UN University Volunteer to support Digital Transformation Team

Details

Mission and objectives

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is the Secretariat Department responsible for strengthening international human rights mechanisms; enhancing equality and countering discrimination; combating impunity and strengthening accountability and the rule of law; integrating human rights in development and in the economic sphere; widening the democratic space; and early warning and protection of human rights in situations of conflict, violence and insecurity.

Context

The UN Volunteer will be working within the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) at its headquarters in Geneva. OHCHR is the UN organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide. The assignment is located in the Council, Treaty and Mechanisms Division (CTMD) of OHCHR. OHCHR is currently embarking on a Digital Transformation initiative. The UN Volunteer will be working with the Digital Transformation project team, a dynamic and interdisciplinary unit that focuses on developing digital services for human rights stakeholders. The current priority of the team is to enhance the work of the human rights mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council, its subsidiary bodies, and Treaty Bodies. The project seeks to improve access to the human rights mechanisms for all stakeholders by enhancing the quality and accessibility of digital services. It also aims to improve the efficiency of internal procedures, including to ensure faster processing of complaints about human rights violations and other submissions from external actors. Enhancing knowledge management across organizational units and providing more accessible and up-to-date information about human rights mechanisms to the public are other key objectives of the initiative. To achieve these goals, the team engages directly with all relevant stakeholders, including secretariat staff, independent experts, civil society organizations, and State representatives. The team applies a diverse array of agile working methods to identify needs, document procedures, and develop user-friendly digital applications. This UNV assignment is offered in the context of a programme bringing qualified candidates from the developing economies to volunteer with OHCHR. Candidates from developing economies in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa are encouraged to apply. The expected starting date of this assignment is 01.07.2023 and until 31.12.2023 with no possibility of extension. Please, note that this UN University Volunteer assignment is limited to a maximum duration of 6 months. Applicants are encouraged to apply for this position if it relates directly to their studies, expertise and/or skills. You can explain why you are a suitable candidate for this OHCHR assignment while applying. Applicants will have to meet the age-related requirements for University UNVs, i.e., 18-26 years during the entire duration of the assignment. Foreign nationals who are residing in Switzerland at the time of their recruitment will not be considered “international” and as such would not be considered eligible for the any mentioned UNV assignment types in Geneva. UN University Volunteer assignments are always without family.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Programme Management Officer, the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks: • Support the Digital Transformation project team in the preparation and documentation of meetings with staff, civil society, independent experts, State representatives and other stakeholders, with a focus on needs and requirements for digital services. • Participate in the design and development of digital services and tools, including the collaborative development of mock-ups and prototypes, using a variety of digital tools. • Contribute to user experience design and graphic design tasks to improve the accessibility, user-friendliness, and aesthetics of digital platforms. • Contribute to ongoing projects with process analysis and design, requirement documentation, copywriting, data cleaning and data analysis tasks. • Support the team in developing guidance and training materials for internal and external audiences related to digital services. • Support the team in gathering and analysing feedback on digital services throughout different stages of the development process. • Provide overall support to the team, including administrative tasks and project coordination, while fostering strong working relationships. Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to: • Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities; • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible. Results/Expected Outputs: The UN Volunteer will contribute to the following outputs: • An accessible and user-friendly public submission portal for individual complaints to the UN Human Rights Mechanisms; • An efficient and user-friendly internal case management system for individual complaints submitted to the UN Human Rights Mechanisms; • A digital tool to track the implementation of recommendations by UN Human Rights Mechanisms for State representatives and other stakeholders; • A digital session management system for UN Human Rights Mechanisms; • Enhancements to various OHCHR public websites providing information on the UN Human Rights Mechanisms.