Internship: Climate, Energy, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (CEED), NYHQ, CEED, 6 Months, Remote (Flexible)

The purpose of this internship is to work with the CEED group in advancing key objectives: 1.To improve the resilience of children by adapting the essential social services they need to a changing climate and degrading environment – with a focus on health and nutrition; education; water, sanitation & hygiene (WASH), child protection and social protection; and 2.To support children and young people to be climate and environmental champions by providing them with the skills, resources, and platforms to exercise their voice and build and scale solutions.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

A liveable planet for every child

Virtually every child on earth is already affected by climate change, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and disasters. Action is falling short, which means that the impacts upon children and young people will worsen in the coming decades. Children will bear the brunt of impacts, particularly those in communities that have contributed the least to global greenhouse gas emissions. The best investments we can make for children now are to ensure the services they need to survive, grow and thrive are resilient to climate and environmental shocks and to support them with the education and skills they will need to adapt and create a green transition and better world. UNICEF will make this the focus of our on-the-ground implementation and advocacy in the over 190 countries and territories in which we work — every child deserves a liveable planet.

UNICEF is committed to achieving societal transformation necessary so that children can live in a sustainable, clean and safe environment. In alignment with UNICEF’s climate, environment, energy and disaster risk reduction strategy (2022-2030), which aims to ensure the rights of children in a changing climate, UNICEF is launching its Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan (SCAP) 2023-2030. The SCAP prioritizes urgent climate action through systematic change in partnership with public and private sectors to prioritize the needs of children and young people and build their resilience to the climate threats at hand. The SCAP strives to mainstream sustainability and climate action both internally and externally, through protecting the lives, health and well-being of children and resilience of their communities by adapting essential social services; empowering children with developmental opportunities and skills; and reducing emissions and the environmental footprint within UNICEF.

How can you make a difference?

As part of the organizational priority to mainstream climate, environment, energy and disaster risk reduction (CEED) into UNICEF’s core programming, UNICEF is committed to making children and young people a focus of environmental strategies and empowering children and young people to participate in climate and environmental action. This includes in the areas of sustainable energy and reducing disaster risk.

Purpose 

The purpose of this internship is to work with the CEED group in advancing key objectives: 

2. To improve the resilience of children by adapting the essential social services they need to a changing climate and degrading environment – with a focus on health and nutrition; education; water, sanitation & hygiene (WASH), child protection and social protection; and   
3. To support children and young people to be climate and environmental champions by providing them with the skills, resources, and platforms to exercise their voice and build and scale solutions.  

To this end, the role shall provide knowledge-driven technical and capacity-building support for staff around the world to better implement initiatives, advocacy campaigns, youth engagement activities, and policies and procedures that help to advance the goals of UNICEF’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan. More specifically the purpose of this position may include all or part of the following activities, as determined as priorities throughout the year: 

• Researching and analysing global UNICEF CEED reporting data to provide statistical results for annual and ongoing reporting 
• Supporting the development of a database of UNICEF programmes and innovations that have the greatest potential to deliver results for children at scale.   
• Supporting the production of a child climate-sensitive policy toolkit and technical note for UNICEF staff; as well as researching its potential for external dissemination  
• Developing guidance for and uploading publications into an external UNICEF database of technical documents on CEED themes to contribute to UNICEF’s role as a learning organization 
• Supporting the development of knowledge products on climate, energy, environment, and disaster risk reduction, including drafting policy memos, briefs, guides, investment cases and reports as required 
• Collaborating with internal and external working groups and networks on youth engagement to support and strengthen cross-sectoral efforts in this area 
• Supporting the climate team with research and regular uploading of climate data to NDC dashboards 
• Assisting in content development for child-sensitive climate policy web interfaces 
• Supporting the team in event coordination efforts, including leading up to and possibly during COP28.  

Major duties and responsibilities

1. Liaise with Country and Regional Office Staff to collect information and develop a mapping, an analysis in the form of a policy brief, and a guidance note for implementation on making children and young people a focus of climate, environmental, energy and disaster risk reduction strategies. 
2. Liaise with Country and Regional Office Staff to collect information for the development of CEED related knowledge materials. 
3. Liaise with sectoral groups to learn about and provide technical inputs on mainstreaming CEED innovations and programming, including assessment of gaps, opportunities, and proposed guidance towards scaling. 
4. Liaise with UNICEF staff and young CEED champions to advance UNICEF’s youth engagement and empowerment efforts 

This internship would provide an opportunity to learn about: 

• In depth knowledge about Global Climate, Energy, Environment, and Disaster Risk Reduction (CEED) challenges, how they are impacting children, and how UNICEF is programming in response. 
• Develop writing and editing skills through developing key resources (i.e. policy briefs, guidance notes, investment cases, case studies, etc.) 
• Gaining experience working with an expert group of climate and environment professionals, as well as colleagues working across other UNICEF sectors (ie. Innovations, WASH, Education, Health, Nutrition, Social Policy, Child Protection) 
• Strengthened communication skills by consulting with various professionals across the organization and preparing relevant materials for these exchanges. 
• How to use excel to analyse data and google sheets to formulate policy briefs and technical notes 
• Gather insight on UNICEF programming across multiple sector 

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Ongoing (graduate or undergraduate) degree in relevant areas such as environment, social and economic development, political science, communication, knowledge management or international cooperation 
• Demonstrated advanced technical writing and/or editing skills (publications) 
• Demonstrated ability to navigate and use Microsoft Office 365   
• Fluency in English is required 
• Prior experience with climate, energy, environment and disaster risk reduction and young people in developing country contexts would be a considerable asset 
• An advanced university diploma or proven experience in relevant areas such as environment, social and economic development, political science, communication, knowledge management or international cooperation would be an asset 
• Working knowledge of Spanish/French would be an asset  

Eligibility 

To be considered for an internship with UNICEF, applicants must meet the following requirements:  

• Be enrolled in a degree programme in an undergraduate or graduate school, or be a recent graduate (within the last 2 years);  
• Have strong academic performance as demonstrated by recent university or institution records or, if not available, a reference letter from an academic supervisor;   
• Have no immediate relatives (e.g. father, mother, brother or sister) working in any UNICEF office; and  
• Have no other relatives in the line of authority which the intern will report to 

The selected candidate will be required to submit a certification of health insurance coverage for the whole internship duration. 

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability (CRITA), and sustainability

Please click Here to view UNICEF's core values and Here to view our competency framework.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to including everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff and interns, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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.

 Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.  Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). 

“UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”

• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
• There is no expectancy of employment at the end of this internship.