Intern Opportunity at Innovation for Development, Harare
Innovation for Development Intern (Zimbabwean Nationals Only)
Location : Harare, Zimbabwe
Application Deadline : 14-Jul-15
Additional Category
Democratic Governance
Type of Contract : Internship
Post Level : Intern
Languages Required : English
Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)
01-Aug-2015
Duration of Initial Contract : 6 months
Expected Duration of Assignment : 6 months
Background
UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2014-2017 (SP) emphasizes the need to identify, explore, test, evaluate and scale up innovative approaches across priority subject areas, in programme development, management and review, through established and new knowledge and collaboration partnerships, and as a key part of our own institutional innovation. To roll out its innovation agenda, UNDP with support from the Government of Denmark set up a Global Innovation Facility in 2014. With the support of the Global Innovation Facility, UNDP Zimbabwe Country Office successfully rolled out a Pilot initiative on ICTs for Development in 2014. Building on the efforts and lessons learned from this Pilot, the CO will be rolling out a project geared towards Leveraging ICTs for Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment Creation for 2015.
The initiative was drawn from the realization that the most crucial challenge facing Zimbabwe is the high level of poverty and exclusion. While national poverty was at 62.6% in 2011, rural poverty reached 76% (PICES). Low agricultural productivity continues to be a challenge, with limited access by farmers to inputs, skills, credit and markets. Meanwhile a significant share of the population – especially the youth – is excluded from a wide range of opportunities. With a slowdown in economic growth as well as declined productivity, employment and income generating opportunities have evaporated. Poverty and exclusion are further exacerbated by weak resilience capacities, which increase vulnerability to a wide range of shocks, including the adverse impacts of climate change and increased natural disasters. The effects of this decline in economic growth are significantly felt by ever growing youthful population. The majority of this demographic is educated and tech-savvy but remains largely unemployed. While entrepreneurship programmes have been integrated within national development programmes, majority still adopt traditional approaches, and the young people still lack market oriented skills, start-up capital, requisite partnerships for market linkages and productive technologies.
Closing date: Tuesday, 14 July 2015