UN Youth Volunteer Programme

Assisting with organization of workshops, communications and outreach activities

Duration: 3 – 6 months (starting in March 2014) at

UNV headquarters in Bonn, Germany. 

Background 

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is the UN organization that contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. Volunteerism is a powerful means of engaging people in tackling development challenges, and it can transform the pace and nature of development.Volunteerism benefits both society at large and the individual volunteer by strengthening trust, solidarity and reciprocity among citizens, and by purposefully creating opportunities for participation. 

UNV contributes to peace and development by advocating for recognition of volunteers, working with partners to integrate volunteerism into development programming, and mobilizing an increasing number and diversity of volunteers, including experienced UN volunteers, throughout the world. UNV embraces volunteerism as universal and inclusive, and recognizes volunteerism in its diversity as well as the values that sustain it: free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity. 

UNV engaged 7,303 UN volunteers in 2011, on a total of 7,708 assignments. With an average age of 38 years and the requisite professional skills and qualifications of some 5 to 10 years relevant experience, UN volunteers served in 132 countries in 2011 and came themselves from 162. The majority – 81 per cent – come from developing countries themselves. One third of UN volunteers served in their own countries, with the others carrying out international assignments. The financial equivalent of programme activities exceeds US$235 million annually. 

UNV is headquartered in Bonn, Germany and has approximately 150 staff positions – with the majority in Bonn and some positions with different UN peacekeeping and political missions, and in other Headquarters locations (e.g. New York and Tokyo). The major organizational groups within UNV are: 

• The Office of the Executive Coordinator (OEC) comprising the Evaluation Unit (EU) and the Corporate Planning and Performance Unit (CPPU); 
• The Volunteer Programming and Management Group (VPMG) comprising the Peace and Development Division (PDD), Volunteer Recruitment Resources Section (VRRS), Quality Assurance Unit (QAU), Volunteer Knowledge and Innovation Section (VKIS); 
• The Partnerships and Communications Division (PCD) comprising the Partnerships Section (PS) and the Communications Section (CS); 
• The Management Services Division (MSD) comprising the Information and Communication Technology Section (ICTS), Finance Section (FS), Human Resources Section (HRS), and the Administration Unit (AU). Additionally the Common Services Unit (CSU) provides support to the UN presence in Bonn.

UN Youth Volunteer Programme 

Right now more than half the world is under thirty years of age. This represents the largest generation of young people the world has ever known and nearly all of them live in developing countries. Aided by technological advances they are awakening to a new sense of their power and potential, yet at the same time they face challenges and hardships.

Recognizing the need to empower and engage young people, on 25 January 2012 the Secretary-General included a specific measure to “create a UN youth volunteers programme under the umbrella of UN Volunteers” in his Five-Year Action Agenda.

Since then, UN Volunteers has been engaging with youth-led networks, international volunteer sending organizations, national volunteering and civil society organizations, and UN agencies to develop a strategy to ensure leadership of youth volunteerism within the UN and enhance global partnerships with youth volunteering organizations. The UN Youth Volunteers Programme is the outcome of this engagement. 

The programme includes a specific modality for youth volunteerism, which aims to meet the needs of young volunteers whilst harnessing their skills and experience. It also aims to foster partnerships with a broad range of youth-led, volunteer involving, and civil society organizations, governments and other UN agencies in order to discover new opportunities for youth volunteerism and exchange best practices. 

Finally it seeks to strengthen national and regional capacities including policy and legislative frameworks for governments, civil society and other partners to develop and sustain youth volunteer schemes.

Duties and responsibilities 

Under the overall guidance of the Project Manager for the UN Youth Volunteer Programme, the intern will support the implementation of the project through communicating with project partners, UNV Field Units as well as research and monitoring developments through different channels. Depending on the competencies and interests of the interns, assignments will include: 

1. Assist the preparation of workshops 
2. Monitor, analyze and synthesize developments, press clippings and reports with regards to the relevant global policy frameworks and developments. 
3. Develop reports or policy briefs with reviews of practices, lessons learned, and recommendations on good practices in relation to the integration of volunteerism into the relevant policy frameworks. 
4. Research, collect, analyze and edit documents related to evidence of youth volunteerism impact on development. 
5. Assist project activities at UNV HQ in general. 
6. Take minutes and prepare presentations and documents for in-house committees and Field Units. 

Perform other duties as required. 

The interns are also expected to strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism as well as the above mentioned policy frameworks by reading relevant UNV and other publications. Learning opportunities for the intern 

• General understanding of the work and mission of the UNV programme, the role of stakeholders and partners at national and global level and of volunteerism’s contribution to developmentceffectiveness; 
• Insight and hands-on experience in UNV’s role in facilitating and promoting the project; 
• Insight and hands-on experience in organizing and running complex projects; and 
• Becoming more familiar with working in an International Organization and in a multicultural environment 

Minimum Qualifications & Experience 

Education: Completed undergraduate degree (Bachelor) and current enrollment in a Master’s degree or equivalent. Only those students who will return to their studies upon completion of their internship assignments are eligible; 

Field of study: Development-related fields such as economics, international relations, anthropology, sociology, public or business administration, or environmental studies. Other fields of study may be considered depending on the type of assignment; 

Language skills: Written and spoken proficiency in English and preferably in an additional official UN Language (French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Chinese); 

Demonstrated interest in the field of development and the work of international organisations. 

Previous experience in: 

• organization of workshops/ event
• partnership building and stakeholder consultations and/ or communications and campaign management
• Research and policy development as well as experience in developing countries is desirable.
• Knowledge of the UN work environment an advantage. 
• Enthusiastic about the role of youth volunteerism and participation in peace and development and ready to learn. 
• Experience in non – formal education an asset. 
• Good oral and written communications skills and demonstrated research abilities and interest 
• Internet proficiency as well as proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) is required. 
• Experience with the development of statistics, charts in Excel and Web 2.0 tools (especially social 
• networking) an asset. 
• Experience in volunteering a strong asset. 

General Terms and Conditions 

UNDP Conditions of Service for interns (http://www.undp.org/internships/) apply for interns working at UNV Headquarters.