Internships

Internships are intended to promote a better understanding of global issues and provide insight into the work of the Convention, while offering departments the able assistance of outstanding young students specializing in a field related to their coursework.

The minimum internship duration is two months, and the maximum is six months. Interns are not financially remunerated by the UNCCD secretariat. Costs and arrangements for travel, visas, accommodation, and living expenses are the responsibility of the intern or their sponsoring institution. Interns of the UNCCD secretariat are not considered staff members.

Applicants may not be related (spouse, mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, or son) to a UNCCD staff member.

As interns are not considered staff, the privileges and immunities agreed upon by the UNCCD and the host Government are not applicable to them.

Interns are expected to conduct themselves at all times in a manner compatible with their responsibilities as a UNCCD intern.

The intern is required to keep confidential all unpublished information they may have access to during the course of their internship and may not publish any reports or papers based on this information, except with the prior written authorization of the UNCCD. These conditions continue beyond the expiration of the internship.

Eligibility requirements:

To apply for an internship with UNCCD, candidates must meet the following requirements:

• Be enrolled in the final year of an undergraduate university programme (e.g., a Bachelor's programme)
• Be enrolled in a graduate programme, such as a Master's or Ph.D.
• Or be a recent graduate with a university degree

The internship with UNCCD may be eligible for academic credit from the candidate's institution of higher education – please check with your university to confirm its policy on internships.

An internship is not expected to automatically lead to a job with the UNCCD. However, based on the experience gained during the internship, a candidate might be interested in applying for General Service or consultancy positions.

If you want to apply for positions at the Professional and Higher levels, you will need to wait at least six months after the end of your internship before submitting your application, and ensure that you meet both the educational and work experience requirements outlined in each job opening.

How to apply

UNCCD advertises internship vacancies via the UN Career site: https://careers.un.org/lbw/home.aspx. For your application to be considered, you must follow the application process outlined for each vacancy and apply through the link for the specific position on the UN Career site.

Please apply for internship openings as indicated in the vacancy announcement. Do not address or forward your application to an individual at the UNCCD secretariat, Global Mechanism, or G20.