Intership
The UNV Internship Programme has been established by UNV to give interns the opportunity to be involved in projects and activities at the field level and thus directly interact with the local development actors and beneficiaries. By being directly involved in various local initiatives, the UNV Interns contribute to the host country's overall development, while gaining a better understanding of the realities of international development cooperation through practical experience.
Executed by UNV, the Internship Programme is funded by several participating donor countries. Launched in 2001 in partnership with the Italian Government, the Programme has gradually been expanded and now also includes Switzerland, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Belgium as donor countries.
In line with UNV's mandate to promote volunteerism for development, with special attention to youth participation, the main objective of the UNV Internship Programme is to provide fresh university graduates - up to 30 years old - with the opportunity to volunteer for development cooperation in their respective fields of specialization. This would expose them to development realities in foreign socio-economic and political set-ups which would in turn enhance their professional as well as life skills.
Assignment under this Programme is for twelve months. UNV Interns are deployed in response to requests from target countries mainly with UN agencies. Their placement gives priority to thematic areas agreed upon with the participating donor countries - including e.g. poverty eradication; governance and human rights; gender in development; conflict prevention and management; environment; social development; livelihoods; ICT; programme management; etc.
Every year a call for requests for UNV Interns is sent out to potential partners by the individual UNV Country Offices. Through UNV Headquarters in Bonn the requests are then submitted to the various donor countries which subsequently decide on which requests to support. The donor countries also advertise the available posts in their respective countries, which mean that the UNV Internships are only available for nationals of the participating donor countries. The final selection of candidates is conducted in cooperation between the requesting UN agencies and the local UNV Country Offices in the target countries, and all selected interns undergo a special briefing session at UNV HQ in Bonn before travelling to their duty stations.