Nutrition – Sensitive Social Protection Intern

About the Role

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is seeking a Nutrition – Sensitive Social Protection Intern to support operationalization of the first cohort of co-innovation partnerships in the Co-Innovation platform. This position will be based in our Washington DC, USA office and is offered on a 3 months’ fixed-term contract basis. It will be on a 32 working hours / 4 working days per week basis.

Reporting to the Global Social Protection programme lead, this internship will involve securing stakeholders’ interest in participating and producing specific action plans/capacity-building curriculum for the co-innovation partnerships.

This may involve ‘matching’ countries in suitable partnerships or identifying ‘host’ countries/contexts that are exemplary of best practices in nutrition-sensitive social protection. The intern may be requested to travel to one or more participating countries for scoping visits and to make arrangements for operationalizing the co-innovation partnerships.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Conducting a needs/opportunities assessment to better understand the ways co-innovation partnerships can be used to advance nutrition-sensitive social protection agendas/priorities
• Supporting securing commitments from national and sub-national stakeholders (primarily government actors) to participate in the co-innovation platform
• Contributing to drafting of specific action plans and capacity-building curricula for the co-innovation platform partnerships
• Working closely with GAIN’s country-level social protection focal points
• Engaging regularly with external country-level stakeholders, under guidance from GAIN’s global and country-based social protection teams

About you

The ideal candidate will be familiar with public policy concepts, capacity-building approaches, and principles of innovation and policy change. You will be able to work collaboratively with a team and within a fast-paced, multicultural organization.

The postholder will possess excellent communications skills and excellent command of English. You will be able to engage with external stakeholders and convey technical concepts in a clear way.

Currently enrolled at a university, either in final year/completed enrolled in or have completed a university degree in a topic relating to Public Health, Policy/Governance, or International Development or related fields. In addition, you will be computer literate in Microsoft Office.

About our Offer

The salary on offer for this role is USD 17.50 per hour (gross salary).

About GAIN

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the United Nations in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Due to COVID19, conflict in Ukraine and climate change, malnutrition and hunger have worsened significantly since 2019, reversing a decade of progress. There is growing recognition that our food systems need to change if we are to reverse these trends.

GAIN’s Strategy aims to transform food systems to make healthier diets from sustainable food systems accessible to all people and especially those whose are most vulnerable to shocks. By 2027, we aim to improve the access of 1.5 billion people to nutritionally enhanced staple foods, improve the access of 25 million people to healthier diets, and support positive food system change in 10 countries. This is bold and complex, and the only way to achieve this is to work together with partners including governments, businesses, and civil society at the country and global level. These goals, and the ways of achieving them, build on our twenty-year legacy of transforming people’s lives with improved nutrition through concerted action and effective policy change.

Our Working Culture and Environment

We provide a flexible working environment that includes a combination of home and office working opportunities through our global hybrid working policy. This encourages our staff to have a healthy work-life balance and increases staff motivation, enriches employee wellbeing, and improves performance and productivity.

All of our positions are based in one or more of GAIN’s designated offices as stated on our job advertisements. Successful candidates will be based in one of GAIN’s country offices and must have the existing right to live and work within a reasonably commutable distance of the relevant city / cities in which the role is advertised. Please note, that GAIN does not sponsor working visas and relocations.

GAIN reserves the right to withdraw an offer of employment for candidates who are considered to ineligible under the above conditions during or after the recruitment process.

Applicants must be currently based and have the existing right to live and work in the United States to be eligible to apply for this position.

This advert closes on 27th May 2024. Early applications are encouraged. GAIN reserves the right to close this advert early should we receive suitable candidates ahead of the closing date.

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition is committed to equality of opportunity and creating an inclusive environment where diversity is valued. We are keen to reflect the diversity of our society at every level within our organisation and therefore welcome applications from talented and committed people from all backgrounds, representing the diverse societies we operate in.