IO/UNS Newsletter [04/19/22]

Some of you might be interested in a recorded webinar, in which UNHCR recruiters and hiring managers share how to optimize job applications for UNHCR. This may not only be of interest to those aiming at careers at UNHCR but at the UN more broadly.

Additionally, please feel free to engage with our tweet about the event and follow Ambassador Lu here.

For more information and to apply see here.

Spotlighted Events

Friday, April 29, 6-8 PM ET In-Person End of Year IO/UNS Social   RSVP | EVENT INFO

With the world emerging from COVID-19 and continuing its fight against climate change, sustainability is the most used word in today’s era. Developments are being made in adopting cutting-edge technology focusing on planet-friendly solutions, businesses are innovating to create more sustainable products, and investors are making decisions to support further progress in this direction with support from policy and regulation. But are all these working in tandem to achieve a single goal? Is there enough and more traction financially to enable this? Can we get a reality check from on the ground?

Join the Gender & Public Policy Specialization, policy makers, analysts, and practicioners to discuss concrete measures for feminist response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Permanent Representatives of Sweden and Ukraine to the United Nations will take part in the panel. 

Join Kent Program Director Jean-Marie Guéhenno and our esteemed panelists for a discussion of postwar Ukraine, Europe, and the future of Russo-Ukrainian relations. 

• Grigory Nemyria, First Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Afairs Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament and former Deputy  Prime Minister of Ukraine
• Mariya Zolkina, Politcal Analyst at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation
• Sergei Guriev, Professor of Economics at Sciences Po and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin

Africa has already stepped up as a global leader when it comes to tackling the climate change crisis. Through efforts like the Common African Position, strategies for pursuing much-needed energy access with an emphasis on renewable energy, and ambitious, on-the-ground national and subnational green policies, Africa is demonstrating that it takes this existential threat seriously. Moreover, Africa’s resources will be pivotal in the fight: For example, its forests and marine resources provide essential carbon sinks for the world, and 70 percent of the world’s cobalt—an essential mineral for battery production—is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone.

The collective response from the region reflects the urgency of the issue: Despite contributing least to the problem, Africa is experiencing the worst effects—not only in increased natural disasters, but also in cascading impacts like food insecurity, migration, and decelerated economic growth. COP26 in Glasgow fell short of taking—let alone promising to take—the necessary actions to prevent further warming and mitigate future disasters.

In celebration of Earth Day and as part of the ongoing Foresight Africa event series, the Brookings Africa Growth Initiative will host a discussion on climate change in Africa—including energy transition, local action, and climate finance, among other topics—as well as the implications and hopes for COP27—“Africa’s COP”—to be held in Egypt later this year.

Viewers can submit questions for the panel by emailing events@brookings.edu.

On Monday, April 25th the annual session of the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues will take place at the UN. You can watch live via UN Web TV.

Monitor the schedule and livestream here. 

The student teams in SIPA’s Workshop in Sustainable Development Practice (the EPD Workshop) have been working this year on cutting-edge projects with twelve clients focusing on over twelve countries. This year's projects support ESG and impact investing, sustainable development finance and inclusive insurance, health innovation, food security and humanitarian response, urban development, and youth engagement. On April 28 and April 29, the teams will present highlights of their work in person at SIPA and the workshop will also be live-streamed over Zoom. 

All members of the SIPA community are warmly invited and encouraged to join any sessions of interest.

This year's workshop clients include Dalberg Advisors, Development Alternatives Inc., Hacey Health Initiative, National Unity Government of Myanmar, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Prime Minister’s Office of Mongolia, Trickle Up, United Nations Development Programme, UN Habitat, United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office in Mongolia, and World Food Programme Regional Centre of Excellence against Hunger and Malnutrition. See final presentation schedule here. 

Optimizing Job Applications for UNHCR
Recorded webinar

In this recorded webinar, UNHCR Recruiters and Hiring Managers share how to optimize job applications for UNHCR, inlcuding (1) how to plan your applications; (2) how to dissect the job description; (3) how to assess fitness for the position based on the duties and responsibilities of the job; and (4) how to describe your past experiences to highlight your fit for the role. This may of interest not only to those aiming at careers at UNHCR but at the UN more broadly.

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 work of UN Women’s Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) Section is broadly focused on a comprehensive approach to ending violence against women (VAW) that addresses legislation and policies, prevention, services for survivors, research and data. Therein, the Global Joint Programme Strengthening Methodologies and Measurement and Building National Capacities for Violence against Women Data, with UN Women and WHO as participating UN organizations, aims to ensure that quality, comparable data on different forms of violence against women are available and collected over time to address national data gaps and meet policy and reporting commitments under the SDGs, CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action.
 

UN Women is currently upgrading the Global Database on EVAW, and under the direct supervision and guidance of the EVAW Section staff, the intern will assist the work of Ending Violence against Women Section.

Responsibilities:

Support to maintain and update data and measures in the Global Database on Violence against Women and UN Women VAW Data Portal (Research Oriented)

• Conduct a desk review of VAW surveys and extract updated/new country data into the master files of the database and the data portal
• Review reports and compile, in the master files of the database, information on measures undertaken by Member States to address violence against women through various resources, including reports submitted by States parties to intergovernmental, including the Beijing Platform for Action, CSW, Human Rights Council and independent human right treaty bodies, such as Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
• Upload collected data and measures on the website content management system.

Learning Objectives:

• Increase understanding of UN Women’s work and the UN system;
• Increase knowledge in women’s rights, gender equality and ending violence against women and girls;
• Increase knowledge of violence against women and girls data production and management;
• Work as a team member in a multicultural setting.

To apply, please visit the job posting here.

UNDP is the knowledge frontier organization for sustainable development in the UN Development System and serves as the integrator for collective action to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

UNDP's policy work carried out at HQ Regional and Country Office levels, forms a contiguous spectrum of deep local knowledge to cutting-edge global perspectives and advocacy.

In order to streamline its financial and investment engagement, UNDP launched the Sustainable Finance Hub, a finance and innovation platform, that draws on a critical mass of UNDP expertise, initiatives, and partnerships to align public and private capital flows with the SDGs and mobilise finance at scale. The Hub serves as a connector, broker and global coordinator among internal and external actors; curates and manages UNDP's catalogue of service offers on SDG financing to governments, investors and companies, via UNDP country offices, to significantly enhance the scale and impact of UNDP's work.

The Hub is an integral part of both the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy (BERA), and the Global Policy Network GPN a network of field-based and global technical expertise across a wide range of knowledge domains. The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of U’DP's Strategic Plan. BPPS also assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results-based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working. Lastly, BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts.  

Through the Sustainable Finance Hub, UNDP has been increasing its engagement in global financial and economic policy making, including by carrying out work in different forums (i.e., G7, G20, UN’s Financing for sustainable development, etc.) as well as other regulatory and market-based networks. Furthermore, UNDP Sustainable Finance Hub runs the Secretariat of the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG). As such, it assists G20 Presidencies in the implementation of their G20 priorities on sustainable finance.

To apply, please visit the job posting here.

UNDP's Regional Bureau for Europe and Central Asia (RBEC) covers 18 countries and territories. The Bureau consists of headquarters in New York, country offices and its Regional Centre in Istanbul, Turkey.  RBEC HQ in New York is responsible for liaising with all New York-based UN entities, Permanent Missions to the UN and other partners of UNDP. It works closely with the Regional Centre in Istanbul and provides support and oversight of UNDP offices across the region.

The regional Communications team is tasked with supporting UNDP’s positioning and thought leadership in the region and globally; supporting donor visibility, resource mobilization and partnerships; and increasing the effectiveness of UNDP’s advocacy efforts.

Under the overall guidance of the Regional Communications Specialist based in New York, the intern for communications will be responsible for producing content and maintaining the regional directorate’s online presence (social media, e-mail newsletter), including additional media and graphic design tasks as necessary.

The intern will specifically be: Producing and curating content that reflects the RBEC Directorate’s communications priorities and key messages Sourcing, editing and formatting photos and videos as supporting visuals.   Monitoring and moderating social media engagement in close cooperation with the Regional Communications Specialist Supporting the Regional Communications Specialist with new approaches and strategies to social media and e-mail marketing engagement. Actively liaising with communications teams in Istanbul’s Regional Hub and Country Offices to ensure coherent alignment with the region’s communications priorities.

To apply, please visit the job posting here.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) works in 170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. As the United Nations’ lead agency for development, UNDP is working to strengthen new frameworks for development, disaster risk reduction and climate change. This includes supporting countries' efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, which guide global development priorities through 2030. The key principle of leaving no one behind and stamping out inequality is always at the core of UNDP’s work.

To accelerate development results, UNDP launched the Accelerator Labs Network in 2019. Today, the Accelerator Labs Network consists of 91 social innovation labs covering 115 countries worldwide. The Labs are embedded in UNDP’s global architecture and country platforms. The Accelerator Labs Network aims to accelerate learning for sustainable development and build the largest and fastest learning network on sustainable development. UNDP is doing development differently because the pace and complexity of today’s challenges are increasing. The design of the UNDP Accelerator Lab Network builds on a growing body of innovation work that targets wicked development challenges, with a high level of uncertainty. The Network builds on the latest thinking from the fields of complexity science, lead user innovation and collective intelligence to accelerate development impact.

The Accelerator Lab network is part of UNDP’s broader efforts to expand the way the organization invests, thinks about, and delivers development. Working with climate change, poverty reduction and governance experts throughout UNDP, our 91 Accelerator Labs around the world are now testing new ways of working to address social and environmental challenges.
 

The intern will assist in the following duties and responsibilities:

• Conduct background research and support the production of case studies and other communication material about innovative energy solutions featured by the Accelerator Labs Network for publication in external channels.
• Systematize development solutions on the Accelerator Labs platform to support the continuous improvement of monitoring, documentation, and analysis of the Network at the global level.
• Support the curation of selected grassroots solutions and identify future candidates for solutions that can be featured on digital platforms.
• Support other strategic activities for the Accelerator Labs as seen relevant and needed.

To apply, please visit the job posting here.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) works in 170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. As the United Nations’ lead agency for development, UNDP is working to strengthen new frameworks for development, disaster risk reduction and climate change. This includes supporting countries' efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, which guide global development priorities through 2030. The key principle of leaving no one behind and stamping out inequality is always at the core of UNDP’s work.

To accelerate development results, UNDP launched the Accelerator Labs Network in 2019. Today, the Accelerator Labs Network consists of 91 social innovation labs covering 115 countries worldwide. The Labs are embedded in UNDP’s global architecture and country platforms. The Accelerator Labs Network aims to accelerate learning for sustainable development and build the largest and fastest learning network on sustainable development. UNDP is doing development differently because the pace and complexity of today’s challenges are increasing. The design of the UNDP Accelerator Lab Network builds on a growing body of innovation work that targets wicked development challenges, with a high level of uncertainty. The Network builds on the latest thinking from the fields of complexity science, lead user innovation and collective intelligence to accelerate development impact.

The Accelerator Lab network is part of UNDP’s broader efforts to expand the way the organization invests, thinks about, and delivers development. Working with climate change, poverty reduction and governance experts throughout UNDP, our 91 Accelerator Labs around the world are now testing new ways of working to address social and environmental challenges.
 

The intern will assist in the following duties and responsibilities:

• Conduct background research and support the production of case studies and other communication material about how the Accelerator Labs are partnering with governments to enhance public sector innovation.
• Research emerging practices and create case studies for smartertogether.earth.
• Coordinate other activities including acceleration campaigns related to advancing energy access.
• Support other strategic activities for the Accelerator Labs as seen relevant and needed.

To apply, please visit the job posting here.

UNDP Communication Intern for the Prevention of Violent Extremism
Application Deadline: June 30, 2022
Location: Home-based