Internship: Communications and Project Assistant – UNFPA SROC, Trinidad and Tobago

Purpose of Internship

To support the projects and communication work and function of the Liaison Office. The Intern is to provide support to the Trinidad and Tobago Liaison Office, primarily in the areas of drafting proposals, concept notes, terms of references, digital and print communications as well as event planning.

Backgound

The English and Dutch speaking countries and territories within the purview of the UNFPA Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean are diverse in size, population, language, economic and social development, and geographical landscape. These 22 countries and territories are estimated to be home to 7.5 million people with the largest concentrations in Jamaica (2.9 million), Trinidad and Tobago (1.4 million), Guyana (0.8 million) and Suriname (0.6 million).

The countries in the sub-region are mainly Small Island Developing States and the area is rich in natural resources such as bauxite, gold and natural gas, and is a global leader in the tourism industry. At the same time, the sub-region is characterized by a fragile ecosystem that is quickly devastated by natural and man-made disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes. There are challenges of high external migration, limited economic diversification, an aging population, high youth unemployment, high levels of crime and violence, including gender based violence, and high adolescent pregnancy rates.

Most of the countries in the region have accumulated huge debts over the years, which challenge the countries’ ability to pursue national and global sustainable development imperatives, which has been compounded by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Governments in the region adopted strict policy measures to counter the impact of COVID-19, and to contain the spread of the virus, in the form of quarantine measures and closure of borders. These measures, however, resulted in a skyrocketing of commodity prices in the countries, a massive decrease in tourism receipts, which have been coupled with reductions in foreign direct investment, and remittances. Economists have argued that COVID-19 has reversed the gains made towards the achievement of Agenda 2030, and this becomes a major risk for the countries of the sub- region in which economies are reporting declining growth rates.
 

Scope of work – inter alia

Create platform-specific digital content, including images, short videos and text for social media platforms and UNFPA SROC website to promote the work of UNFPA Trinidad and Tobago.
Generate ideas for original, context-specific content to localize global UNFPA days or causes on the SROC UNFPA website and via other UNFPA media channels, social media etc.
Write original pieces for UNFPA Trinidad and Tobago, which may also be reproduced in traditional media.
Script content for original digital video shorts on the Sustainable Developments Goals and/or other UNFPA Trinidad and Tobago projects.
Download global UNFPA content from Trello and other sources, and upload to UNFPA SROC social media platforms.
Monitor social media feeds to curate material from global and SROC UNFPA, so the material can be cross promoted on UN in TT platforms.
 

Requirements:

• Strong verbal and writing skills.
• Knowledge of graphic design using Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator or use of Canva is preferred but not mandatory.
• Strong copywriting skills for social media, with emphasis on excellent grammar, punctuation and use of appropriate layout and emoji styles for social media posts.
• Experience in social networking platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook and an understanding of digital communications strategies, social media platform-specific content requirements and social media trends are desirable. Understanding of Search Engine Optimization using hashtags and titles is paramount.

❑ Applicants must at the time of application meet one of the following requirements:

• Be enrolled in a postgraduate degree programme (such as a master’s programme, or higher);
• Be enrolled in the final academic year of a first university degree programme (such as bachelor’s degree or equivalent);
• Have recently graduated with a university degree (as defined in (a) and (b) above) and, if selected, must start the internship within one-year of graduation;
• Be enrolled in a postgraduate professional traineeship program and undertake the internship as part of this program.

To apply, kindly submit application letter and CV to: