Economist Intern (unhcr)

Job Description

Hardship Level (not applicable for home-based)

A (least hardship)

FamilyInternship

2025-02-03January 8, 2025Terms of Reference
Internship
Development Unit, Amman

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is offering a full-time internship with the Development unit at UNHCR, Amman.
Established in December 1950, UNHCR is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for asylum seekers, refugees, returnees, internally displaced communities and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict and persecution. UNHCR currently operates in over 130 countries, using its long expertise to protect and care for millions.
Title: Economist intern, Development unit
Internship Location: Amman, Joran
Division/Section/Service: Development Unit
Duration (length of internship): 6 months, extendable to additional 2 months
Contract Type: Full-time
Closing date for application:
Start date: Intern to start Mid-February/March 2025
Organizational context
With over a decade of economic downturn, linked to regional instability, the Syria crisis, high unemployment, and lately the impact of COVID-19, Jordan continues to host refugees, providing them with education and healthcare. Jordan’s development vision underpins the country’ s strategy and cooperation with international donors, and humanitarian, development and financial stakeholders, primarily with respect to socio-economic growth and the needs of refugee and host communities. As Jordan is not a state party to major international conventions relating to refugees and statelessness, a Memorandum of Understanding sets the parameters for cooperation between UNHCR and the Government of Jordan and outlines the major principles of international protection, including the definition of a refugee and the principle of non-refoulement. The country’s refugee response is framed by the government-led Jordan Response Plan, in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Compact.

The Development unit is a multi-disciplinary team headed by the Senior Development Officer, which includes livelihoods and education teams. The fellow will contribute to the advocacy work with development partners and government bodies to explore sustainable solutions for inclusion of refugees in Jordan for refugees residing in both camps and host communities, through the production of quantitative research pieces. UNHCR collects a myriad of household level data, which robust analysis is of great value to UNHCR Jordan and its partners. The intern will have access to data to produce high level analysis that could contribute to their own research agenda.
The position
In this role, the fellow will also be responsible for delivering work on policy, advocacy and programming issues as they relate to the protection, resilience and solutions of refugees with medium-term economic and social development programmes. The position is primarily focused on undertaking analysis and research to help make the case for greater economic inclusion of refugees in Jordan to inform policies and programmes of the Government of Jordan (GoJ) and international partners.
Duties and responsibilities
• The intern will be responsible to produce a total of at least 3 research policy notes based on quantitative data analysis on topics agreed with the management, to feed into the dialogue with the government and development partners. These would make use of UNHCR important household level data sources (Vulnerability Assessment Framework biannual study and quarterly panel data, skills mapping data collection, ProGres registration data etc.) as well as national data when available. These could cover topics in the field of: education, social protection, labor market and employment, livelihoods, energy, water, climate etc. The interests of the intern will also be considered in the choice of topics. The intern may be requested to support joint analytics with partners (particularly with the World Bank and the IMF).
• Support the dissemination of results of the research products internally (and externally when appropriate).
• Provide advice/technical assistance to teams undergoing regular or punctual data collection to ensure synergies across internal exercises and upgrade to international standards/norms when necessary and suggest improvement or updates to data collection tools as necessary.
• Carry out any other supporting tasks required by the unit.

Minimum qualifications required.
In order to be considered for an internship, candidates must meet the following eligibility criteria:
• Be either a recent graduate (having completed their studies within two years of applying) or a current student in a graduate/undergraduate school programme from a university or higher education facility accredited by IAU/UNESCO ; and
• Have completed at least two years of undergraduate studies in a field relevant or of interest to the work of UNHCR.


Desirable qualifications and skills
• Masters degree in Economics or Development Economics, with a track record of being able to write quality analysis
• Deep knowledge of econometrics tool i.e. Stata, R and/or Python.
• Good knowledge of data visualization tools I.e., ArcGIS, PowerBI, InDesign, etc.
• Good writing skills in English.
• Capacity to integrate in a multi-cultural environment.
• Interest in forced displacement issues.
• Desirable good knowledge of data visualization tools I.e., ArcGIS, PowerBI, InDesign, etc.
• Familiarity with displacement and development issues and familiarity with measuring welfare through socio-economic profiling.

Conditions
It is a full-time role with working hours starting from 8 am to 4pm Sunday to Friday (40 hours per week). The successful candidate will be assigned to support the team in Amman.
The Intern’s allowance for Amman internship location is 70% of the monthly net salary of the GS level 3 step 1 which is equivalent to 690.26 JOD.
Internships normally last two to six months with the possibility of extension up to eight months for full-time internships and twelve months for part-time internships.
Candidates with previous UNHCR Internship experience must not have exceeded the maximum total cumulative duration of eight (8) months.
How to apply
The selected candidate will receive a link to the UNHCR recruitment portal to create a profile.
Obligations
- Acquiring and renewing current visas, residence permits including all associated costs, obtaining medical certification and compliance with taxation requirements (if applicable), are the responsibility of the intern.
- The selected candidate will need to provide UNHCR with a proof of funding from the sponsoring institution (if applicable), health insurance coverage applicable to the assigned internship location and a certificate of good health from a qualified medical practitioner certifying their fitness for work, as well as travel. In the event the candidate is not able to produce the required certificate, they will not be admitted to the Internship Programme.
Allowance and Travel: The Sponsoring Institution shall provide non-reimbursable financial support in the form of a stipend/scholarship/allowance/etc. for the period of internship with UNHCR. Travel expenses to and from the internship location shall be the responsibility of the respective sponsoring institution. UNHCR is not responsible for any renumeration for the intern during the internship period.
If you are a person with a disability and you expect you may face challenges during the recruitment process, you can indicate it in your application form.
There are options to select any health conditions you may have and outline any necessary adjustments related to disabilities during the recruitment phases. Providing this information is optional. It will be treated as strictly confidential and used only for the purpose of finding out how to better assist you during the recruitment process.
Adjustments for candidates with disabilities will be provided as best as possible and as needed upon request.
All candidates will be assessed based on meeting the requirements for each vacancy in relation to experience, skills, and education.
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UNHCR does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, travelling, processing, or training).
We welcome applications from candidates with a refugee or stateless background.
The UNHCR workforce consists of many diverse nationalities, cultures, languages, and opinions. UNHCR seeks to sustain and strengthen this diversity to ensure equal opportunities as well as an inclusive working environment for its entire workforce. Applications are encouraged from all qualified candidates without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

 

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Other information

This position doesn't require a functional clearance

Home-Based

No