Associate (Economic Opportunities)

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favoritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfill their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

The India version of GenU has been named YuWaah! It signifies catalytic partnerships to un-leash the potential of adolescents and young people. YuWaah has been designed to allow co-creation of solutions that are relevant and scalable for ensuring that young people in India have opportunity and choices for learning; have avenues and spaces for functional and voca-tional training, and can choose between employment and entrepreneurship which are acces-sible locally.


YuWaah is a partnership platform founded by UNICEF. The UNV will provide support to initiatives under the thematic area of “Economic opportunity for young people – jobs, apprenticeship, entrepreneurship and internship.

Under the direct supervision of Program Specialist – Economic Opportunities, who leads the work on enabling employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people, the UN University Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:
• Provide support in planning and implementation of the new internship scheme announced by the Government of India
• Support in identification and finalisation of the innovative, scalable solutions related to the internship scheme
• Support in ongoing programs related to jobs including partnership with Ministry of Labor and employment to strengthen the female labor force participation and employment linked schemes
• Contribute to secondary research and formulating an action plan related to green jobs and entrepreneurship in alignment with YuWaah’s goals for the next year
• Coordinate with the line ministries and officers to liaison on the documents and support in partnership as well as advocacy related work
• Support the preparation of scalable proposals from solution partners
• Support in preparing programme and project status reports
• Understand the requirements of the young people and employers and document it
• Assist in drafting briefing notes, talking points, funding proposals, presentations and donor reports

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to:
• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for in-stance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
• Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities;
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publica-tions/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.