UN Women is the global champion for gender equality, working to develop and uphold standards and create an environment in which every woman and girl can exercise her human rights and live up to her full potential. We are hiring a Women’s Economic Empowerment Intern in Abuja.

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.

UN Women’s office in Nigeria works to advance implementation of the Agency’s normative, operational and coordination mandate, in close partnership with the Government of Nigeria, the United Nations Country Team and civil society organizations. The UN Women Nigeria Country Office prioritizes women’s economic empowerment as one of its core programmatic areas of focus. UN women’s efforts to enhance women’s economic empowerment in the recent past has include support to women entrepreneurs in ICT, facilitating women’s financial inclusion through partnership with Mastercard, and supporting women IDPs in conflict-affected areas in the North-East of Nigeria to re-engage in agricultural activities.

UN Women has initiated a dynamic women’s economic empowerment programme, addressed to two key areas of intervention: empowerment of women in the agricultural sector and promoting access by women-owned businesses to affirmative procurement opportunities. Both initiatives are in furtherance of the Government of Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and will be implemented in partnership with other UN agencies, women’s agricultural cooperatives and business networks.
Within an aim to support the implementation and expansion of UN Women’s work in this sector the Nigeria Country Office is seeking to engage an innovative, outstanding and committed intern, working under the supervision of the Programme Manager-Women’s Economic Empowerment. The intern will assist in interventions related to promoting gender-sensitive procurement and women entrepreneurs’ access to public procurement; as well as implementation of the flagship programme on Women’s Economic Empowerment through agribusiness, in collaboration with other UN Partners.

Duties and Responsibilities

Learning Objective:

• Develop an understanding of UN Women’s work and the UN system.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Assist in the organization of a multi-stakeholder dialogues and policy discussions on women’s economic empowerment
• Support research and data gathering and assist in the preparation of briefing notes on women’s economic empowerment
• Provide support for the review of institutions providing trainings on procurement, as well as procurement training packages available to Government procurement officers
• Assist in the conduct of advocacy dialogue and outreach interventions to expand partnerships for UN Women’s programme interventions on the area of women’s economic empowerment
• Assist in writing meeting minutes, mission and training reports
• Facilitate the documentation of human-interest stories and best practices
• Participate in inter-agency and partnership coordination meetings
• Monitor the implementation of Women’s Economic Empowerment projects

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

Integrity

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
• Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Development and Innovation

• Take charge of self-development and take initiative.

Work in teams

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards other.

Conflict Management

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making

• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

• Work and drive progress both in teams and independently;
• Have an analytical and methodological mindset;
• Understand the nature of development programme work and what development results are;
• Knowledge of results-based management;
• Be a self-starter and work in a structured and organized way;
• Advanced user in basic computer programmes (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher etc)

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• The intern must have completed university studies (minimum Bachelor's level or equivalent) or be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme in Economics, Development Finance studies, Gender studies, International Development, Procurement, Public Policy or related study areas
• Be enrolled in a graduate-school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher);
• Have graduated with a university degree and, if selected, must commence the internship within a one-year period of graduation.

Language:

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

Interns are not financially remunerated by UN Women

Application Information:

• UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest;
• Selected applicants must provide the internship application, two letters of recommendation, proof of health insurance and school enrollment, passport, and visa (if applicable)