Internship – Horizon Scanning (Accelerator Lab)  

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

UNDP works in about 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. We help countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to sustain development results.

UNDP is working to strengthen new frameworks for development, disaster risk reduction and climate change. We support countries’ efforts to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will guide global development priorities through 2030. The key 2030 Agenda principle of leaving no one behind and stamping out inequality is at the core of everything we do.

UNDP focuses on helping countries build and share solutions in three main areas:

• Sustainable development
• Democratic governance and peacebuilding
• Climate and disaster resilience

In all our activities, we encourage the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women, minorities and the poorest and most vulnerable.

INTERNSHIP OFFICE BACKGROUND:

In an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, UNDP has learnt not just to cope, but to anticipate emerging development issues and opportunities and to improve its solutions to be better-targeted. Through Accelerator Lab, these approaches are accelerated by integrated methodologies comprising of horizon scanning, solutions mapping and experimentation. The Lab also works with grassroots organizations and innovators for sense-making, testing and developing evidence-based solutions, as they understandthe complexities of their issues better than anyone else.

There are 60 Accelerator Labs across the globe which form the fastest development learning network. The labs collaborate and learn from each other to close the gap between the current practices of international development in an accelerated pace of change.

The intern will work under the guidance of Head of Exploration, with the team of Accelerator Lab Malaysia in implementing horizon scanning, collective intelligence and innovation methodologies as well as surfacing insights to help UNDP Country Office and development partners, such as the Government of Malaysia to prioritize most effective and durable SDG solutions. The internship is envisioned as contributions of new sources of evidence and insights which complements the whole-of-society efforts in Malaysia towards  achieving SDGs and Top 25 in Human Development Index within the next 10 years.

In this work the intern and the Lab team work closely with thematic policy and programmatic pillars in the UNDP Country Office: 1) Inclusive Growth and Prosperity 2) Governance 3) Nature, Climate and Energy as well as cross-cutting functions such as Gender, Monitoring and Evaluation and SDG Finance.

INTERNSHIP CONDITIONS

• UNDP will provide a stipend in the amount of RM637.50 monthly in accordance with the provisions of the UNDP Internship policy. All expenses connected with the internship will be borne by the intern or her/his sponsoring entity;
• UNDP accepts no responsibility for costs arising from accidents and/or illness or death incurred during the internship;
• Interns are responsible for obtaining necessary visas and arranging travel to and from the duty station where the internship will be performed;
• Interns are not eligible to apply for, or be appointed to, any post in UNDP during the period of the internship;
• Interns must provide proof of enrolment in health insurance plan;
• Interns are not staff members and may not represent UNDP in any official capacity;
• Interns are expected to work full time but flexibility is allowed for education programmes;
• Interns need to obtain financing for subsistence and make own arrangements for internship, travel, VISA, accommodation, etc.

Duties and responsibilities

1

Horizon Scanning and Collective Intelligence

• Identify, visualize and communicate emerging development trends, data, technologies and issues with a particular focus on the edges and “below the radar”
• Work collaboratively in tapping into new sources of evidence and insights, analyze and visualize patterns in unstructured sources of data
• Explore partnerships with private, civil societies, media and local communities as new data sources for UNDP’s development work
• Assist in develop a structured and accessible horizon scanning system that can be integrated into the current way of work and decision-making

2

Innovation and Participatory Practices

• Support in implementing design-thinking, innovation and participatory practices in Country Office and development partners
• Assist in documenting lessons learnt and what’s work for innovation playbook

3

Program and Project Support

• Assist in event management, liaison with data providers and logistics 
• Support other program and projects as deemed relevant and necessary
• Share findings in blogs, newsletters, internal learning events and documentation

COMPETENCIES

• Interest and motivation to be the next generation of development practitioners;
• Strong curiosity and openness to work in interdisciplinary team;
• Creativity in sourcing and consolidating data while addressing biases and ethical consideration;
• Experience in working on-the-ground with local communities including indigenous communities;
• Outgoing and proactive, initiative-taking person with a goal oriented mind-set;
• Communicates effectively when working in teams and independently;
• Good in organizing and structuring various tasks and responsibilities;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Responds positively to feedback and differing points of view;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Data and information literacy skills;
• Familiarity with machine learning, social media analytics and sentiment analysis is an advantage.
• For those without data or analytics background, familiarity with participatory and ethnography approaches is an advantage

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Candidates must meet one of the following educational requirements:

• currently in the final year of a Bachelor’s degree; or
• currently enrolled in a Master’s degree; or
• have graduated no longer than 1 year ago from a bachelor’s or master’s degree or equivalent studies; or
• enrolled in a postgraduate professional traineeship programme and undertake the internship as part of this programme.

Field of study: All academic backgrounds welcome, but preference will be given to candidates with interdisciplinary experience, e.g.rural development, social sciences, data science, journalism, knowledge management, economics or equivalent.

Language skills:

• Working competencies of Bahasa Malaysia and English is required;
• Other Malaysian languages e.g: Chinese,Tamil or indigenous language such as Iban, Semai and Kadazan-Dusun is an advantage;
• Knowledge of other UN languages is an advantage.

IT skills:

• Knowledge and proficient use of Microsoft Office productivity tools is required;
• Knowledge and use of analytics tools, including Tableau, Power BI, R, Stata, etc., is preferred.

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