Job no: 558798
Contract type: Internship
Duty Station: New York
Level: Internship
Location: United States
Categories: WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene)
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.
Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.
And we never give up.
UNICEF contributes to public health emergencies preparedness and response through its unique role in targeting the specific needs of the most vulnerable, including children and women. UNICEF simultaneously addresses both the causes of the public health emergency, controlling its spread, and responds to its socio-economic consequences. UNICEF is a leader in pillars critical to outbreak prevention and control (e.g., immunization, WASH, RCCE, community-based health and surveillance, supply and logistics, HSS and MHPSS). UNICEF is also a leader in the multi-sectoral response to the socio-economic impact of public health emergencies including but not limited to the areas of nutrition, child protection, prevention, mitigation and response to GBV and other forms of violence against children, social protection, and education.
UNICEF is a critical contributor to and leader in guidance and thinking around each of these areas of expertise and has the existing programming capacity to respond in each of them worldwide. This critical sectorial specialization, is essential to health emergency preparedness and response (HEPR), complements the roles of WHO, GOARN and other GOARN partners and highlights the need for enhanced integration within the Network.
For every child, a hope….
As part of the organisational priority to mainstream climate, environment, energy and disaster risk reduction (CEED) into UNICEF’s core programming, UNICEF is committed to making children and young people a focus of environmental strategies and empowering children and young people to participate in climate and environmental action. This includes in the areas of sustainable energy and reducing disaster risk.
How can you make a difference?
As part of the organisational priority to mainstream climate, environment, energy and disaster risk reduction (CEED) into UNICEF’s core programming, UNICEF is committed to making children and young people a focus of environmental strategies and empowering children and young people to participate in climate and environmental action. This includes in the areas of sustainable energy and reducing disaster risk.
Purpose
The purpose of this internship is to work with the CEED group in advancing key objectives:
- To improve the resilience of children by adapting the essential social services they need to a changing climate and degrading environment – with a focus on health and nutrition; education; water, sanitation & hygiene (WASH), child protection and social protection; and
- To support children and young people to be climate and environmental champions by providing them with the skills, resources, and platforms to exercise their voice and build and scale solutions.
To this end, the role shall provide knowledge-driven technical and capacity-building support for staff around the world to better implement initiatives, advocacy campaigns, youth engagement activities, and policies and procedures that help to advance the goals of UNICEF’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan. More specifically the purpose of this position may include all or part of the following activities, as determined as priorities throughout the year:
- Researching and analysing global UNICEF CEED reporting data to provide statistical results for annual and ongoing reporting
- Supporting the development of a database of UNICEF programmes and innovations that have the greatest potential to deliver results for children at scale.
- Supporting the production of a child climate-sensitive policy toolkit and technical note for UNICEF staff; as well as researching its potential for external dissemination
- Developing guidance for and uploading publications into an external UNICEF database of technical documents on CEED themes to contribute to UNICEF’s role as a learning organization
- Supporting the development of knowledge products on climate, energy, environment, and disaster risk reduction, including drafting policy memos, briefs, guides, investment cases and reports as required
- Collaborating with internal and external working groups and networks on youth engagement to support and strengthen cross-sectoral efforts in this area
- Supporting the climate team with research and regular uploading of climate data to NDC dashboards
- Assisting in content development for child-sensitive climate policy web interfaces
- Supporting the team in event coordination efforts, including leading up to and possibly during COP28.
Major duties and responsibilities
- Liaise with Country and Regional Office Staff to collect information and develop a mapping, an analysis in the form of a policy brief, and a guidance note for implementation on making children and young people a focus of climate, environmental, energy and disaster risk reduction strategies.
- Liaise with Country and Regional Office Staff to collect information for the development of CEED related knowledge materials.
- Liaise with sectoral groups to learn about and provide technical inputs on mainstreaming CEED innovations and programming, including assessment of gaps, opportunities, and proposed guidance towards scaling.
- Liaise with UNICEF staff and young CEED champions to advance UNICEF’s youth engagement and empowerment efforts
This internship would provide an opportunity to learn about:
- In depth knowledge about Global Climate, Energy, Environment, and Disaster Risk Reduction (CEED) challenges, how they are impacting children, and how UNICEF is programming in response.
- Develop writing and editing skills through developing key resources (i.e. policy briefs, guidance notes, investment cases, case studies, etc.)
- Gaining experience working with an expert group of climate and environment professionals, as well as colleagues working across other UNICEF sectors (ie. Innovations, WASH, Education, Health, Nutrition, Social Policy, Child Protection)
- Strengthened communication skills by consulting with various professionals across the organization and preparing relevant materials for these exchanges.
- How to use excel to analyse data and google sheets to formulate policy briefs and technical notes
- Gather insight on UNICEF programming across multiple sector
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- Bachelor’s degree in relevant areas such as environment, social and economic development, political science, communication, knowledge management or international cooperation
- Demonstrated advanced technical writing and/or editing skills (publications)
- Demonstrated ability to navigate and use Microsoft Office 365
- Fluent in English
- Prior experience with climate, energy, environment and disaster risk reduction and young people in developing country contexts would be a considerable asset
- An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in relevant areas such as environment, social and economic development, political science, communication, knowledge management or international cooperation would be an asset
- Working knowledge of Spanish/French would be an asset
Eligibility
To be considered for an internship with UNICEF, applicants must meet the following requirements:
- Be enrolled in a degree programme in an undergraduate or graduate school, or be a recent graduate (within the last 2 years);
- Have strong academic performance as demonstrated by recent university or institution records or, if not available, a reference letter from an academic supervisor;
- Have no immediate relatives (e.g. father, mother, brother or sister) working in any UNICEF office; and
- Have no other relatives in the line of authority which the intern will report to
For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability (CRITA), and sustainability
Please click Here to view UNICEF’s core values and Here to view our competency framework.
UNICEF competencies required for this post are.
- Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (1)
- Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
- Works Collaboratively with others (2)
- Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2)
- Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
- Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
- Drive to achieve impactful results (2)
- Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)
UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to including everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.
Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.
“UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”
For more information on remuneration and benefits, please visit UNICEF’s Entitlements’ page. If you would like to find estimates for entitlements, you may use the online Salary Estimate Calculator
- Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Advertised: 20 Jan 2023 Eastern Standard Time
Deadline: 30 Jan 2023 Eastern Standard Time
