UNDP Jobs - 93131- Internship on Communications/Knowledge

Internship on Communications/Knowledge

Location :

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

Internship

Starting Date :

31-Aug-2020

Application Deadline :

17-Aug-20 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

Intern

Duration of Initial Contract :

3 month

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

6 month

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

UNDP’s Crisis Bureau (CB) has corporate responsibility for UNDP’s corporate crisis-related work and driving UNDP’s vision and priorities for crisis prevention, response, and recovery, to support the strategic results, outcomes and outputs of UNDP's Strategic Plan. CB teams provide technical advice to Country Offices; advocate UNDP corporate messages; represent UNDP as required, including at multi-stakeholder fora, public-private, and government-civil society dialogue initiatives; promote and support South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives; and engage in UN interagency coordination in the areas of work the Strategic Plan – building resilience to shocks and crises, in order to safeguard development gains.

Together with the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), the CB forms the Global Policy Network (GPN), a network of global experts and practitioners providing timely development advice, delivering support to Country Offices and programme countries in a coherent manner to connect countries to the world of knowledge, resources and networks of best practice they need to achieve development breakthroughs.

Within the CB, the Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding and Responsive Institutions (CPPRI) team works on the integration of governance, conflict prevention and peacebuilding interventions. The CPPRI team leads and coordinates UNDP's corporate, global approach on how to prevent violent extremism (PVE) from a development perspective.

UNDP and other research demonstrates that a security-centered approach to violent extremism is insufficient to prevent violent extremism, and must be complemented with a development approach through implementation of the Secretary-General’s Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, and focused efforts to implement pillars 1 and 4 of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy: Addressing the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism (1); and measures to ensure respect for human rights for all and the rule of law as the fundamental basis for the fight against terrorism (4).

UNDP is the global lead, within the United Nations system, in provision of assistance to prevent violent extremism. In recognition of its leadership role, UNDP serves as co-chair of the PVE Working Group of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact. Through its solid basis of already existing PVE programming at the country and regional level, convening and coordinating role, UNDP is well placed to lead the development of innovative monitoring and learning systems to ensure that PVE initiatives are evidence-informed, human rights based, and promote the participation, voice, and empowerment of communities affected by violent extremism.

In this context, UNDP is looking to hire a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning specialist to support UNDP’s Country Offices to design and implement effective monitoring strategies, and to inform the development of M&E for PVE efforts within the wider UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact. The purpose is to help achieve improvements in monitoring, learning and quality assurance of PVE initiatives at national, regional and global levels, and through this both to increase UNDP’s role in ensuring respect for human rights as the fundamental basis for the fight against terrorism, and amplify the impact of UNDP’s advocacy and resource mobilization efforts.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Regional Innovation Specialist, the intern will work closely on a daily basis across K&I team members to have the following tasks:
Research relevant programmes, projects, knowledge products and resource materials, and drafting/consolidating documents/briefs for the team/broader audience in relation to knowledge management and innovation;
Drafting background notes in the area of innovations to UNDP Country Offices and missions of team members;
Assist the team in developing advocacy and communication materials for the regional programme and regional projects, including support to preparation of policy notes;
Assist the team in writing articles, blogs for newsletters, website, and web based platforms/knowledge networks on innovations;
Assist the team in the preparation of materials and presentations for online tools: Teams, TGFF Website, Ministry of Data etc;
Assist in the preparations (both substantive and logistics) for the thematic events; • Any other related tasks deem necessary and appropriate. The deliverables of the intern will be subject to review in 6 weeks from the start of the internship.

Competencies

Understanding of strategic communication and how it can contribute to the achievement of specific development goals;
Ability to engage with partners and forge productive working relationships;
Familiarity with global development issues and the world of the UN.
Strong organizational skills and the ability to multi-task Responsible, responsive, and enthusiastic:
Ability to arrange events with relevant stakeholders:
Ability to extract, interpret, analyse data and resolve problems;
Ability to produce deliverables conforming to the required standard;
Ability to support a team and team building skills; Strong attention to details;
Strong IT skills and excellent knowledge of office software packages; and

Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

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

a) be enrolled in a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher); b) be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (minimum Bachelor’s level or equivalent); or c) have graduated with a university degree (as defined in (a) and (b) above) in a relevant discipline (International relations, Law, Political Sciences, Global/Regional Studies or other relevant field) and, if selected, must start the internship within one-year of graduation;
Experience in communications required;
Demonstrated interest on social innovations, human-centered design, and other innovative approaches for development
Strong theoretical and practical knowledge of innovative approaches for development, particularly in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region, is an advantage
Experience to conduct advanced internet search and work with multiple documentation sources to extract required data and information [literature review];

Experience with handling of web-based management systems, web administration, data analysis and social innovation tools is an advantage;