| Overview : I. Identification of the post Title: Accelerator Lab-Philippines Intern Sector of assignment: PH Accelerator Lab Organizational unit: Impact & Advisory Team (IAT) Country and Duty Station: Philippines – Manila House Internship duration: 6 months II. CORPORATE BACKGROUND: UNDP works in about 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. We help countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to sustain development results. UNDP is working to strengthen new frameworks for development, disaster risk reduction and climate change. We support countries' efforts to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals, which will guide global development priorities through 2030. The key 2030 Agenda principle of leaving no one behind and stamping out inequality is at the core of everything we do. UNDP focuses on helping countries build and share solutions in three main areas: - Sustainable development
- Democratic governance and peacebuilding
- Climate and disaster resilience
In all our activities, we encourage the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women, minorities and the poorest and most vulnerable. III. INTERNSHIP OFFICE BACKGROUND: UNDP’s Country Accelerator Lab Network is a key initiative aimed at ensuring that UNDP is fit for purpose to deliver a new generation of solutions in line with the challenges the world faces. The initiative points out that increasingly interrelated development challenges require going beyond business as usual and single point, linear and silver bullet responses in development. Instead, they call for interdisciplinary approaches and non-linear solutions that crowd-in the collective efforts of a variety of partners, tap into local insights and the knowledge of people closest to the problem and require the solutions. The initiative is also a recognition and an investment in the emerging momentum among a growing number of UNDP Country Offices around joining disruptive, cutting edge methodologies with contextual, country-based insights and expertise to accelerate impact and progress toward the SDGs. It is envisioned to be the largest and fastest learning global network building on the latest thinking from the fields of complexity science, lead user innovation and collective intelligence to accelerate development impact. The Accelerator Lab has three key pillars namely: solutions mapping, experimentation, and collective intelligence. Solutions mapping consists of finding things that work and expanding on them. It works by seeking out and making use of local assets, and identifying positive deviants, i.e. women and men whose uncommon but successful behaviors or strategies enable them to find better solutions to a problem than their peers, despite facing similar challenges and having no extra resources. The UNDP Accelerator Lab will use at least two ways to do solutions mapping: (1) direct discovery of need and solution pairs; and (2) positive deviance and lead user innovation. UNDP has a growing body of evidence related to experimentation in the public sector. The Accelerator Lab network will take UNDP’s past work to scale and ideally will improve the way government and other organizations create, share, and use high quality evidence for decision making. Experimentation will be designed to assist accelerating learning and explore the non-obvious, and reframing failure and key performance indicators. Lastly, collective intelligence involves combining knowledge from citizens, big data from the private sector and government, and human expertise to create solutions. This is the glue that binds experimentation and solution mapping. It implies a shift from information management to organizational learning, and using ‘sticky’, local knowledge to increase the ability of large groups to think and act more intelligently and effectively than the sum of their parts. Collective intelligence improves outcomes in at least four ways: (1) better understanding of facts and experience, (2) better development of options and ideas, (3) better, more inclusive decision-making and action, and (4) better oversight. Under the general supervision of the designated Accelerator Lab Head, the intern will provide substantive and coordination support in the implementation of the Lab’s ongoing and pipeline activities. The Accelerator Lab team is currently looking for support on the following cross-cutting thematic areas: 1) sustainable recovery, 2) local convergence & multi-stakeholder mobilization, and 3) data, digital, and grassroots innovation. Candidates with technical competencies on data analysis, knowledge management, communications and engagement are highly encouraged to apply in support of the Lab’s mandate to promote a culture of inclusive innovation, participatory futures, and prototyping. IV. DUTIES: The intern will assist in the following duties and responsibilities: No | Duties and responsibilities | % of time | 1 | The main duties of the intern are the following: - Conduct desk reviews of existing research outputs and knowledge products of UNDP Philippines with a view of the research questions and objectives for the thematic challenge assigned;
- Overall support of the mapping and research exercise, including knowledge management of findings and other resources;
- Assist the organization and documentation of conferences, key high-level meetings, forums or other collaborative events;
- Contribute to the development and implementation of a targeted social media campaign and development of knowledge products;
- Provide coordination and administrative support on an as-needed basis.
The intern is expected to render these tasks primarily for the cross-cutting thematic challenge they are assigned (i.e., 1) sustainable recovery, 2) local convergence & multi-stakeholder mobilization, and 3) data, digital, & grassroots innovation) but also to support other challenges when requested. | 60% | 2 | Capstone Report - The intern is expected to produce an end-of-internship report or presentation on a capstone project. Said project’s focus and scope will be defined at the start of the internship, although adjustments may be made.
- The capstone project may be a research paper, a mini-project or activity, a product or service prototype, or other equivalent output. The capstone project may be aligned with any report or output that the intern may be required to produce for their academic requirements.
| 20% | 3 | Other: - Support other/ad hoc activities as seen relevant and needed.
| 20% |
V. REQUIREMENTS AND QUALIFICATIONS Education: Candidates must meet one of the following educational requirements: - currently in the final year of a Bachelor’s degree; or
- currently enrolled in a Master’s degree; or
- have graduated no longer than 1 year ago from a master’s degree or equivalent studies.
Field of study: Data Science, Design, Development Studies, Economics, Environmental Studies, Management Information Systems, Social Innovation, Social Sciences and other related fields. Those who have academic and professional interest/training in any of the following are preferred: - Social innovation, human-centered design, systems thinking, foresight.
- Urbanization, local governance, multi-sectoral movements, civil society.
- Circular economy, green economy, sustainable enterprise.
- Poverty, socioeconomic inequality, informality, microenterprise development.
- Data science and innovation, data ethics, citizen-generated data.
IT skills: - Knowledge and proficient use of Microsoft Office productivity tools, required;
- Knowledge and use of multimedia tools, such as Adobe Suite, Canva, etc., preferred.
- Knowledge and use of project management and productivity tools, such as MS Project/ Planner, Asana, Trello, Smartsheet, etc., preferred.
- Knowledge and use of analytics tools, including Tableau, Power BI, R, Stata, etc., preferred.
Language skills: - Fluency in both oral and written English required and in Filipino highly preferred;
- Knowledge of other UN languages is an advantage.
Other competencies and attitude: - Interest and motivation in working in an international organization;
- Skill in gathering, consolidating, and analyzing data (quantitative and qualitative) and research for practical application;
- Outgoing and initiative-driven person with a goal-oriented mind-set;
- Communicates effectively when working in teams and independently;
- Good in organizing and structuring various tasks and responsibilities;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
- Responds positively to feedback and differing points of view;
- Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
VI. INTERNSHIP CONDITIONS - UNDP accepts no responsibility for costs arising from accidents and/or illness or death incurred during the internship.
- When necessary, interns are responsible for obtaining necessary visas and arranging travel to and from the duty station where the internship will be performed.
- Interns are not eligible to apply for, or be appointed to, any post in UNDP during the period of the internship.
- Interns must provide proof of enrolment in health insurance plan.
- Interns are not staff members and may not represent UNDP in any official capacity.
- Interns are expected to work full time but flexibility is allowed for education programmes.
- Interns need to obtain financing for subsistence and make own arrangements for internship, travel, VISA, accommodation, etc.
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