Humanitarian Affairs Interns

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the general guidance of a primary supervisor, the intern shall be given specific tasks related to the following projects within the Humanitarian Programme Cycle Section (HPCS):

Global Humanitarian Overview: The Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) is the United Nations' annual assessment and strategic plan for addressing worldwide humanitarian needs. It provides a comprehensive summary of crises caused by conflict and climate shocks. The GHO outlines the number of people in need, priority regions and funding requirements for coordinated international response. It serves as a central reference for governments, donors and humanitarian organizations to align efforts and resources. By highlighting trends and challenges, the GHO aims to improve preparedness, response and accountability in delivering life-saving aid and protecting the most vulnerable populations globally. The intern will contribute to the ongoing work for the Global Humanitarian Overview 2026. This includes reviewing and synthesizing data and trends from various sources, supporting the identification of global drivers of need, key humanitarian needs, response gaps and funding trends across crises, as well as developing tools and processes to lighten it in view of the constrained funding environment. The intern may assist in drafting content and preparing visualizations. The intern will also be a focal point coordinating inputs from country and regional offices to inform the GHO.

Humanitarian Action Platform: HumanitarianAction.info provides a comprehensive overview of the humanitarian landscape by providing both an annual snapshot and live data on humanitarian crises and response. Humanitarian Action also serves as the publication platform for planning, monitoring and financial tracking data. It allows users to benefit from dynamic data that is updated throughout the year, as country teams update their needs analysis and response plans. The intern working on this project will provide support to country teams digitalizing their humanitarian needs and response plans being a support desk, assisting with data structuring, entry, consistency and analysis, updating training material and providing training to country teams, and participating in technical meetings, among other tasks.

Humanitarian Programme Cycle: The Humanitarian Programme Cycle Section (HPCS), as part of SPPB, is responsible to provide normative guidance, policy development, technical field support and capacity-building on analysis and planning, and related topics. The intern will support the planning component of the HPC by assisting with the coordination, consolidation, and quality review of humanitarian planning products developed by country teams. This includes supporting data and narrative structuring, consistency checks, and documentation, updating guidance and training materials, providing help-desk support during planning processes, and supporting technical meetings related to humanitarian planning.

Additional responsibilities will vary based on the intern's background and interests. They may include supporting country offices, the design and preparation of studies on humanitarian response and emergency relief; conducting research and analysis on assigned topics; and contributing to written materials such as background papers, policy briefs, and reports. The intern may also help maintain reference materials, assist in organizing meetings, workshops, and conferences, and take notes during such events. Other tasks may be assigned by the supervisor as needed.

Qualifications/special skills

• Be enrolled in, or have completed, a graduate school programme (second university degree or equivalent, or higher).
• Be enrolled in, or have completed, the final academic year of a first university degree programme (minimum bachelor's level or equivalent), preferably in areas related to political science, social science, humanitarian affairs, international studies, public administration, economics, engineering, earth sciences or in a related field.
• Applicants to the UN Internship Programme are not required to have professional work experience. However, a field of study that is closely related to the type of internship that you are applying for is required.
• Familiarity with data analysis and visualization tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, Datawrapper). Experience with data structuring, digital platforms, or user support is desirable.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this internship, fluency in English and French (both oral and written) is required. Knowledge of Spanish is an advantage.