External Relations Intern

Deadline for Applications March 30, 2026 Hardship Level (not applicable for home-based) A (least hardship) Family Type (not applicable for home-based) Family Staff Member / Affiliate Type Internship Target Start Date 2026-05-01 Terms of Reference Terms of Reference External Relations Internship Title: External Relations Intern Duty Station: SENRB Dakar, Senegal Duration: 8 months Contract Type: Internship Period: 1st May 2026 – 31st December 2026 1. Organizational Context UNHCR is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights, and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people. Every year, millions of men, women, and children are forced to flee their homes to escape conflict, violence, and persecution. The Regional Bureau for West and Central Africa (RBWCA), based in Dakar, oversees UNHCR operations in eight countries with an established presence: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mali, Niger, and Nigeria. The region is currently home to over 21.9 million forcibly displaced and stateless people, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, asylum-seekers, and returnees. Major concentrations are found in Chad, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and the DRC, where conflict, intercommunal violence, and human rights violations continue to drive new displacement. The intern will join the External Engagement Team and contribute to the Mastercard Foundation partnership multi-functional team. The External Engagement Team leads donor engagement and partnership management, reporting, communications, and social media. The Mastercard Foundation partnership spans five countries in the region and aims to support forcibly displaced youth in accessing education and employment opportunities while strengthening community-led organizations. The partnership places a strong emphasis on results, learning, visibility, and youth‑centered impact narratives, requiring close coordination between country operations, technical teams, and external engagement colleagues. The intern will support the External Engagement Team and country operations by identifying compelling stories from the field, contributing to the production and dissemination of high-quality content, supporting donor visibility and engagement efforts and assisting the multi-functional team in organizing regional events. The ideal candidate will have strong drafting and communication skills, familiarity with social media engagement, and excellent organizational abilities. They should be a dynamic and proactive team player with a strong interest in refugee issues, ready to contribute to an eight-month internship within UNHCR’s External Engagement Team. 2. Duties and Responsibilities Under the supervision of the Associate Donor Relations Officer, the intern will support activities related to communications, partnerships, and programme regional coordination. Key responsibilities include: 1. Content Development and Communications • Identify and document compelling stories and impact narratives from UNHCR operations in West and Central Africa, with particular attention to donor priorities, partnership objectives, and demonstrable programme outcomes. • Contribute to drafting communication materials, including social media posts, web stories, briefing notes, and event summaries. • Support the production and dissemination of communication content across UNHCR platforms ensuring consistency with donor visibility requirements and UNHCR branding and communication guidelines. 2. Support to Partnership Engagement and Regional Events • Assist in preparing briefing materials, presentations, and background notes for thematic events., donor meetings, partnership reviews, and senior management engagements.Support the organization and coordination of regional workshops, events, and visibility activities. • Contribute to drafting summaries, reports, and follow-up materials from meetings and events, highlighting key outcomes, commitments, and next steps relevant to the partner. 3. Support to the Coordination Team of the Mastercard Foundation Partnership • Assist in compiling updates and inputs from country operations involved in the partnership across the region. • Support internal coordination by helping organize meetings, consolidating technical inputs, and maintaining partnership documentation. • Contribute to the preparation of regional briefs and materials highlighting progress and impact of the partnership, such as activity/recommendation trackers, briefing notes, and shared reference materials supporting partnership management. Perform any other tasks assigned. 3. Essential Minimum Qualifications and Professional Experience Required • Be of Senegalese nationality, refugee status in Senegal or have the right to work in Senegal • Be available to work full-time for the duration of the internship. • Be a student in International Relations, Political Science, Communication or any other related field • Have excellent communication skills with strong interpersonal skills as well as be comfortable with working in an international and multicultural environment, • Be fluent in French and have good knowledge of English, with advanced writing and editing skills. • Have good experience using the Microsoft Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Power BI). • Analytical Thinking. • Innovation and Creativity. • Be highly organised and have good attention to detail. • Be able to multi-task and to priorities workload. • Be a flexible team-player. • Experience in data collection, analysis and presenting data is an asset, particularly for supporting impact communication and donor‑facing materials. 4. Eligibility: In order to be considered for an internship, candidates must meet the following eligibility criteria: • Be graduated or current student in a graduate/undergraduate school programme from a university or higher education facility accredited by UNESCO. • Have completed at least two years of undergraduate studies in a field relevant or of interest to work of the Organization. • An individual whose father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister is a staff member of UNHCR, including a Temporary Appointment holder or a member of the Affiliate Workforce, is not eligible for an internship. 5. Location and Conditions : The successful candidate will be based with the team in the Dakar, Senegal. The internship is an eight-month full-time role with 40 working hours per week, from Monday to Friday. Please note that the terms of internship, as defined by UNHCR practice, include the payment of a Food and Local Transportation Allowance (FLTA). In case the intern is sponsored by another source during the internship this will be deducted from the FLTA. NB: Applications from refugees are strongly encouraged. Applications from women are strongly encouraged. Standard Job Description Required Languages , , Desired Languages , , Additional Qualifications Skills Education Certifications Work Experience Other information This position doesn't require a functional clearance Remote No Important notice: Please note that UNHCR does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, meeting, travelling, processing or training). Read about how to avoid scams and fraudulent job offers. Please note that applications are only accepted via the UNHCR online recruitment platform. CVs and/or application requests sent via email will not be answered, reviewed nor considered. For external applicants: We would like to call your attention on the eligibility of International Professional (P) category: According to our Recruitment and Assignments Policy, P staff members will not normally serve in the country of their nationality, and the first regular appointment in the P category must be outside the staff member's country of nationality. In practical terms this means that you are not eligible to apply for International Professional vacancies advertised in the country where you are national of. In case of technical difficulties when applying, external applicants (not current UNHCR workforce members) can write to recruitmentcase@unhcr.org. For former UNHCR Colleagues: Former UNHCR employees who are on mandatory break-in service or have separated from UNHCR after 1 October 2022 should create an account through this platform. Once you fill in your basic personal information (employee ID, birth date, name, email address), Workday will identify you as prior personnel and merge your employee account with your external applicant account. 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. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, takes the lead in protecting people forced to flee wars and persecution around the world, providing life-saving aid including shelter, food and water to ensure their basic safety, rights and dignity. With 18,879 women and men working in 137 countries, we work tirelessly to make a difference in the lives of 89.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. Our dedicated and professional staff work around the clock in roles including legal protection, community services, public affairs, health and more. Despite the challenges they can face, our staff are proud to work for UNHCR and determined to make a positive impact. Why a career with UNHCR? Our dedicated staff work to protect and assist people fleeing conflict and persecution at a time when global forced displacement is at a record high. Our colleagues bring a wide range of specialized skills, including expertise in legal protection, administration, community services, public affairs, health and other disciplines. Disability inclusion 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.