The Office of Innovation is a creative, interactive, and agile team in UNICEF. We sit at a unique intersection, where an organization that works on huge global issues meets the startup thinking, the technology, and the partners that turn this energy into scalable solutions. Within the Office of Innovation, the newly established Innovative Finance Hub aims to catalyze global capital in support of children to fill the SDG gap and radically accelerate progress towards the SDGs. UNICEF. The Innovative Finance Intern is placed within the Innovative Finance Hub, Office of Innovation, reporting to the Investment Manager & Lead, Innovative Financing.
In support of the 2022-25 Strategic Plan, UNICEF has launched its Global Innovative Finance for Children (IF4C) Strategy document and is ramping up coordinated endeavors to foster and promote the wider use of IF.
The pandemic and the post-pandemic economic shocks are serving to highlight, and at times reinforce, the differing structural issues, strengths and weaknesses within regional economies and the also ability and capacity of individual governments and each country’s enabling environment to absorb these shocks and continue to deliver public services and to their sustainable development visions. These differences in turn can serve to simultaneously compound the need for UNICEF engagement while reducing the availability and potential effectiveness of traditional responses. Innovative or alternative financing approaches are part of the response to these challenges.
The Innovative Finance Intern will provide support on innovative finance projects. Specifically, they would support in UNICEF’s Child-lens Investing Framework project and other areas on innovative finance.
Main responsibilities will be:
Support classifying UNDP SDG Investor Platform Projects based on UNICEF’s child-lens investing framework taxonomy
Support development of an interactive tool on the publication of the child-lens investing framework
Support as required, the IF Hub’s Innovative Financing activities such as co-creating a Children’s Development Fund with a Development Finance Institution, supporting to tackle the nutrition crises in Sub-Saharan Africa, helping take to market an outcome fund to bridge the gender digital divide, supporting with blended finance facility for early childhood development, helping take to scale revolving fund on water and sanitation, amongst other areas
Support as required, the IF Hub’s Emerging Fundraising activities such as NFTs, Blockchain, mobile gaming, metaverse, amongst other areas
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Be enrolled at a university at a graduate level (Master’s or higher) or a recent graduate (within the past two years) in Public Policy, Business Administration, Development, or a related field, is required
A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience at national and international levels in innovative, public or private finance, consulting, research, development, or equivalent is required
Experience working with innovative finance or related field is desirable, including a solid understanding of the innovative financing mechanisms.
Strong capacity to work effectively in inter-divisional teams.
Experience in/knowledge of the UN system and knowledge of UNICEF’s work would be an asset.
Excellent analytical, organizational, interpersonal, and communications skills.
Ability to conceptualize, plan and execute ideas as well as to manage projects
Fluency in written and spoken English is required. Proficiency in any other UN language is considered an asset (French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese).
