Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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.

UN Women’s Humanitarian Action and Crisis Response Office (HACRO) promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment across the humanitarian - development nexus as a matter of rights, effectiveness, accountability and sustainability. The Office aims to accelerate transformative change through placing women’s leadership and their central role in community resilience at the core of prevention, preparedness and response efforts. As a policy, thematic and programme support office for crisis countries and fragile states, HACRO supports field offices prepare, prevent and respond to disasters and crisis in a gender-responsive manner. The Office has two units in New York City, USA and Geneva, Switzerland. HACRO delivers services to UN Women country and regional offices through integrated, multifunctional policy and programme teams specialized in prevention, preparedness, response and resilience building, and by providing stand-by capacity. 

The HACRO Geneva Office mainly provides services through three service lines/flagship initiatives:

1. Women’s Leadership, Empowerment, Access and Protection (LEAP) in Crisis Response

• Ensuring crisis, humanitarian and stabilization planning and programming are informed by gender analysis and assessment.
• Increasing access to protection and economic opportunities for women affected by crises.
• Bridging the humanitarian/development divide in protracted crises by promoting sustainable livelihoods.
• Offering second chance educational and vocational learning for marginalized women and girls who have missed out on education, offering pathways either back into formal education or to employment or entrepreneurship.

2. DRR and Resilience:

a. Global Programme on Women’s Disaster Resilience

• Proposes a comprehensive package for women’s resilience that focuses on rendering prevention, preparedness and response systems, plans and tools gender-responsive and provides targeted action enabling women and girls to withstand natural hazards, recover fully from disasters and increase their resilience to future natural hazards.
• Influences policy change for gender-responsive humanitarian action and crisis prevention, preparedness and recovery, enhances accountability, generates catalytic action, and produces practical lessons learned and best practices for upscaling and replication.

b. Addressing the Gender Inequality of Risk (GIR) and Promoting Community Resilience to Natural Hazards in a Changing Climate

• Ensuring disaster risk assessments adequately consider the needs of women and girls and that women have the capacity and opportunity to engage in assessments.
• Supporting national authorities to develop gender-responsive disaster mitigation plans.
• Ensuring adequate levels of financing are available for gender-responsive disaster mitigation strategies.
• Strengthening women’s capacity to prevent, prepare for, and recover from natural hazards.

3. Second Chance Education and Vocational Learning (SCE) Programme bringing together public and private sector partners

• Promoting supportive multi-sectoral policy and financing frameworks to create an enabling environment to pilot and scale up successful SCE solutions.
• Addressing harmful and discriminatory social norms that keep girls and young women out of education.
• Providing high quality content.
• Tailoring educational opportunities directly to the local labour market to increase the value of education and create a pipeline of educated your women ready to transition to employment.

The intern will join the UN Women HACRO division in Geneva to support and contribute to the above services lines. Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Chief of HACRO Geneva, the intern will be directly report to one or multiple HACRO service line leads.

Duties and Responsibilities

Description of Responsibilities

• Support in programme development in areas of DRR and Resilience, LEAP and  SCE; 
• Provide support in development of donor proposals, programme document and other programming documents /advocacy papers related to HACRO Geneva thematic services lines.
• Support research analysis to identify best practices, data and information required by the thematic areas including a literature review of best practices, results mapping & collecting data etc;
• Support with populating HACRO’s web portals with high quality content from various UN Women initiatives and partners; 
• Support the development of communication/advocacy materials for UN Women HACRO thematic portfolios;
• Support the division in drafting background documents, concept notes, briefing documents, reports, presentation slides etc.  
• Provide support in organizing meetings/events in Geneva including preparation meeting documents, invitations and logistics arrangements as when required;
• Provide other assistance as required.

Learning objectives

·Increased understanding of UN Women’s work and the UN system;

·Learning the work in gender and humanitarian action in an international environment;

·Meeting and networking with UN Women colleagues in other units;

·Working as a team member in a multicultural setting;

·Gaining knowledge relating to online education and learning methodologies, platforms and systems

Competencies

Core Values and Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles

• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Respect for diversity

Core Competencies

• Commitment to learning
• Awareness and sensitivity regarding gender issues
• Accountability
• Effective communication
• Planning and organization skills
• Inclusive collaboration

Functional Competencies

• Knowledge on gender and humanitarian action and crisis response
• Strong writing, research and analytical skills
• Ability to work independently and meet deadlines
• Familiarity with learning and management web-based platforms
• Effective Communication skills with staff at all levels of the organization and initiative taking abilities
• Demonstrated abilities of sensitivity, tact and diplomacy
• Demonstration of cultural sensitivity and appreciation for different cultures and practices
• Ability to pay great attention to detail and exercise sound judgment
• Ability to work well in a team and project a positive image
• Self-motivation and ability to recommend options for resolution of issues
• Strong service orientation
• Familiarity with learning and management web-based platforms

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications

Education

• The intern must have studied in social sciences, international development, gender, education, communication, economics, journalism or other similar subject at the university level;
• 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 a one-year period of graduation.

Language

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

Other

• Proficient  IT skills are required; skills with lay-out and design are a plus;
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment is essential;
• The intern must have a strong sense of responsibility, a flexible and proactive mindset, and the ability to work independently.

Note:

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.

UN Women Internship Policy

1.) Applicants to the United Nations 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);

(c) Have graduated with a university degree (as defined in (a) or (b) above) and, if selected, must commence the internship within a one-year period of graduation.

2.) UN Women internship programme does not provide a salary or remuneration for the internship;

3.) All the expenses connected with the internship will be borne by the intern, sponsoring Government or institution;

4.) UN Women accepts no responsibility for costs arising from accidents and/or illness or death incurred during the internship;

5.) The intern is responsible for obtaining necessary visas and arranging travel to and from the duty station where the internship will be performed;

6.) Interns are not eligible to apply for, or be appointed to positions in the professional and above category in UN WOMEN during the period of the internship or for six months immediately following the expiration date of internship;

7.) The intern must provide proof of enrollment in a health insurance plan, proof of school enrollment, a scanned copy of his/her passport, two letters of recommendation, and application