Intern

Based in Geneva, the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECR) supports UNOPS offices throughout the region through: management, financial and programmatic oversight of global and country-specific portfolios, clusters and operations centres, including hosting services; fund and management advisory services; project implementation; procuring goods and services; and managing human resources.

ECR ensures that projects are executed to the highest standards, providing a shared knowledge base and ensuring that best practices and lessons learned are disseminated between business units and projects across the entire region.

 ECR strategy is to:

• Strengthen UNOPS role in operationalizing the Sustainable Development Goals with particular emphasis on health, environment and economic development.
• Position UNOPS in the Balkan sub-region, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
• Strengthen the implementation of ECR global and regional programmes, with revitalized partnerships in infrastructure, procurement and project management.

ECR operates global portfolios from offices in Geneva, Brussels and New York, and country-specific programmes from its operations and project centres located in Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries.

Launched in September 2010, the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement catalyzes collective action towards ending malnutrition in all its forms. Led by 61 SUN Countries and the Indian States of Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, the SUN Movement is an unprecedented effort to bring together stakeholders – governments, national and international civil society organizations, businesses, the UN system, researchers and scientists across different sectors – to create an enabling environment to improve nutrition.

SUN countries and all stakeholders in the Movement are committed to scaling up nutrition by strengthening four strategic processes:

1. Expanding and sustaining an enabling political environment;

2. Prioritizing effective actions that contribute to good nutrition;

3. Implementing actions aligned with national common results frameworks;

4. Effectively using and significantly increasing financial resources for nutrition.

The SUN Movement Secretariat was established in 2012 as a small coordinating mechanism to support SUN countries, helping them connect with each other for support and advice, and ensuring coordinated and coherent support from actors in a series of networks. The Secretariat also maintains momentum across the SUN Movement, catalyzing interest and action in new or problematic nutrition issues. Finally, the Secretariat tracks and communicates the progress made by each SUN country, and the Movement as a whole.

The SUN Movement Coordinator, a UN Assistant Secretary General, oversees the implementation of the Strategy and Roadmap, heads the SUN Movement Secretariat, and represents the SUN Movement globally. Day-to-day management of the Secretariat is the responsibility of the Chief of Staff of the SUN Movement Secretariat.

The Country Results and Finance Team is directly guided by the senior management of the SUN Movement Secretariat and contributes to SUN Movement’s commitment to delivering high-quality assistance to member countries in a timely, efficient, and transparent manner.

Under the overall guidance of the Senior Nutrition Analyst and Strategy Advisor, the intern will support the tasks  dedicated to office-wide Country Results and Finance functions: monitoring and evaluating country performance in fighting all forms of malnutrition; collaborating with different teams on ad-hoc projects, such as the Joint-Assessment 2020 and Annual Progress Report 2020; providing support to countries’ preparedness for funding opportunities.

The intern is expected to assist the Country Results and Finance Team in the following key fields: 

Functional Responsibilities: 

Supporting the effective and efficient functioning of the CRAFT through:

• Assist with the tasks related to the Movement’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning system;

• Provide assistance to CRAFT members towards supporting SUN countries with organizing and conducting their annual Joint Assessment ensuring their timely and quality participation;

• Assist with the SUN Movement Annual Progress Report, country briefs, case studies, and the SUN website by supporting the compilation and analysis analysing of country information, and lessons learned on effective multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approaches to improving nutrition;

• Assist with other documents as required by SUN Countries, Networks, the Executive Committee, and Lead Group

• In coordination with the Facilitation Team and the Front Office, as well as other CRAFT members, assist with the organisation and facilitation of virtual exchanges or webinars among groups of SUN Countries facing similar nutritional challenges; support peer-to-peer learning between SUN Countries;

• In response to SUN Countries’ requests, liaise with relevant Secretariat's Colleagues to ensure effective and predictable support from within the Movement is given. Maintain up-to-date records/tracking of country needs and priorities;

• In coordination with other team members, actively support the organisation of  in-office knowledge sharing activities and providing secretarial, administrative and coordination support to the team 

• Support  the SUN Movement Pooled Fund website development, running and update, including writing the website content as well as ensuring the upload of key documentations; 

• Support the Pooled Fund M&E team in collecting, analysing and recording grants progress, achievements and challenges;

• Lead the social media blog for the Pooled Fund and write one article per month on a successful Pooled Fund story.

Perform other ad-hoc duties as needed and requested.

Monitoring and Progress Controls

The Intern will be given the following training components and learning elements:

• The intern will be part of a team and will be learning on the job on a daily basis. Dedicated time will be allocated by the supervisor for understanding the functioning of the SUN Movement Secretariat. 

• Training in OneUNOPS as well as UN language courses will be available. 

• A work plan will be formulated and agreed between the team lead, with clearly defined outputs, milestones, and reporting requirements.The intern will be assessed by successfully meeting deadlines, meeting professional and personal development objectives within the individual work plan. 

• All applicants must be enrolled in a university programme such as Bachelor, Masters or Ph.D. (or the equivalent) or have graduated from such studies within three (3) years prior to the application date of the internship.

• Studies in Political Science, Social Sciences, Development, International relations or related fields would be an advantage.

• Applicants are not required to have professional work experience but experience working in operational/ administrative and an understanding of development and cooperation areas is highly desired.

• Capacity to prioritize assignments and strong commitment to teamwork and results.

• Proficiency in the use of the standard Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Outlook, Powerpoint, Excel)

• Fluency in written and oral English required.
• Working knowledge of other UN languages (especially French and/or Spanish) is an asset. Knowledge of Portuguese will also be an advantage. 

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.