Background:
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.
Women’s Political Participation (WPP) is one of UN Women’s primary areas of work, recognizing the role of women’s leadership in strong and stable democratic processes and inclusive societies. It is covered under the Entity’s Strategic Plan 2026-2029 Impact Area 1 – Women’s Leadership and decision-making. Guided by CEDAW GR40 and leveraging the entity’s triple mandate it aims to increase parity in decision-making particularly at local levels through legal reforms, special measures and institutional safeguards that prevent and respond to violence against women in public life; to strengthen institutional capacity, across legislatures, public institutions, statistical offices and national women’s machineries, to track and deliver on commitments to women’s leadership; to increase capacity and influence of diverse women’s rights organizations and networks, particularly those led by young women and those facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, to hold duty bearers accountable and drive change through transformative leadership and social norms change; and to enhance power and visibility of women leaders and their networks, including in public and private domains where women are underrepresented.
UN Women works with various partners and stakeholders nationally, regionally, and globally to ensure more women of all ages fully participate, lead, and engage in political institutions and public life. Within this framework, UN-Women jointly with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), has partnered with the European Union under the EU-funded framework of Women and youth Democratic Engagement Initiative (WYDE) to implement the WYDE|Women’s Leadership component through a four-year programme titled: "Advancing Women’s Political Participation and Decision-Making through Social Norms Change, Networking and Global Advocacy.” WYDE | Women’s Leadership programme prioritizes changing social norms and shifting cultural attitudes that portray women’s roles in communities and society as incompatible with political power; and puts specific focus on building critical skills of young women and engage men and boys, office holders and the media as allies for gender equality and women’s empowerment. It aims to generate data and evidence on violence against women in politics as well as to enhance synergies between women’s rights movements, Member States, decision makers, the international community, the media, and other key actors, including the WYDE community across its different components, to maximize the effectiveness of spaces for coalition building, advocacy, and campaigning to promote women’s political participation and leadership.
The WYDE team is looking to engage two interns in subsequent time intervals of maximum duration of 6 months: October 2026 - March 2027 and April - September 2027. Under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager and in close coordination with the WYDE Women’s Leadership team based in Brussels, the Intern/s will support the coordination work with the CSO grantees, knowledge sharing, reporting as well as communications and advocacy activities. Working closely with the Coordination, Advocacy and Communications Specialist and the Monitoring Specialist and Grants Manager, the intern/s will contribute mainly to:
- the development of advocacy and communications materials;
- support the coordination of events and activities;
- monitor and amplify partners’ communications and
- assist in documenting and disseminating programme results and lessons learned.
Description of Responsibilities
Communications and Advocacy
- Support coordination, advocacy and communications preparations for WYDE activities, events and campaigns.
- Support the design and development of communication and advocacy products, including of social media assets, knowledge management documents, or any activity-related background documents.
- Support the monitoring, analysis and amplification WYDE-related communications (in particular social media) and advocacy activities of WYDE partners and grantees.
- Support drafting of WYDE stories and articles following corporate templates and formats as needed.
- Support the collection of materials, such as photos and videos from all WYDE partners to ensure archiving of all WYDE related audio-visual products.
- Support the elaboration of audio-visual products such as various formats of videos.
- Support the WYDE Programme Intergenerational Convening Event and other regional/cross-regional activities organized by WYDE.
Monitoring and reporting support
- Support the work with civil society organizations by maintaining data related to funded civil society and women’s rights organizations.
- Review reports to extract key results and achievements to be used in monitoring progress and for amplification purposes related to women’s leadership and political participation.
- Aid with the processing of reports through internal procedures, including file organization and uploading in systems, to assure accountability and verification of project results.
- Engage with funded organizations to learn from their projects and document common lessons learned across the funded projects in transforming social norms and advancing women’s leadership.
- Support preparations for knowledge exchange events with funded civil society and women’s rights organizations
- Carry out other support tasks assigned by the supervisor and WYDE team.
Learning Objectives
- Learn about UN Women’s mandate globally and more specifically about women’s leadership and decision-making and WYDE Women’s Leadership programme.
- Learn about UN Women and WYDE partners strategic advocacy & communications to achieve objectives including through global international/regional events (IWD, CSW, IDD, 16-Days of Activism etc.).
- Learn about WYDE’s CSO partners and their interventions at the country level.
Competencies :
Core Values:
- Integrity;
- Professionalism;
- Respect for Diversity.
Core Competencies:
- Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
- Accountability;
- Creative Problem Solving;
- Effective Communication;
- Inclusive Collaboration;
- Stakeholder Engagement;
- Leading by Example.
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:
Functional Competencies:
- Some knowledge and/or strong interest in gender equality and women's rights issues;
- Strong analytical and reporting skills;
- Communication skills (including social media management);
- Demonstrated ability to interact effectively with peers, colleagues;
- Knowledge of Microsoft Office 365 software;
- Some knowledge on women’s and youth political participation would be an asset;
- Knowledge and understanding of UN system and familiarity with inter-governmental processes an asset;
- Understanding of EU institutions would be an asset.
Qualifications
Education:
- University studies in one of the following disciplines: international relations, social studies, development studies or other relevant subjects is required.
- Meet one of the following:
- 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);
- Have graduated with a university degree and, if selected, must commence the internship within a two-year period of graduation; or
- Be enrolled in a postgraduate professional traineeship program which is part of a degree programme and undertake the internship as part of the program requirements.
Language:
- Excellent communication skills (written and oral) in English are required;
- Working knowledge of another UN language is an advantage.
Renumeration:
Interns who are not in receipt of financial support from other sources such as universities or other institutions will receive a stipend from UN Women to partially subsidize their basic living costs for the duration of the internship.
Statements :
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.
Diversity and inclusion:
At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.
If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.
UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)
Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process .
