Member: UNOPS Youth Engagement Platform at United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

Functions / Key Results Expected

• Generate Youth-Led Insights on SDG and Development Trends
• The YEP acts as a youth intelligence hub for UNOPS, providing analysis and lived-experience perspectives on emerging and evolving development challenges linked to the SDGs.

Key functions include:

• Identifying trends, risks, and opportunities affecting young people in UNOPS’ areas of work (infrastructure, procurement, project management, climate, fragility, etc.).
• Providing rapid feedback on global and regional developments from a youth lens to inform UNOPS strategies, policies, and programming.
• Contributing youth-informed viewpoints to internal analyses, strategy reviews, and foresight exercises.
• Provide Strategic Advisory Input to UNOPS Leadership and Initiatives
• The YEP serves as a consultative advisory body to UNOPS senior leadership and key corporate initiatives, ensuring that youth perspectives are embedded upstream in decision-making.

Key functions include:

• Reviewing and advising on selected strategic frameworks, policies, and flagship initiatives from a youth, DEI, and intergenerational equity perspective.
• Participating in targeted consultations with the Executive Director, UNOPS Management Team, and relevant units on issues where youth experience and innovation can add value.
• Co-creating recommendations and practical proposals that strengthen the relevance, legitimacy, and impact of UNOPS’ work for and with young people.
• Advance Youth Representation in UNOPS External Engagement and Thought Leadership
• The YEP positions UNOPS as a credible, youth-engaging actor in multilateral and development forums, ensuring that young voices are visible and heard in global dialogues.

Key functions include:

• Representing UNOPS youth perspectives at selected international/ regional events, in coordination with UNOPS leadership and external relations.
• Contributing to speaking points, panel interventions, and advocacy messages that highlight youth priorities and showcase UNOPS’ youth-related work.
• Supporting UNOPS’ participation in system-wide youth engagement initiatives and partnerships, in line with the UN Youth Strategy and Youth2030.
• Strengthen Youth-Inclusive Operational Approaches and Project Delivery
• The YEP contributes to youth-inclusive design and implementation of UNOPS operations, so that projects and initiatives better reflect and respond to the realities of young people.

Key functions include:

• Providing practical feedback on project management approaches to enhance youth participation, access, and benefit-sharing.
• Identifying good practices and lessons from youth-engaging projects and feeding them into corporate guidance, tools, and operational standards.
• Advising on how UNOPS can engage young people safely, ethically, and meaningfully as partners, beneficiaries, and innovators in its programmes.
• Skills
• Intercultural Communication, Leadership, Policy Analysis, Public Speaking, Research, Stakeholder Management

Competencies

• Education Requirements
• Desired Education:
• High School Diploma or equivalent

Experience Requirements

Required:

• Demonstrated youth leadership or community engagement (Involvement in a youth-focused initiative, student organisation, community project, volunteer network, or social-impact activity).
• Engagement in national, regional, or international youth platforms (Participation in youth summits, Model UN, youth councils, regional youth networks, or SDG-related youth consultations)
• Experience representing youth perspectives (Examples include speaking at a school/university forum, youth dialogue, community event, or taking part in advocacy or peer-led initiatives).
• Exposure to SDG-related issues or international development (This could come from coursework, volunteering, activism, personal lived experience, or participation in youth networks).
• Demonstrated experience in leading/engaging/contributing on platforms requiring collaboration across diverse groups (group projects, youth organisations, online communities, or volunteer settings).