges in developing an integrated approach to financing the SDGs. These challenges are often rooted in misalignment between planning and financing functions of government, as well as participation of only a narrow group of stakeholders in the decision-making process on financing. Often national, sectoral and regional development plans are elaborated by various agencies without a clear sense of their financial viability.

 

In order to develop a more comprehensive development finance overview, linked to the SDGs implementation in Uzbekistan, the GoU and UNDP have launched a Development Finance Assessment (DFA) exercise in October 2019. The assessment aims at facilitating a deeper understanding of the development cooperation landscape, emerging opportunities for domestic revenue generation and the potential for greater private sector contribution toward national development priorities.  

 

DFA exercise has informed the design of the new project “Financing for Sustainable Development in the Republic of Uzbekistan” (FfSD project). The project will serve as a ground for establishment of an Integrated National Financing Framework by the Government of Uzbekistan for implementing national development plans/strategies and the SDGs. It will aim at mobilizing public and private resources needed to fund development and provide on-demand policy research and capacity building to help maximize the impact of policies/reforms on economic, environmental and social dimensions of the 2030 Agenda. 

 

The project activities will thus be grouped into four major directions:

  • Support and promote establishing an Integrated National Financing Framework
  • Elaborate and pilot innovative financing instruments
  • Promote Public Finance management reform
  • Establish an On-Demand Facility and conduct research on financing instruments

 

Internship Profile:

By the end of the internship the intern is expected to have developed clear understanding of the communication objectives and planned inputs, enhance educational experience, obtain practical skills and knowledge through practical assignments for further use in his/her research work, deepen knowledge and understanding of UNDP’s goals, principles and activities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Project Manager, the Intern will perform the following duties and responsibilities:

  • Conduct background research and analysis on a variety of issues related to the project activities;
  • Provide support to the organization of policy dialogues and round table meetings conducted by the project;
  • Support publishing knowledge stories/best practices;
  • Assist the organization of conferences, forums or other collaborative events;
  • Contribute to designing and implementation of initiatives, projects or programmes;
  • Provide written translation services of the official correspondence, Note Verbales, and other documents if needed;
  • Assist the project in preparation of relevant communications materials (press-releases, speeches, brochures, success stories, social media materials etc.) in collaboration with UNDP CO Communication Analyst;
  • Provide support in upgrading the “Open Budget” website as well as elaborating recommendations to improve its content;
  • Collaborate on the development and execution of online content (images, infographics, videos, blogs etc.) and campaigns delivered across various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.; 
  • Assist in the implementation of advocacy events related to the Sustainable Development Goals financing.

Competencies

  • Excellent writing skills in English, Russian and Uzbek, as well as good analytical aptitude and communication skills;
  • Be able to work both independently and as part of a team;
  • Outgoing and initiative-taking person with a goal-oriented mind-set;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Responds positively to feedback and differing points of view;
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Basic understanding of usability, optimizing content for the web and search;
  • Basic knowledge of graphics software.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:  in a relevant discipline IT: digital marketing, web management, graphic design, social media; Communication: journalism, public relations; Development studies, Economics.

 

Applicants to the UNDP internship programme within the “Financing for Sustainable Development in Uzbekistan” project must at the time of application meet one of the following requirements:

 

  • be enrolled in a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher); or
  • 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 start the internship within one-year of graduation

 

Preferable Experience:

  • Experience in research and analysis;
  • In organization meetings, round table and other events;
  • Experience in website management, content creation, digital communications is preferred;
  • Experience working with web-based applications, basics of HTML, as well as video and photo editing and design software is preferred;
  • Experience working with running social media accounts for organizations – especially in Instagram and Twitter - with good understanding of web metrics analysis and experience in producing analytics reports is preferred.

 

Language requirements:

  • Fluency in written and spoken English, Russian and Uzbek.

 

Other:

  •  Good computer literacy.

 

How to Apply:

The candidate should apply online through the Job Site website by submitting his/her CV accompanied with motivation letter.

Selected candidate must submit following documents:

Kindly note that selected intern will be required the following:

  • a Medical Certificate of Good Health from a recognized physician (can be obtained from a Family Center (State one), free of charge)
  • proof of medical insurance valid for the location(s) in which the internship will be carried out for duration of contract;

Financial matters:
Starting January 2020 the UNDP will provide a stipend to all interns.

The stipend has been set at 45% of the UNDP Service Contract scale at the SC1/1 level at each duty station.

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.

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.uz.undp.org/content/uzbekistan/en/home/jobs.html