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.

The communications unit provides visibility and strategic communications support to country offices within the East and Southern Africa region as well as the various thematic units across the regional office.

In view of ensuring quality of materials used for awareness rising, advocacy and public dissemination, UN Women offices in East and Southern Africa has begun using various visual products including infographics to convey the enormous amount of work that is being done and to visualize the data that is available on women’s rights and issues. Visual products such as infographics provide the opportunity to present information and data and tell stories in a straightforward way. They are being used on and disseminated through, for example, UN Women websites, social media, and advocacy reports. UN Women plans to maximize its communication and outreach through targeted, diverse digital visual products such as: internet banners, infographics/data visualization, social media posters, animated visuals, and gifs for web and social media.

UN Women East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) seeks to hire a graphic design intern to support in producing various visual communications products and with media monitoring. 

Duties and Responsibilities

  • Support to the Regional Office in graphic design for various collateral as needed for internal and external communications purposes;
  • Support communications team on various communications related tasks including research, web management, campaigns and event management;
  • Support with the creation and uploading of content for the related online platforms;
  • Support in prepararing presentations,decks,pitches,toolkits,posters,publications, and other visuals;
  • Assist the communications team in the curation and coordination of key events and communication opportunities such as campaigns and webinars;
  • Support the communications team with media monitoring.

Learning goals include:

  • Enhnced knowledge on gender equality and women empowerement;
  • Enhanced knowledge on communications;
  • Enhance knowledge on event management and campaign coordination.

Competencies

Core Values:

  • Respect for Diversity;
  • Integrity;
  • Professionalism.

Core Competencies:

  • Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
  • Accountability;
  • Creative Problem Solving;
  • Effective Communication;
  • Inclusive Collaboration;
  • Stakeholder Engagement; 
  • Leading by Example.

 Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and  Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

  • Demonstrable knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud application suite incl. Indesign, After Effects, Illustrator and Photoshop;
  • Demonstrable Knowledge of web design and CMS platforms;
  • Knowledge of graphic software such as Canva, Mailchimp, and/or Adobe Illustrator preferred;
  • Strong IT skills, including the use of MS PowerPoint, Excel, Teams and SharePoint;
  • Familiarity with Drupal and digital content management is an advantage;

Required Skills and Experience

Interns are selected on a competitive basis. Applicants to UNWOMEN internships must at the time of application meet one of the following academic requirements:

  • 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);
  • Have graduated with a university degree in (as defined in (a) and (b) above) and, if selected, must start the internship within one-year of graduation;
  • Be enrolled in a postgraduate professional traineeship program and undertake the internship as part of this program.

Education:

Please refer to the above academic requirements.

  • Preferred fields of study: Graphic design, Communications or related fields;

Experience:

  • Demonstrated experience in producing various communications materials (social media graphics and videos, blogs, human-interest stories, presentations, brochures, etc.) (required);
  • Experience managing social media channels (desirable);
  • Knowledge of the international relevant media ecosystem (desirable);
  • Creativity in writing and designing content, including storytelling skills is an advantage;
  • Experience coordinating events and gatherings with multiple actors including government, civil society, public and private sector (desirable);
  • Experience working for international organizations is an advantage.

Languages:

  • Excellent English language skills;
  • Knowledge of additional official languages of the UN is desirable.

Note:

Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need. 

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.  At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employees, trained, compensate, and promotes regardless of race, religion ,colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualification, competence, integrity and organizational needs.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)