Youth Empowerment and Engagement Associate

UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency whose mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.

The International Youth UN Volunteer will support the UNFPA Namibia Country Office in advancing national priorities on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH), youth empowerment, and gender equality, in line with UNFPA’s 2025–2029 programme framework. Namibia’s youthful population presents both an opportunity and a responsibility to ensure that adolescents and young people especially those furthest behind are meaningfully engaged, empowered, and able to exercise their sexual and reproductive health and rights. The UN Volunteer will contribute to the implementation of UNFPA-supported ASRH and youth programmes, with a particular focus on youth engagement, participation, and advocacy. This includes supporting youth-led initiatives, strengthening platforms such as the Youth Advisory Panel, and amplifying young people’s voices in policy dialogue, programme design, and accountability mechanisms. The UN Volunteer will also collaborate closely with other UN agencies, government counterparts, and partners to support innovative, integrated solutions that link SRHR, gender equality, HIV prevention, and youth economic empowerment.

Under the direct supervision of the Adolescents and Sexual and Reproductive Programme Analyst, with oversight support of the Assistant Representative and overall guidance of the Representative, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:
• Contribute to the development and implementation of the annual work plan for Adolescent and Youth programmes as a learning opportunity, for strong integration and coherence with related programme areas, including gender, data and other cross-cutting UNFPA outputs.
• Support the coordination and management of the Youth Advisory Panel (YAP) by assisting to organize regular meetings, to develop annual work plans, document recommendations, and assist with structured follow-up with UNFPA programme teams and government counterparts at national and regional to learn the principles of youth-led advocacy and inter-agency follow-ups.
• Support the development and distribution of information, education, and communication (IEC) materials on ASRH, GBV, and mental health to gain exposure to social behavioral change communication (SBCC) strategies.
• Serve as the junior focal point for coordination and communication with the Embassy of Japan, under the guidance of the supervisor and in consultation with management to learn the protocols of diplomatic correspondence and donor relations management.
• Assist with youth economic empowerment initiatives by supporting the integration of financial literacy, asset-building, entrepreneurship, and employability components into SRHR and GBV prevention programmes, in collaboration with government ministries, CSOs, financial institutions, and development partners to learn the health/economic nexus.
• Contribute to risk reduction, enhanced preparedness and strengthened emergency response with focus on linkages between climate related emergencies and SRHR, GBV and other harmful practices to understand international agency's role in humanitarian setting.
• Support with the drafting and reviewing of reports and capturing of results, documentation of best practices and lessons learned, learning the results-based management approach.