UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture.., coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, [insert tagline] for every child, the right to innovate.

UNICEF has a 70-year history of innovating for children. We believe that new approaches, partnerships and technologies that support realizing children’s rights are critical to improving their lives.

The Office of Innovation is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the start-up thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions.

UNICEF's Office of Innovation creates opportunities for the world's children by focusing on where new markets can meet their vital needs. We do this by:

• Connecting youth communities (or more broadly -- anyone disconnected or under-served) to decision-makers, and to each other, to deliver informed, relevant and sustained programmes that build better, stronger futures for children.
• Provoking change for children through an entrepreneurial approach -- in a traditionally risk averse field -- to harness rapidly moving innovations and apply them to serve the needs of all children.
• Creating new models of partnership that leverage core business values across the public, private and academic sectors in order to deliver fast, and lasting results for children. The Office of Innovation specifically looks to form partnerships around frontier technologies (like drones and UAVs, blockchain, 21st century skills, urban technologies, new banking tools, wearables and sensors, or 3D-Printing) that exist at the intersection of $100 billion business markets and 1 billion person needs – and to identify how they can grow and scale profitably and inclusively.

We're an interdisciplinary team around the world tasked with identifying, prototyping, and scaling new technologies and practices. With our partners, we focus on convening and collaborating on new and different solutions, low- and high-tech, by:

• Looking at the 2-5 year horizon to evaluate emerging and trending technologies and to see how UNICEF can work with the private sector on doing better business while improving essential services for children;
• Investing in early stage solutions that show great potential to positively impact children in the 02 year future including the Venture Fund that invests in open source technology solutions from start-ups based in UNICEF’s programme countries;
• Identifying proven solutions that can be implemented at national scale in multiple countries – taking the ideas that help thousands in one country, bringing them to dozens of countries across multiple sectors, and impacting the lives of millions of children.

About the UNICEF Venture Fund, Funds and Financing

Established in 2015, the UNICEF Venture Fund has been specifically designed to finance early stage, open-source technology that can benefit children. The core motivation of the Venture Fund is to identify "clusters" or portfolios of initiatives around emerging technology - so that UNICEF can both shape markets and also learn about and guide these technologies to benefit children. We invest in solutions that can impact the lives of the most vulnerable children.

We find these solutions clustered around $100 billion industries in frontier technology spaces, such as: UAVs, virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, nano-satellites, and human dynamics. The Venture Fund is scaling its investment portfolio with the aim of investing in 20 start-ups every year and provides funding to CO-led projects. The current portfolio of companies consists of several cohorts developing and piloting solutions in virtual and augmented reality, data science and artificial intelligence, blockchain, UAVs, IoT, and in assistive technology.

How can you make a difference? 

The Venture Fund intern will work directly with the Venture Fund team to support the Fund’s mission to identify, invest and learn from early-stage, open-source technology solutions that can improve outcomes for children and communities. The purpose of the internship is to provide practical support across one or more core Venture Fund workstreams, including startup sourcing and due diligence, knowledge generation, resource mobilization, portfolio management and country office engagement. Through this role, the intern will help strengthen the Fund’s ability to identify promising frontier technology solutions, communicate insights from the portfolio, and support engagement with UNICEF Country Offices and partners, while applying relevant academic knowledge and developing professional skills in innovation, research, analysis and communications.

Expected Deliverables

Working under the guidance of the supervisor and in collaboration with Venture Fund team members, the intern will be expected to:

• Support startup sourcing and due diligence by helping market scoping, review company applications, prepare evaluation notes, maintain sourcing pipeline trackers and generate call specific insights.
• Support the development, updating and organization of knowledge materials, including briefs, slide decks, website content and other knowledge products for the Venture Fund.
• Contribute to the preparation of resource mobilization materials, including briefing notes, slides, case studies and other materials that communicate the value and results of the Venture Fund.
• Support portfolio management for Venture Fund cohorts by helping maintain workplan trackers, organize portfolio information and prepare updates for internal use.
• Support country office engagement by helping maintain engagement trackers, prepare meeting summaries and contribute to outreach and follow-up materials.
• Support strategic projects and initiatives across the Office of Innovation, particularly those focused on identifying pathways for promising solutions to move from pilot to scale in collaboration with UNICEF country offices, partners and relevant teams. 

This internship would provide an opportunity to learn:

• In depth knowledge about global development challenges, how they are impacting children, and how UNICEF is innovating in response.
• Develop writing and editing skills through developing knowledge materials (i.e. briefs, insight articles, investment cases, case studies, etc.).
• Advance data analytics skills through database management, production of data summaries using Excel, PowerBI and other tools.
• Gaining experience working with an expert group of innovation professionals, including colleagues working across UNICEF’s Office of Innovation.
• Strengthened communication skills by consulting with various professionals across the organization and preparing relevant materials for these exchanges.

If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:  Venture Fund Intern_TOR.docx

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

Requirements/Educational Background

• Be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree programme, or have graduated within the past two years. Relevant academic areas include Social and Economic Development, Business Administration, Political Science, Economics, Innovation, Public Administration, or other related fields.
• Strong organizational and time-management skills.
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate effectively in a diverse and multicultural work environment.
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft 365 tools, such as SharePoint, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams.

Desirable/Asset

• Previous experience in the private or public sector
• Experience in working in an emerging economy/programme country 
• Previous academic, volunteer or professional exposure to innovation-related work 

The candidate must show commitment to the UNICEF core values of care, respect, integrity, trust, accountability and sustainability. For more information on UNICEF core values, click here.

Languages

Excellence in both written and spoken English is required and essential.

Proficiency in any other UN languages is an asset (French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese).

 

Conditions

• Age: Interns must be at least 18 years
• Have good academic performance as demonstrated by recent university or institution records.
• Have no immediate relatives (e.g. father, mother, brother, sister) working in any UNICEF office.
• Have no other relatives in the line of authority which the intern will report to.
• Individuals must have proof of medical insurance covering the time and location of their internship.
• Ability to engage in this internship on a part-time basis.
• Individuals are expected to provide their own laptop and access to internet connection.
• Selected candidates will receive a monthly stipend (unless already in receipt of any support for the internship from a third party).
• Individuals must fund their own travel and living expenses.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF provides reasonable accommodation throughout the recruitment process. If you require any accommodation, please submit your request through the accessibility email button on the UNICEF Careers webpage Accessibility | UNICEF. Should you be shortlisted, please get in touch with the recruiter directly to share further details, enabling us to make the necessary arrangements in advance.

UNICEF does not hire candidates who are married to children (persons under 18). UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination based on gender, nationality, age, race, sexual orientation, religious or ethnic background or disabilities. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. 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, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station is required for IP positions and will be facilitated by UNICEF. Appointments are conditional on the selected candidates’ willingness to comply with current or future vaccination requirements, should UNICEF mandate it for personnel.
Failure to comply with such requirements, where applicable and without a duly approved medical exemption from the relevant UN authority, will result in the cancellation of the selection or may lead to other administrative measures, including separation from service

Remarks:

As per Article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity.

UNICEF 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.

Government employees who are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government positions before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason. 

UNICEF does not charge a processing fee at any stage of its recruitment, selection, and hiring processes (i.e., application stage, interview stage, validation stage, or appointment and training). UNICEF will not ask for applicants’ bank account information.

All UNICEF positions are advertised, and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. An internal candidate performing at the level of the post in the relevant functional area, or an internal/external candidate in the corresponding Talent Group, may be selected, if suitable for the post, without assessment of other candidates.

Additional information about working for UNICEF can be found here.

Employment: There is no expectancy of employment at the end of the internship.