UN Women: Media Relations Intern

Background

UN Women 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.

Unit/ Project Background:

Media team / Communications & Advocacy / HQ

Learning Objectives:

1. Increased understanding of UN Women’s work and the UN system;

2. Improved understanding of internal workings of Communications & Advocacy division of UN Women;

3. Increased awareness of media relations, tracking and news data management;

3. Learning about the work of gender and humanitarian action in an international environment;

4. Meeting and networking with UN Women colleagues in other units;

5. Work as a team member in a multicultural setting.

Duties and Responsibilities

Description of Responsibilities & Learning Objectives:

• Provide support during the United Nations General Assembly which will take place in September as well as the 16 Days Campaign for the Elimination of Violence against Women in November 2017.
• Actively expand and maintain the media contact database
• Research and add media contacts to UN Women’s database, as well as updating existing contacts, as needed
• Support media outreach
• Keeping abreast of relevant news and UN Women activities or programmes in the field, suggesting topics for news or feature story coverage
• Develop ideas and write features for the website
• Research and support for media interviews and materials
• Fact-checking, analyzing, and drafting material for external communications
• This includes providing support in the production of communications materials such as factsheets and press releases
• Other tasks as requested by the Communications Team

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Respect for diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
• Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity. 

Core Competencies:

Accountability

• Held colleagues and team members accountable for planned goals and competency standards;
• Practiced giving and receiving constructive feedback.

Client Orientation

• Proactively informed clients, preventing loss of time and errors;
• Responded to questions, resolved problems, and helped provide accurate information to clients;
• Identified, understood, and addressed client needs.

Commitment to Learning

• Learned about agency, its processes, structure, challenges, and environment;
• Contributed to knowledge sharing.

Communication

• Produced communication products (written and oral);
• Interpreted key messages for and from clients with cultural sensitivity.

Planning and Organizing

• Developed work plans;
• Implemented activities in a timely manner, met deadlines.

Teambuilding

• Coordinated work and roles with other team members;
• Supported goals of the team;

• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

• Experience in communications, advocacy, public relations, journalism, media and press relations;
• Experience in not-for-profit communications and advocacy work;
• Keen interest in gender equality/ women’s issues;
• Proficiency in communications, teamwork, planning and organizing, creativity and technological awareness.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• The intern must have studied communications, journalism, public relations, media or any other similar subject at the master’s level;
• 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); or have graduated with a university degree and, if selected, must commence the internship within a one-year period of graduation.

Language:

• Fluent in spoken and written English (Spanish, Arabic or French is a plus)
• Excellent communication skills (written and oral) in English are required;

Interns are not financially remunerated by UN Women.

Application Information:

UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest;

Note:

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.

Application process:

Please email the following as ONE single document (print out the separate documents (if needed), and scan as one single PDF) in the following order:

1. Internship Programme Application Form [please do not hand-write the answers]
2. Resume
3. Cover letter
4. 2 writing samples (ideally of their own coverage of women’s issues/ or an example of a communications material you have drafted e.g. press release)
5. 2 letters of recommendation

Email this PDF to zina.alam@unwomen.org by July 08, 2017, 8pm EST.  

Once the candidate has been selected, the following additional documents need to be submitted:

• Letter of enrollment from school/ college
• Scanned visa document/scanned passport document if no visa is required
• Scanned medical insurance document

Note: Candidates are responsible for obtaining their own work permit for the United States of America.

UN Women Internship Policy:

• Applicants to the United Nations internship programme must at the time of application meet one of the following requirements:
• 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) or;
• Have graduated with a university degree (as above) and, if selected, must commence the internship within one year.
• UN Women internship programme does not provide a salary or remuneration for the internship;
• All the expenses connected with the internship will be borne by the intern, sponsoring Government or institution;
• UN Women accepts no responsibility for costs arising from accidents and/or illness or death incurred during the internship;
• The intern is responsible for obtaining necessary visas and arranging travel to and from the duty station where the internship will be performed;
• The intern must provide proof of enrollment in a health insurance plan, proof of school enrollment, a scanned copy of his/her passport, two letters of recommendation, and application.

Click here for important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders).