Internship Programme at the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) of the United Nations system in Geneva

The JIU, the only independent external oversight body of the United Nations system mandated to conduct evaluations, inspections and investigations system-wide, is currently accepting applications for Research internships with the Unit from candidates who can intern for six months (minimum: 3-4 months) and a maximum of six months (preferable) from mid-January 2014 onwards. Candidates interested in interning a later late will also be consider as the JIU accepts applications on a year round rolling basis.

For more information on the JIU, including access to all reports published by the Unit please visit www.unjiu.org
For more information on the JIU internship programme, please visit www.unjiu.org/en/get-involved/Pages/Internships.aspx

Description of general internship duties:
Interns at the JIU are assigned to one or two review teams and work under the direct supervision of the Evaluation and Inspection Officer(s) and under the overall guidance of the Inspector(s) in charge of the review. They are expected to perform tasks similar to those required from a research assistant, including in-depth desk research and analysis, data collection, assisting in the preparation of inception papers, contributing to the design of questionnaires and interview guides, organizing and analyzing responses and other supplementary information received from 25 + UN entities who are participating organizations of the JIU and preparing the relevant tables, graphs and charts, participating in interviews and video-conferences as note-takers and assisting in preparing the relevant minutes, contributing to the logistics required to organize missions and interviews within the context of the project and assisting in all tasks related to the drafting and finalization of the report.

General requirements + conditions of the JIU internship program:

• Candidates must be enrolled in a graduate (masters or doctoral) degree program during the duration of their internship (no exceptions will be made); candidates who have already graduated should not apply
• Advanced qualitative and quantitative desk (web-based) research skills, preferably at the graduate level;
• Excellent drafting and editing skills in English; knowledge of French is a plus.
• As per UN Secretariat policy, all internships are unpaid and no benefits are provided whatsoever;
• Interns must be willing to commit full-time (40 hours a week) for the entire duration of their internship. Regular work hours are 9am-6pm Monday-Friday;
• All materials to which interns have access to during the course of their internship is treated as confidential and cannot be shared outside the JIU; subsequently, interns cannot base their Masters/Doctoral thesis on topics that they had worked on as part of their JIU Internship; nor can they use information received for personal publications, blogs etc.

All incoming interns are issued with a Terms of Reference prior to the start of their internship that outlines their specific work responsibilities.

How to Apply
Interested candidates should email the following documents and information to the JIU’s internship coordinator:

1.  A completed copy of the JIU internship application which can be downloaded from the following webpage: https://www.unjiu.org/en/get-involved/Pages/Internships.aspx
2. A sample research paper on any topic drafted in English as part of undergraduate or graduate coursework (not a collective group paper nor one edited by someone else).
3. The exact period for the candidate is available to intern i.e. starting date and end date (keeping in mind the minimum time commitment requirement);
4. Current contact information (phone, email) including skype id name in case the candidate is selected for an interview. The abovementioned documents should be emailed to:  nchowdhury@unog.ch and aduquesne@unog.ch

Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Thank You!

Written by Daren Cooper