Youth Engagement Officer

UNDP’s mandate is to end poverty, build democratic governance, rule of law, and inclusive institutions. We advocate for change, and connect countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has partnered with Bangladesh ever since its birth and through its remarkable journey from a war-ravaged economy to a middle-income country. It remains a catalyst in Bangladesh’s journey from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. UNDP assists in building institutions and helps strengthen institutional capacities through people-centric, pro-poor, inclusive and sustainable policy making and development governance.

Young people today make up the largest youth population in history – a fourth of the global population and the majority live in the developing world. Globally more than 267 million young people were not in employment, education or training (NEET), including almost 68 million unemployed young people.

With a strong track record of economic growth and development, Bangladesh is poised to become one of the fastest growing economies in South Asia. Despite its tremendous economic progress, however, Bangladesh still has much to do in terms of youth economic empowerment. Bangladesh is currently experiencing its demographic dividend and having more than 52 million people below the age of 30 – which is over 40% of the country’s total population. It is also estimated that every year around 2 million youths are newly joining the labour force in the country. According to a 2022 report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the youth unemployment rate in Bangladesh currently stands at 10.6%, more than twice the overall national unemployment rate of 4.2%. Not only is there a lack of ample employment opportunities, but also a divide between the job market and curriculum in educational institutions, culminating to a significant mismatch in youth skills.

In alignment with the country context, UNDP Bangladesh’s CPD (2022-2026) emphasizes the need for capitalizing on the country’s short window of demographic dividend, and the need to support the youth population achieve their potential and contribute to achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. With the 2030 Agenda as a guiding thread, UNDP Bangladesh works across three important tenets- to advance young people’s participation in civic and political life, their economic empowerment, and their role as peace- and resilience-builders. Aligning with the first strategic priority of United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Development, UNDP Bangladesh has undertaken multiple initiatives for the economic empowerment of youth. With multiple projects focusing on youth employment, skills and entrepreneurship development as an important area of intervention, UNDP has been striving to enable partnerships among public, private, and development sectors for creating new scope of employment, empowering youth through skill and capacity building intervention, along with supporting the local youth startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

In addition, UNDP further focuses on equipping young people with civic knowledge and skills by promoting responsible citizenship through trainings, workshops and targeted campaigns.

At the given outset, UNDP Bangladesh is looking for young talent with passion to contribute to youth empowerment focused on civic participation, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Through knowledge creation, project management and communications, the incumbent talent will have the opportunity to contribute to UNDP Bangladesh’s endeavours to create an inclusive and enabling environment for youth to thrive.

Under the direct supervision of Youth Empowerment Analyst, the UN National Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

A) Support the design and implementation of a nationwide engagement and collaboration mechanism between youth and policy makers:

• Assist in conducting a rapid assessment to gather insights into key issues from youth perspectives and their aspirations for the future of Bangladesh.
• Analyze current tools and structures for youth dialogue, assessing their outreach and effectiveness in facilitating youth participation in decision-making processes.
• Organize and facilitate consultations and dialogues with young people to ensure their voices are integrated into decision-making platforms.
• Engage with government agencies, UN agencies, civil society organizations, and youth groups to promote a collaborative approach for improving youth participation and engagement.

B) Strategic Planning and Implementation:

• Support the development of a comprehensive UNDP youth engagement strategy aligned with UNDP Bangladesh’s development priorities and the UNSDCF (2022-2026), and support its’ implementation through youth-related projects.
• Assist in identifying key areas for youth engagement across UNDP’s strategic priority areas and integrate youth-focused activities into relevant projects.
• Coordinate with UNDP’s program teams to ensure the integration of youth engagement strategies as a priority into broader project activities.

C) Support the implementation of youth empowerment activities

• Assist the implementation of UNDP youth activities.
• Support in drafting TORs, session plan and concept note required for the implementation of planned activities.
• Assist to organize thematic national level dialogues, workshops, conference and innovation challenges targeting development of youth.
• Assist to monitor to the progress of the planned works and generate progress report.

D) Knowledge Management, Communication and Report Writing

• Proactively contribute to knowledge management by preparing briefing notes, meeting documentation, newsletter to help advance the youth engagement work through regular communication and information sharing.
• Assist in drafting briefing notes, policy briefs, talking points, funding proposals and presentations.
• Support to prepare content to promote the activities in social media.
• Contribute to event reports and annual report of the youth focused programmes.

E) Perform other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

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 in-stance 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.