Internship (Development as Defense: Stakeholder Mapping, Partnerships, and Financing)

Location: Home Based

Corporate Background

UNDP works in about 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty, and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion. We help countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities and build resilience in order to sustain development results.

UNDP is working to strengthen new frameworks for development, disaster risk reduction and climate change. We support countries' efforts to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals, which will guide global development priorities through 2030. The key 2030 Agenda principle of leaving no one behind and stamping out inequality is at the core of everything we do.

UNDP focuses on helping countries build and share solutions in three main areas:

Sustainable development

Democratic governance and peacebuilding

Climate and disaster resilience

In all our activities, we encourage the protection of human rights and the empowerment of women, minorities and the poorest and most vulnerable.

UNDP Administrator Alexander De Croo has described development as "the first line of defense." The argument runs both ways. Conflict, violent extremism and instability reverse development, erasing years of progress in health, education and livelihoods. At the same time, investment in resilient institutions, services and economies reduces the risk of crisis in the first place.

As defense budgets rise and development budgets come under pressure, UNDP needs to make this case to a new set of stakeholders: defense ministries, national security institutions, security alliances and the defense industry. These audiences have their own priorities, language and funding streams. Engaging them effectively requires a clear understanding of how they defi ne security threats and where development fits.

Internship Background

The Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) has the responsibility for developing all relevant policy and guidance to support the results of UNDP’s Strategic Plan. BPPS’s staff provides technical advice to Country Offices; advocates for UNDP corporate messages, represents UNDP at multi-stakeholder fora including public-private dialogues, government and civil society dialogues, South-South and Triangular cooperation initiatives, and engages in UN inter-agency coordination in specific thematic areas. BPPS assists UNDP and partners to achieve higher quality development results through an integrated approach that links results-based management and performance monitoring with more effective and new ways of working. BPPS supports UNDP and partners to be more innovative, knowledge and data driven including in its programme support efforts in close coordination and thematic synergy with the Crisis Bureau (CB).

The Front Office of BPPS is responsible for the smooth and seamless management of the substantive flow of information to and from BPPS, coordinating effective internal communications with BPPS teams, other Bureaus, the UNDP Executive Office, as well as communications with external partners. The Front Office plans and coordinates the BPPS Director and BPPS Deputy Director’s internal and external interactions and interventions based on priorities and agendas, in close collaboration with technical teams and other Bureaus as needed, ensuring the Director and Deputy Director’s successful provision of political leadership, strategic guidance, and managerial as well as programmatic priorities in full compliance with UNDP’s mandate. The BPPS Front Office is also responsible for the effective coordination with the interpolation of activities and strategies with the Crisis Bureau.

The objective of the internship is to identify how UNDP can position itself with defense and security stakeholders, develop concrete partnerships and access new sources of financing. To get there, the work has three objectives:

1. Evolve UNDP's message: identify how the development-as-defense narrative can connect with the priorities and language of the defense and security community.

2. Identify partnership opportunities: map where UNDP could partner with defense and security actors in government and industry.

3. Identify financing opportunities: map defense and security-related funding streams that could support UNDP's work, and how to access them.

The work covers four thematic angles: climate and health resilience; governance systems; digital systems and AI; and economic security.

Duties and Responsibilities

Map Defense and Security Narratives

Review national security and defense strategies, alliance and regional security frameworks, defense ministry and parliamentary statements, and defense industry and think tank publications.

Document how these actors define threats and priorities, and how they describe the role of development, resilience and prevention.

Climate and Health Resilience

Map how defense and security actors treat climate change and health emergencies as security threats, including climate-related instability, disaster response and biosecurity.

Identify where UNDP's resilience work aligns with these concerns.

Governance Systems

Map how security actors approach fragile states, stabilization, counterterrorism and preventing violent extremism.

Identify where UNDP's governance, rule of law and stabilization work complements security objectives.

Digital Systems and AI

Map defense and security priorities on cyber resilience, disinformation, critical infrastructure protection and AI.

Identify where UNDP's work on digital public infrastructure, information integrity and AI governance connects with these priorities.

Economic Security

Map how security actors frame economic resilience, supply chain security, energy security, youth unemployment and private sector recovery in fragile settings.

Identify where UNDP's work on livelihoods, jobs, energy access and private sector development speaks to these priorities.

Message Gap Analysis

Compar