Intern – Nutrition for Health and Development Department

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME
In April 2016, the UN General Assembly, through its Resolution 70/259, endorsed the outcomes of the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) and proclaimed the period from 2016 to 2025 the “United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition”. WHO has a strategic role in co-leading the Nutrition Decade, and in fostering and strengthening nutrition in international forums and processes.

The objective of the Nutrition Decade is to accelerate implementation of the ICN2 commitments, achieve the Global Nutrition and diet-related noncommunicable disease targets by 2025, and contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The Intern will work towards supporting the activities of the WHO Department of Nutrition for Health and Development (NHD) related to different work streams. The focus will be to support the work streams managed by the Office of the Director (OD), and include the follow-up activities to the International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) and the Decade of Action on Nutrition, and the organization of events.

In addition, further work of the OD will be supported, including\:

1. management of the nutrition and non-communicable diseases and AREA electronic communities of practice (COP),

2. the work of the UN Interagency Task Force on NCDs (UNIATF)

3. sustainable diets, biodiversity and climate change,

4. the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement (SUN);

5. and other tasks as needed and agreed between the supervisor and the intern

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Terms of reference

Under the supervision of a technical expert in the respective area, interns are assigned a project based on agreed terms of references and in line with their skills set. These terms of reference typically include some or all of the following responsibilities\:

• review literature and conduct literature surveys
• undertake web research and data collection on specific subject area
• organize data and documents
• support the development of tools and guidelines
• support the drafting, formatting, and editing of policy briefs, tool kits, guides/manuals, hand-outs, brochures, and reports
• assist in organizing workshops, meetings, conferences, events
• support on-going departmental projects

Learning objectives

• To become familiar with global nutrition actors, their mandates and programmes, and understand the differences in nutrition approaches; this will lead to an understanding about nutrition governance in nutrition;

• To understand the internal operations/work streams of the NHD department

• To learn to develop minutes of meetings, and speaking and briefing notes upon request, and as such learn to use the WHO writing style and protocols for communication with partners;

• To understand the objectives of the Decade of Action on Nutrition

• To be able to communicate clearly about the workstreams of the Department

• To understand the difference in mandates in nutrition between the main UN agencies, and the relevance of WHO nutrition work to food system transformation for sustainable healthy diets

• Learn how to organize events

• To understand the difference of work between WHO headquarters, regional offices and country offices

• Learn how to summarize documents and identify key messages for briefings

• Learn how to prepare background documents for meetings

• Learn how to develop the outline of a document

INTERNSHIP PERIOD\:

09 March – 01 June 2020 (12 weeks)

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

Have completed at least three years of full-time studies (bachelor's level or equivalent) at a university or equivalent institution prior to commencing the assignment; AND be enrolled in a course of study at a university or equivalent institution leading to a formal qualification at master-level in global nutrition or public health nutrition, public health or global health policy with a focus on nutrition and food security or related area (applicants who have already graduated may also qualify for consideration provided that they apply the internship within six months after completion of their formal qualification).

Skills
Core competencies

• Team work
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural difference
• Communication

All interns should be able to demonstrate the following skills in line with the WHO core competencies\:

• Communicating effectively orally and in writing
• Showing willingness to learn from mistakes
• Producing and delivering quality results
• Working collaboratively with team members
• Very good organizer

In addition, interns need to be familiar with commonly used computer programmes, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint. Knowledge of specialized computer programmes, for example, statistical software such as XLStat may be an advantage.

Experience

• Experience in research and in drafting reports
• Experience in organizing events and fundraising
• Experience in the subject area of nutrition and sustainable food systems through academic work or research
• Experience in multisectoral approaches to nutrition
• Field and/or developing country experience may be an advantage

Languages

Essential\: Expert knowledge of English.Desirable\: Intermediate knowledge of French. Intermediate knowledge of Other UN language.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Interns do not receive a salary. They do however receive a stipend. The stipend depends on the duty station and other external support (grant, scholarships, etc.) received by the intern. In Geneva, the maximum amount of the stipend provided by WHO is 1728 USD per month. The exact amount of the stipend will be calculated for each intern, after selection, based on a financial disclosure form that they will complete. In addition, all interns in Geneva will receive a daily lunch voucher of a value of CHF15 to be used on WHO campus during the working days. WHO is also providing all interns with an accident and medical insurance coverage.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• Please note that internships at WHO are very competitive and only a small number of applicants will be accepted every year. Only successful candidates will be contacted.
• Living abroad is expensive and finding accommodation can be challenging. All intern candidates should be aware of these factors before they consider applying for a WHO Internship.
• If selected for a WHO Internship, candidates will be required to provide certified copies of proof of enrolment in a course of studies and a medical certificate of fitness for work.
• Interns are not eligible for appointment to consultants position in WHO for a period of three months following the end of the internship. However, no such restriction apply to temporary or longer term staff positions if the vacancy has been advertised and a competitive process completed.