Internships (Advocacy Communication), Education Cannot Wait (ECW), Hosted Fund, New York, 6 months, REQ#580449

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. 

For every child, hope.

The UNICEF Internship Programme offers qualified and eligible students at both Headquarters (HQ) the unique opportunity to acquire direct practical experience in UNICEF's work and the United Nations system under the direct supervision of experienced UNICEF staff.

This internship is to be completed with Education Cannot Wait (ECW), which is a UNICEF-hosted fund. The selected intern will be joining the ECW Secretariat Advocacy and Communications team.

How can you make a difference? 

Education Cannot Wait (ECW) is the United Nations global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises. We support quality education outcomes for refugee, internally displaced and other crisis-affected girls, and boys, so no one is left behind. ECW works through the multilateral system to both increase the speed of responses in crises and connect immediate relief and longer-term interventions through multi-year programming. ECW works in close partnership with governments, public and private donors, UN agencies, civil society organizations, and other humanitarian and development aid actors to increase efficiencies and end siloed responses. ECW urgently appeals to public and private sector donors for expanded support to reach even more vulnerable children and youth. ECW is administered under UNICEF’s financial, human resources and administrative rules and regulations; operations are run by the Fund’s own independent governance structure.

Under the overall guidance of the Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and the direct supervision of the Chief, Advocacy/Communications, the selected intern(s) will provide professional advocacy and communication support to ECW’s Advocacy & Communications Section, to support the development and implementation of the Education Cannot Wait (ECW) strategic plan.

Main duties

• Support ECW’s Chief, Advocacy/Communications, and the ECW Advocacy/Communications team in preparing human impact stories, social media assets, infographics, presentations, fact sheets, blogs, and advocacy material.
• Collect, analyze, verify and synthesize information to facilitate advocacy and communication external outreach, development, design and preparation.
• Prepare inputs and draft Communications and Advocacy material, and review documentation and reports, ensuring accuracy, timeliness and relevancy of information.
• Support ECW global campaigns and major high-level events, with relevant donors, governments and partners, such as the Right Here Right Now, Share Their Voices and Postcards from the Edge Campaign.
• Support ECW’s digital platforms in terms of content uploading and content creation, monitoring and analytics.
• Support uploading contents to the ECW photo and video library.
• Expand ECW contacts lists via Cision, mailchimp and internal databases.
• Identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned for knowledge development in the area of Advocacy and Communications.
• Support monthly analytics reporting for social, earned media and website.
• Apply innovative approaches and promote good practice to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable Advocacy and Communications approaches.
• Research, benchmark and report on the best and cutting-edge practices for advocacy, communications and external relations.

Eligibility Requirements

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

• Be enrolled in a degree programme in an undergraduate or graduate school or have graduated within the past two years.
• Have an academic background in any of the following:
  o Communications.
  o Public Relations.
  o Marketing.
  o Advocacy.
• Be at least 18 years old at the time of application.
• Be proficient in English (speaking, writing & reading) up to the highest standard.
• Have excellent academic performance as demonstrated by university records.
• Have no immediate relatives (e.g. father, mother, brother, sister) working in any UNICEF office or in the ECW Secretariat.
• Are not disqualified under the UNICEF Child Safeguarding Personnel Standards (DHR/STANDARDS/2019/001), or as amended..