Internship - Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis (Voices for Impact) - Strategic, Planning, Convening and Emerging Issues Unit, UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, Florence, Italy, S

Contract

This is a Internship contract. It usually requires 0 years of experience, depending on education. More about Internship contracts.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, Research

The Office of Research-Innocenti (OoR-Innocenti) is the dedicated research office of UNICEF. It undertakes and commissions research on emerging or current issues of relevance for children to inform the strategic directions, policies and programmes of UNICEF and its partners. The Office explores emerging issues, identifies research gaps, brings together existing researchers, and supports or undertakes research and data collection to address critical questions and to inform global debates.

The Strategy, Planning, Convening and Emerging Issues Unit serves as a catalyst to connect and amplify the OoR research functions in the following four ways. First, through taking a strategic approach to synthesizing, quantifying and visualizing research findings, and examining the technical and contextual phenomena that go beyond the OoR’s sectoral research work streams.

Second, through supporting the OoR’s institutional strategy, planning and monitoring functions, including preparation of the Office Management Plan and Annual Report among other statutory deliverables.

Third, through incubating emerging areas of research for the Office, including mental health, humanitarian, climate change and digital.

Finally, through its role in catalyzing and supporting convening of knowledge brokers and other key stakeholders around organizational research priorities, covering a diverse range of in-person and virtual engagement such as conferences, seminars, workshops, and digital engagement. A major component of this strand includes convening the annual Leading Minds Conference, as well other key gatherings at the OoR’s premises in Florence.

Objective(s):

Voices for Impact

The adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child in 1989 highlighted the right for children and young people to be heard and for their opinions to be given due weight. The past three decades have subsequently seen numerous efforts across the world to make young people part of the solutions that aim to solve not just their problems but those of the world in general.

In recent years, there has been an intensification of calls to include young voices in decision-making and to make young people’s right to participate a reality. Models designed to provide frameworks for integrating children and youth voices in programmes, and in decision-making have multiplied. Both international and national initiatives that include young perspectives in pre-existing models of consultations and decision-making have also proliferated. Existing governance structures and consultation initiatives both international, regional, and national have been re-designed or adjusted to include young voices. Toolkits that provide guidelines on how to effectively engage with young people have, and continue, to proliferate. Practices have developed, and participation facilitators have relied on a wide range of methods to elicit the voices of young people on matters that are of interest and importance to them.

Plans continue to be made to further integrate youth views and intensify young voices within institutions, regional and international platforms, and systems of national governance. These developments, it can be argued, have been driven by two complementary forces. First by the understanding among decision-makers that young people are problem-solvers and agents of change who have unique knowledge of their own and their communities’ circumstances and as such can contribute to innovative solutions; second, by young people demanding a voice and a role in decision-making processes and expressing their dissatisfaction with established structures and processes of decision-making and by shying away from ready-made solutions that seek to solve their problems for them but without them.

The Voices for Impact research project thus seeks to explore the impact of youth participation in decision-making through rigorous qualitative data collection and analysis.

Young Leading Minds (YLM) Podcast

Children and young people have a lot to say. As a growing body of evidence has started to show, young people are competent social agents who unfortunately are often not taken seriously. They are crucial parts of their communities who, more than ever before, shy away from traditional communication channels to seek alternative venues that enable them to express themselves, to learn from each other and to be inspired by each other.

Depending on the context, young people have specific interests, needs, and ideas concerning what they want and the world they want to see. They no longer accept ready-made and paternalistic solutions designed by those who were not so long ago like them but who now have a limited understanding of what it means to be young in the digital, covid-19 stricken 21st century. The YLM podcast is a platform that seeks to help meet that demand by providing a unique space for young people to inspire and to be inspired, to discuss their issues and to share ideas about the world within which they live and how they view it.

How can you make a difference?

To achieve the objectives above, the Intern will perform the following activities:

Data collection

• Code and analyse collected information
• Review and analyse information from semi-structured discussions with key informants
• Review documents, extract and analyse the needed information
• Support the drafting process of the Voices for Impact report

General support

• Support, as needed, the work of the researcher on Voices for Impact and Young Leading Minds Podcast
• Support, as needed, the work conducted by the SPACE team (including the organization of the Leading Mind conference)

The Internship will be based in the Strategy, Planning and Convening Unit at UNICEF Office Research-Innocenti (Florence, Italy) The Internship will report to the Chief, Strategy, Planning & Convening and Emerging Issues. The internship will work closely with the other SPACE staff and consultants. The internship will undertake other work as necessary to support the Unit and the OOR in general.

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

The candidate should:

• Be enrolled in a master’s program or PhD or have graduated within the past two years.
• Demonstrated ability and experience in rigorous qualitative data analysis
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work well as part of a team.
• Commitment to UNICEF’s core values of care, respect, integrity, transparency and accountability.
• Fluency in English. Other UN languages are an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

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. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles 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.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Working hours: The Intern will work full-time over a period of 6 months starting from 2nd May 2022. The internship will preferably be on-site, but flexibility will be given to work online if the suitable candidate cannot be present in Florence (Italy) due to travel restrictions.

Funding: The internship will be paid at a rate of US$1,000 per calendar month on a full-time basis. All other accommodations and living expenses are to be covered by the intern or the sponsoring entity.

Visa: Interns are responsible for obtaining their visas before travelling. UNICEF Office of Research Innocenti will only issue a letter stating acceptance of the candidate as an intern and the conditions governing the internship

Medical Insurance: Interns must demonstrate proof of medical insurance prior to the beginning of the internship. UNICEF accepts no responsibility for the medical insurance of the intern or costs arising from accidents and illness incurred during the internship.

Leave: Interns are allowed up to 2.5 days per month off work for any reason, including for medical reasons, based on a full-time internship. The paid stipend will be reduced for absence beyond this quota. This quota is cumulative over the duration of the internship, but there will be no compensation for unused leave days at the end of the internship

HOW TO APPLY

The application deadline is 30th March 2022 at midnight Central European Time (CET)

DISCLAIMER

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization. Candidates who are nationals of low and middle-income countries are particularly encouraged to apply.