External Relations Intern

March 30, 2026

Hardship Level (not applicable for home-based)

A (least hardship)

FamilyInternship

2026-05-01Terms 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.

 

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Desired Languages

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Additional Qualifications

Skills

Education

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Other information

This position doesn't require a functional clearance

Remote

No