Youth Engagement Volunteer

Youth Engagement Volunteer

Assignment country: Nepal
Expected start date: 01/09/2025
Sustainable Development Goal: 16. Peace, justice and strong institutions
Volunteer category: International UN University Volunteer
Host entity: UNICEF
Type: Onsite
Duration: 6 months
Number of assignments: 1
Duty stations: Kathmandu

Details

Mission and objectives

UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

In all of its work, UNICEF takes a life-cycle based approach, recognizing the particular importance of early childhood development and adolescence. UNICEF programmes focus on the most disadvantaged children, including those living in fragile contexts, those with disabilities, those who are affected by rapid urbanization and those affected by environmental degradation.

UNICEF was created with a distinct purpose in mind: to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. We advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future.

We promote girls’ education – ensuring that they complete primary education as a minimum – because it benefits all children, both girls and boys. Girls who are educated grow up to become better thinkers, better citizens, and better parents to their own children. We act so that all children are immunized against common childhood diseases, and are well nourished: no child should suffer or die from a preventable illness. We work to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people because it is right to keep them from harm and enable them to protect others. We help children and families affected by HIV/AIDS to live their lives with dignity.

We are UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Context

UNICEF ROSA is working to embed systematic and meaningful participation of young people within its programmes and across regional and global advocacy and policy platforms. UNICEF ROSA regularly identifies and partners with young people to co-create and share their perspectives and recommendations and have in place a diverse network of young leaders who have made valuable contributions to UNICEF’s mandate. Given that several UNICEF Country Offices in the region have already formed youth advisory boards (i.e., Bangladesh, India, and Maldives, with member 16 and up), a regional Young People Action Team (YPAT) would also support cross-country learning, facilitate communication, and enhance collaboration between regional events and national advisory bodies. To this end, UNICEF ROSA will establish the South Asia Regional Young People Action Team (YPAT) to ensure consistent, meaningful participation and engagement of children and young people within its programmes and across regional and global forums.

Task description

Under the direct supervision of the Regional Adviser – Adolescent Participation, Skills and Employability, the UN Volunteer will undertake the dedicated coordination with the selected members of the South Asia Regional Young People Action Team (YPAT), with the following specific tasks:

•  Assists the office in implementing the annual engagement plan of the YPAT initiative co-created with members.
•  Supports in managing and facilitating the bi-weekly/monthly virtual meetings with the SAR YPAT members.
•  Contributes to designing and facilitating networking and interaction opportunities for the SAR YPAT members, including assisting in identifying and arranging UNICEF experts for the virtual coffee talks/interaction sessions and facilitating participation.
•  Document the engagement with the SAR YPAT Members and develop communication and visibility materials for internal and external visibility.
•  Supports engaging YPAT members in other relevant initiatives, events, and activities for young people.

Eligibility criteria

Age

18 – 80

Required experience: 1 month

Donor priorities
.

Nationality

Candidate must be a national of a country other than the country of assignment.

Additional eligibility criteria

ELIGIBILITY

As this assignment is funded by KOICA, specific eligibility criteria apply:

– Applicants must be Korean nationals aged between 18 and 29 years at the time of application.
– Applicants must be currently enrolled in a bachelor’s or master’s degree, or have graduated within the past 12 months (at the time of application).
– Individuals who have previously served in a KOICA-funded UN University Volunteer assignment are not eligible.

APPLICATION

– If you are currently enrolled in a university and have not yet obtained a university degree, indicate in the section ‘Academic qualifications’ under ‘diploma/degree obtained’ that you are still studying and towards which degree. In the ‘to’ field, enter the current date, as the system does not allow you to enter a future date. Instead of the degree certificate, upload any evidence of your enrollment, for example a transcript.
– You may apply to a maximum of three assignments and indicate the order of preference in the ‘Additional remarks’ field when filling in the application form.
– Application deadline: 26 May 2025

SELECTION

– Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. The selection will be done by the UN Host Entity at the level of the country of assignment. Interviews will be conducted by the UN Host Entity in June.

+++ UN Volunteer entitlement calculator: https://app.unv.org/calculator +++

Assignment requirements

Relevant experience

No experience required

Languages

English, Level: Fluent, Required

Required education level

Bachelor degree or equivalent in currently enrolled or recent graduate in communications or social science.

Competencies and values

• Accountability
•  Adaptability and Flexibility
•  Building Trust
•  Commitment and Motivation
•  Communication
• Creativity
•  Empowering Others
•  Ethics and Values
•  Integrity
•  Knowledge Sharing
•  Planning and Organizing
•  Professionalism
•  Respect for Diversity
•  Self-Management
•  Technological Awareness
•  Working in Teams

Skills and experience

Demonstrated interest or experiencein:

•  Managing youth groups and engagement platforms.
•  Empowering young people to lead civic actions.
•  Promoting the agenda of meaningful youth engagement in public space.

Area(s) of expertise

Arts and design, Communication, Information technology

Driving license
–

Other information

Living conditions and remarks

Nepal is a small, beautiful landlocked country nestled on the Himalayan range among China, India and Bhutan. It is home to eight out of the 10 highest mountains in the world. Kathmandu, its capital is a small bustling city, rich in culture, filled with historical sites and inhabited by some of the most welcoming people in the world.
Currently Kathmandu is undergoing rapid growth, being one of the fastest growing cities in south Asia. As with all rapid growth and development, comes a spike in pollution levels. According to the WHO’s most recent health and environment scorecard (2022), Nepal is 7 times the WHO air quality guideline value for PM2.5. While human factors have led to the elevated pollution levels in Kathmandu, geographical factors have also played a role given that the city is situated in a location that places it deep within a valley with many mountain ranges around. However, air quality monitoring stations have been put in place to mitigate existing air pollution in the country, and there is a reduction in the amount of diesel fuel vehicles and open burn sources. According to IQAir survey in 2019, the months with the worst readings are January through to May, with August being was the cleanest month. Given these pollution levels, sensitive groups are advised to reduce outdoor exercise, wear a mask outdoors, close windows to avoid polluted outdoor air and run air purifiers.
Kathmandu is classified as a B duty station and is considered relatively safe. Peaceful protests are common across Kathmandu
Living conditions in Kathmandu are good. Different types of long-term accommodation are available in Kathmandu: standalone houses, houses in gated compounds, apartments. These could be furnished and/or fully serviced, or unfurnished. ROSA can assist with securing an agent for the search for suitable accommodations. The UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials.
Both imported and local foods are available. Water supply shortages are common and while it is also not safe to drink water without treatment, bottled water is easily available. Traffic congestion can be high in certain areas, but public transport, especially taxis, is available and generally reliable. Kathmandu has a moderate climate with the coldest temperature reaching around 0 degrees Celcius at night during the winter and mild but humid weather between mid-June and end-September.

The UNV will be based in Kathmandu and will be provided with a desk and workspace within the UNICEF ROSA premises.

Inclusivity statement

United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme that welcomes applications from qualified professionals. We are committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, care protected characteristics. As part of their adherence to the values of UNV, all UN Volunteers commit themselves to combat any form of discrimination, and to promoting respect for human rights and individual dignity, without distinction of a person’s race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

Reasonable accommodation

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for UN Volunteers with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process and afterwards in your assignment.

Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements

In addition to duty station-specific vaccine requirements, appointments are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the appointment. It does not apply to UN Volunteers who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their contracts.

Scam warning

The United Nations does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process. Should you receive a solicitation for the payment of a fee, please disregard it. Furthermore, please note that emblems, logos, names and addresses are easily copied and reproduced. Therefore, you are advised to apply particular care when submitting personal information on the web.