Work Location

In-person; Remote or Hybrid

Expected duration

6 months

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide policy analysis for the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), collaborating across the different areas of work within the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) and supporting coordination efforts with relevant divisions of the Executive Office of the Secretary-General (EOSG) and with United Nations Agencies.
• Help monitor, identify and analyze global trends related to sustainable development, with a focus on one or several of the following eight thematic tracks: 1) finance, 2) environment and climate change, 3) health, 4) gender, 5) governance, peace and security, 6) disability inclusion, 7) SDG data, 8) sustainable food systems, 9) education and 10) SDG acceleration and partnerships.
• Support the preparation of analytical reports, papers, talking points, background notes, correspondences, key messages, video remarks, interviews, and daily briefs.
• Support the preparation of meetings, events, summits, talks, and visits for senior officials. Additional information on the specific thematic tracks: 1. Financing for Development: Assisting with the analysis and research for the stocktaking of the Secretary-General’s Finance Strategy for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Supporting workstreams related to Financing for Development (FfD), including preparations for key upcoming events such as FfD related events during the High-Level Week, and relevant multilateral processes including the G20, BRICS, COP, and others. Providing ad-hoc support to the Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as needed. 2. Environment and climate: Supporting the preparations and monitoring the outcomes of high-level summits related to environmental policies, such as COP 31 on climate change, the 2026 UN Water Conference, COP 17 UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework; staying abreast of institutional processes related to the negotiations for the treaty on the reduction of plastic pollution. 3. Health: Supporting the Secretary-General’s efforts to strengthen global health systems, advancing pandemic preparedness, adopting universal health coverage, and promoting mental health advocacy, developing institutional capacity for health services in underserved regions. 4. Gender: Supporting the Secretary General’s office mandate to respect gender equality across the world, through equal labour opportunities, remuneration, and recognition, protect women and girls from systemic discrimination and violence, and increase opportunities for gender empowerment, worldwide. 5. Governance, Peace and Security: Supporting analysis, initiatives, forums and engagements on humanitarian, peace and development matters. Contributing to monitoring, analysis and engagement on priority regions, countries, and topics, including the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes Region, Haiti, and Afghanistan; the collaboration with the African Union; and climate security and advancing development in complex settings. Contributing to aspects of the United Nations reform, particularly those that pertain to cross-pillar collaboration and coherence. 6. Disability Inclusion and Leaving No One Behind: Supporting the coordinated implementation of the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy by entities and UN country teams across both programmes and operations, including by contributing to the collection and review of good practice; research, analysis and monitoring of the Strategy; provisioning of technical assistance; and outreach to external stakeholders, including organizations of persons with disabilities. Supporting analysis, initiatives, forums and engagements related to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda commitment to Leave No One Behind. 7. SDG Data: Contributing to the implementation of priority use cases under the Secretary-General’s Data Strategy including assisting with data financing fundraising efforts, supporting advocacy efforts to fill SDG data gaps and improving distribution of United Nations data. 8. Sustainable Food Systems: Supporting the team advance on the Offices efforts related to sustainable food systems, leading to greater food security, local livelihoods and reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the sector. Support in relevant projects to move forward on the Secretary Generals Call to Action for Accelerated food systems transformation. 9.Education: Supporting the team to advance the Offices priorities on education, in particular, the preparation for high-level events on education. 10. SDG acceleration and partnerships: Supporting the work of the Office to strengthen effectiveness of with partnerships with private and public partners to accelerate the 2030 Agenda. Qualifications/special skills Applicants to the United Nations Internship Programme must at the time of application meet one of the following requirements: 1) Be enrolled in, or have completed, an undergraduate (Bachelors level or equivalent) or a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent or higher such as Master’s degree or equivalent, Ph.D. or post-graduate degree). 2) Be enrolled in, or have completed, the final academic year of a first university degree programme (minimum Bachelors level or equivalent). Work experience is not required to apply for the United Nations Internship Programme. Your training, education, advance course work or skills should benefit the United Nations during your internship. Knowledge of standard software applications, especially MS Word, MS Powerpoint, other presentation and visualization software and MS Teams, is desirable. Knowledge in report editing and drafting news articles and /or social media posts is desirable. Knowledge in data analysis using statistical software (e.g. R, Stata, SPSS) or AI-assisted tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude) to support coding, analysis or research is desirable. Languages English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the position advertised, fluency in English is required. Additional Information Not available. Intern Specific text Interns are not financially remunerated by the United Nations. Costs and arrangements for travel, visas, accommodation and living expenses are the responsibility of interns or their sponsoring institutions. Interns who are not citizens or permanent residents of the country where the internship is undertaken, may be required to obtain the appropriate visa and work/employment authorization. Successful candidates should discuss their specific visa requirements before accepting the internship offer. No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS BANK ACCOUNTS.