UN Women: Evaluation and Research Intern for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand

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. 

The mandate and functions of UN Women call for the promotion of organizational and UN system accountability on gender equality through evaluation, strengthening evaluation capacities and learning from evaluation, and developing systems to measure the results and impact of UN Women with its enhanced role at country, regional and global levels. The purpose and role of evaluation in UN Women is to enhance accountability, inform decision-making and contribute to learning on the best ways to achieve women’s empowerment and gender equality through operational and normative work.  

The UN Women Independent Evaluation Service (IES) of the Independent Evaluation and Audit and Investigation Services (IEAIS) serves as the custodian of the evaluation function in UN Women, in line with United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards. IES evaluates the work of UN women to enhance organizational accountability, provide evidence-based information for decision-making and to contribute to learning on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

As part of its ongoing work at the regional and global levels, IES is seeking the support of a qualified intern. This position is to support evaluative work led by the Regional Evaluation Specialist (RES) for Asia and the Pacific based in Bangkok, Thailand. 

UN Women carries out IES led independent Country Portfolio Evaluations (CPEs) and regional evaluations of strategic thematic issues and programmes and leads quality assurance of decentralized evaluations. All evaluations are quality-assured through the Global Evaluation Reports Assessment and Analysis System (GERAAS) and results are presented at the annual session of the Executive Board through the Annual Report on Evaluation. All evaluations are publicly available on the Global Accountability and Tracking of Evaluation (GATE) system along with their management responses. The IES also develops guidelines and methodologies to mainstream gender equality and human rights perspectives in evaluation. 

UN Women is the leading entity on gender-responsive evaluation and contributes to coherence on gender equality evaluation in the UN system by providing a repository of gender-related evaluations and ensuring the inclusion of a gender equality perspective in the work of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) and by coordinating the reporting on the Evaluation Indicator of the UN System-Wide Action Plan (UN-SWAP). 

Description of Responsibilities

The intern will be responsible for, but not limited to the following:

• Preparatory and research works for ongoing and upcoming evaluations:
  • Assist with relevant data collection and background research as well as the management of the repository of documents;
  • Assist with analysis of preliminary data and portfolio building;
  • Assist with identifying key documents and conducting stakeholder analysis; 
  • Assist with review of inception and draft reports for data accuracy;

• Assistance in updating and maintaining UN Women Evaluation database and knowledge management system, including the UN Women Evaluation management and tracking systems (GATE).

• Assistance in updating internal and external evaluation knowledge management system and in developing knowledge and/or communications products, such as presentations, briefs and other materials related to evaluation and/or evaluation functions.

• Assistance in gender-responsive evaluation capacity building and the development of GRE evaluation tool initiatives.

• Any other relevant tasks requested by the Independent Evaluation Service (IES)

Learning Objectives

• Learning about evaluation and implementation of gender equality programs in an international environment;
• Increased understanding of UN Women’s work and the UN system;
• Enhanced capacity for monitoring and evaluation of gender equality interventions and institutions;
• Meeting and networking with UN Women colleagues in other units and the broad UN community;
• Work 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/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies: 

• Research skills;
• Attention to detail;
• Capacity to manage and synthesize big amounts of information;
• Creativity and technological awareness.
• Ability to work in groups for data collection and project development;
• Trained, involved on/in M&E and RBM activities.

Qualifications

Education:

• University studies in one of the following disciplines: social science, gender issues, evaluation, political science, political economy, public administration or international development or other relevant subjects is required. 
• Meet one of the following: 

1. Be enrolled in a postgraduate degree programme (such as a master’s programme, or higher);
2. Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (such as bachelor’s degree or equivalent);
3. Be enrolled in a mandatory national service programme of which the internship may form a part;
4. 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: 

• Application letter explaining your interest and motivation for participating in the UN Women Internship Programme.
• Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.
• 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.)