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.

A key area of concern for UN Women is women’s economic empowerment (WEE) as expressed in UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 as well as in the targets and indicators of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 for gender equality and women’s empowerment and of several other SDGs relating to inclusive growth, decent work, ending poverty, and reducing inequality, and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development. Aligned with the global SP (2022-2025), the ROAP SN (2023-2025) will focus on six SP cross-thematic outcomes to drive results across the ROAP’s thematic areas i.e., Inclusive governance, Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG), Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE), Women Peace and Security (WPS), Climate Change, Humanitarian Action (HA) and DRR. It will also seek to enhance key areas of expertise in response to demand from country presences in the areas of economic planning, climate change and Knowledge Management (KM). Further, the ROAP’s thematic and functional activities will be geared towards effective and targeted support for country presences.

The work of UN Women is based on a triple mandate: A normative mandate to support the formulation of global and regional standards and norms for gender equality; an operational mandate to support UN member states in implementing these standards; and finally, a mandate to coordinate the UN system’s efforts to deliver on its gender equality commitment.

The Women’s Economic Empowerment & Migration at the Regional Office for the Asia Pacific operates with the key overarching objective: Women have income security, decent work, and economic autonomy as articulated in the SN ROAP Women’s Economic Empowerment & Migration: 2023-2025. The WEE portfolio is expanding focusing on the four key strategic priorities:

1. Advancing Gender-Responsive Business Conduct and Creating More Decent Work Opportunities (WEPs)
2. Transforming the Care Economy
3. Accelerating Gender-Responsive Entrepreneurship for (M)SMEs (i.e. Gender-Responsive Procurement, Women’s entrepreneurship etc.)
4. Progressing Safe Migration to Decent Employment

These thematic areas are not operating in isolation and are strongly inter-connected and under-pinned by cross-cutting principles, such as: sector-agnostic work (across the Green & Blue -, care, fintech and digital economy); embracing an intersectional and conscious social norms lens into programming, and nexus to thematic areas such as Climate Change, Ending Violence Against Women, Humanitarian and Women Peace and Security (WPS).

Next to the Regional Office’s key responsibility to provide technical support and strengthen capacity at country office level in Asia and the Pacific, the RO also leads a range of multi-country programmes and initiatives, such as for example but not exclusive to the ‘WE RISE Together’, a project for advancing gender-responsive procurement in the Mekong subregion; the ‘Gender-Inclusive Care Entrepreneurship Project (GICEEP)’ and the upcoming project on advancing Women Entrepreneurs in Climate Tech in ASEAN.

The increased importance of Women’s Economic Empowerment across the region and the numerous RO-led WEE initiatives has resulted in an increased demand for the Regional Office in Asia Pacific (ROAP) to expand and strengthen its work on its normative mandate, to ensure gender-responsive laws and policies for women’s economic empowerment in a manner that is closely aligned with WEE ROAP programmes and results frameworks. This includes a growing need for research and knowledge production for the region. The Intern will act as an important support in the production of a knowledge product aimed at mapping available gender data to monitor wee-relevant indicators in the region.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide support in conducting statistical analysis of internationally agreed gender indicators for selected countries in Asia and the Pacific, including preparing and cleaning data files for analysis and undertaking initial data analysis of selected indicators;
• Preparation of figures and tables using excel;
• Conducting preliminary research and drafting case studies on key topics in the areas of women economic empowerment and care;
• General project and management support, including scheduling meetings, note-taking, fact-checking, and documentation.

After completing this internship, the Intern will have:

• Increased understanding of UN Women’s work and the UN system in Asia and the Pacific;
• Increased substantive knowledge of gender equality and women economic empowerment work in the Asia Pacific Region;
• Increased work experience in gender statistics, SDGs monitoring and report drafting;
• Increased knowledge related to programme implementation, documentation and management;
• Experience of working as a team member in a multicultural setting.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

Functional Competencies: 

• Research, data analysis and visualization, writing, and organizational skills;
• Attention to detail;
• Ability to produce high-quality deliverables in a timely manner;
• Capacity to manage and synthesize big amounts of information and data;
• Creativity and technological awareness;
• Ability to work in teams.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• University studies in one of the following disciplines: Statistics, Economics, Applied development studies or other relevant subjects is required.
• Meet one of the following:
  • Be enrolled in a postgraduate degree programme (such as a master’s programme, or higher);
  • Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (such as bachelor’s degree or equivalent);
  • Be enrolled in a mandatory national service programme of which the internship may form a part;
  • Have recently graduated with a university degree (as defined in (a) and (b) above) and, if selected, must start the internship within two-years of graduation.

Language:

• Excellent communication skills (written and oral) in English are required;
• Working knowledge of another UN language is an advantage.

Renumeration:

Interns who are not in receipt of financial support from other sources such as universities or other institutions will receive a stipend from UN Women to partially subsidize their basic living costs for the duration of the internship.

Application Information: 

• All applicants must submit a completed and signed P.11 form with their application.
• Due to the high volume of applications received, UN Women can ONLY contact successful candidates.
• The successful candidate will be required to provide proof of enrollment in a valid health insurance plan at the duty station of the internship, proof of school enrollment or degree, a scanned copy of their passport/national ID and a copy of a valid visa (as applicable).

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.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination.  All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)