Since 24 February 2022, the Government of Bulgaria granted Temporary Protection to more than 170,000 persons refugees displaced from Ukraine, of whom some 55,000 remain in the country as of 1 June 2024. Several thousand refugees from Ukraine are hosted under the state sponsored accommodation programme, including hotels and state recreational facilities located predominantly at the Black Sea regions and other locations throughout the country.

UNHCR as a refugee-led organization supports the Government of Bulgaria in providing response to the Ukrainian refugee situation and ensuring protection and inclusion space is provided to them. UNHCR conducts various types of assessments among the refugees from Ukraine to assess their needs, capacities and coping mechanisms and identify those with specific needs to ensure their access to specialized services. Some of these activities are implemented directly by the Agency, with others implemented through partner agencies or service providers.

Within the UNHCR office in Bulgaria, the Operations/Programme unit is responsible for facilitating the annual and multi-annual planning, implementation and reporting cycle for UNHCR in the country, as well as for supporting the implementation of its activities to serve refugees and stateless persons either directly or in partnership with Non-Governmental Organizations.

An internship with the unit will allow the incumbent to gain first-hand experience of planning and project management in the humanitarian sector.

The position: Under the supervision of the Operations Officer, the Programme Intern will support the unit in its work by facilitating coordination with other teams within UNHCR and with its partner organizations and contribute to complex processes for planning, implementing, monitoring and reporting on the Office’s interventions across the country.

The ideal candidate will be curious, proactive and committed to learning. Through good management of time and tasks, s/he will contribute to UNHCR and its partners’ work by ensuring resources are allocated according to needs and capacities; monitoring, including directly in the field in the Sofia region, progress towards objectives and refugees’ views of the interventions, and establishing internal and external workflows to ensure resources are carefully managed.

Duties and responsibilities: • Provide administrative assistance and support in routine services and activities within the Ops/Programme unit. • Assist in organizing, documenting and coordinating processes related to the selection and management of partners and direct implementation activities, ensuring due diligence to support successful implementation. • Support the annual planning, implementation and reporting cycle. • Guided by the MFT approach, contribute to monitoring activities implemented through partnerships and those under direct implementation in line with the Programme Handbook and other programming regulations. • Use UNHCR’s corporate tools (e.g. COMPASS, PROMS, CloudERP) to provide inputs and support activities related to planning, budgeting, implementation and reporting, generating data for evidence-based programmatic decisions and analysis. • Actively contribute to UNHCR’s programming of community of practice and to the improvement of programming tools and processes.

Minimum qualifications required: In order to be considered for an internship, candidates must meet the following eligibility criteria: • Be either a recent graduate (having completed their studies within two years of applying) or a current student in a graduate/undergraduate school programme from a university or higher education facility accredited by IAU/UNESCO; and • Have completed at least two years of undergraduate studies in a field relevant or of interest to the work of UNHCR. • Fluency in Bulgarian and English.

Desirable qualifications and skills: • Organization and management of processes and tasks • Proactivity and commitment to continuous learning • Results orientation • Computer literacy • Accountability • Communication • Teamwork & Collaboration

Conditions: It is a full-time role with working hours starting from 9.00am to 6:00pm Monday to Friday (40 hours per week). The successful candidate will be assigned to support the team in the UNHCR office in Sofia. The incumbent will be governed by the same regulations for a percentage of teleworking as all other members of the office.