Communications 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 operates global portfolios from offices in Geneva and country-specific programs from its operations and project centers located in Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries.

The Global Executive Leadership Initiative (GELI)

With ongoing United Nations development and broader international humanitarian reform, a specific focus has been placed on collective action, system coordination, and as a key tenet of success, leadership.  

Hosted under the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the Global Executive Leadership Initiative (GELI) is the first leadership development programme that brings together top level leaders from and across UN agencies, NGOs, and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to learn together and co-create a leadership ecosystem within the humanitarian and development sector.

GELI's vision is a world made better by transformative leadership and its mission is to inspire exceptional leadership through continuous learning, ingenuity, and transformation. 

The complexity of crises is growing, requiring collective multi-stakeholder action. As a result, GELI is a multi-donor initiative which will provide learning opportunities that will challenge senior field leaders to sharpen skills and harness experiences around collaborative, collective leadership approaches that can be applied in countries of operation. 

GELI is a multifaceted programme tailored to the specific needs of each individual leader, capitalizing on their extensive experience and highly applicable to today’s operational realities. GELI includes three pillars.  Pillar I is a one-year executive leadership programme that includes three in-person residencies and remote learning.  Pillar II includes short and specialized field training delivered in regional capitals through a blended learning approach.  Pillar III is a Leadership and Innovation Lab to drive a culture of systems leadership, creativity, forward thinking and collaboration in the leadership community.

GELI has a robust communications strategy in its work.  Communications platforms will drive interest in the initiative to secure: increased applicants in GELI programmes from potential participants from field based leaders and from their home agencies (UN, NGO, Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement); keep donor partners informed on GELI projects and encourage additional funding from diverse donors to achieve the full vision for GELI’s three pillars and to sustain the initiative for the long-term; and garner buy-in within the broader international system for the credibility of the programme and linkages to supporting systemic priorities.  

GELI requires the support of a full-time or part-time communications intern.  This position will support GELI to have a robust online/digital presence that is cohesive across multiple platforms (i.e. desktop, mobile, apps, videos, and social media) and print.  The intern will support GELI on a full-time or part-time basis and research and develop content and materials for GELI's growing social media presence, in line with and representative of its brand. Functional responsibilities include: 

• The qualified candidate will be an organized self-starter and able to coordinate multiple projects at a time;

• Tracks and evaluates current community and social media interactions;

• Shares practices for social media engagement and recommendations for emerging platform trends;

• Assists with editorial planning, content management and scheduling, and channel management;

• Ideates, creates, and drafts social content with the communications team; 

• Researches leadership statistics, quotes, resources;

• Liaises with graphic design team to create interactive content; 

• Provides edits and design support to communications campaigns and events in terms of banners, leaflets and posters, social media content and toolkits, etc. 

• Provides design support to briefing documents for executive stakeholders and learning material in terms of enhancing presentation as required;

• Assists with social media data analysis and reporting; 

• Performs any other duties within their professional competence as required to support project objectives.

Training components and learning elements

The qualified candidate will work to support and shadow the Strategic Communications Officer and receive training, guidance and oversight in return. He/she/they will work to set key learning objectives at the beginning of the internship on work towards fulfilling them with support from the wider GELI team.

a. Education : 

A minimum of a Bachelor's degree in international affairs or any related social science or field, graphic design, visual communications, marketing, or a related field. Current students attending an accredited university and recent graduates are encouraged to apply.

Google Workspace proficiency (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.).

Basic knowledge of design and experience with design programmes (Adobe photoshop, Canva, etc.) is an asset.

Contract type: Intern (I)

• 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.