United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - Geneva, Switzerland (Communications Position)

Summer 2023 Fellows:

Summer 2024 Fellows:

Summer 2025 Fellows:

Office Description

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. This position sits within the Innovation Section at UNHCR. The Mission of the Section is to drive meaningful change by designing, testing, and scaling innovative solutions that address the complex challenges faced by displaced communities.

UNHCR Innovation drives innovation through a three-stage model: incubation, acceleration, and learning – which, combined, lead to scale.

· Incubation: Managed through four dedicated innovation funds (Refugee-Led Innovation, Digital Innovation, Data Innovation, Environment & Climate Action Innovation), providing seed financing and technical support to early-stage ideas.

· Acceleration: Through our annual Accelerator programme, advancing validated prototypes with tailored mentorship, networks, and visibility opportunities.

· Learning: Systematically capturing evidence, insights, and lessons from across incubation and acceleration to inform decision-making, improve programme design, and enable adaptation and replication. This includes generating practical guidance, sharing learnings across UNHCR and partner networks, and strengthening the organization’s overall innovation capacity.

Together, these three programmes enable scale. By partnering with internal and external stakeholders, they expand proven innovations across UNHCR operations and refugee-led networks globally.

This model underpins support to over 150 active innovation projects worldwide, requiring robust outreach, stakeholder engagement, and visual storytelling to maximize impact uptake and foster cross-Section coherence.

Description of the Work

This Fellowship position supports the wider UNHCR Innovation team by strengthening communications, outreach, and visibility across its work. The role contributes to delivering the Section’s objectives by identifying and highlighting creative and dynamic approaches developed for and with refugees to address complex challenges.

This is a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience across a broad range of communications activities and to champion innovative ideas that can make a meaningful difference for people forced to flee. The Fellow in summer 2026 can expect to contribute to communications initiatives spanning multiple workstreams and channels. Activities will be determined in collaboration with the Fellow, but may include:

· Interviewing UNHCR colleagues and members of displaced and stateless communities.

· Writing longform articles for UNHCR Innovation’s web presence, including project stories, activities, and lessons learned.

· Writing, editing, and scheduling social media content to publicize innovative activities across UNHCR.

· Contributing to the drafting and production of newsletters and email updates for internal and external audiences.

· Proposing and supporting communications around key UN days, events, and moments to help raise the visibility of UNHCR Innovation’s work.

· Devising and supporting the production of videos on UNHCR Innovation projects or thematic areas of work (including scripting, recording, and basic editing).

· Designing social media graphics and other visual communications materials.

· Proofreading and editing reports, presentations, and draft communications products to ensure clear, accurate, and high-quality English.

· Developing communications products that require longer-term investment (e.g. thematic blog or video series, podcasts, data visualizations, or web content).

· Proactively suggesting ideas and approaches to strengthen the visibility, reach, and engagement of UNHCR Innovation’s work.

Desired Skills

Desired attributes, skills, and experience:

· Highly organized and self-motivated, with strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.

· Excellent command of written and spoken English, with immaculate grammar, clarity, and editorial precision, including the ability to proofread and edit a wide range of written materials to a high standard.

· Strong storytelling ability, with excellent writing, research, and editorial skills.

· Curious, analytical, and creative, with an interest in innovation, communications, and emerging approaches.

· Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively and professionally with colleagues across diverse teams, functions, and contexts.

· Ability to work independently and collaboratively, including meeting deadlines and performing well under time pressure.

· Experience producing written content for digital channels (e.g. web, newsletters, social media); design and audiovisual skills are an asset.

· Academic background in international relations, communications, journalism, project management, or a related field is an asset.

· Knowledge of the humanitarian sector, the UN system, and issues related to forced displacement, statelessness, or migration is an asset.

· Fluency in English is required; fluency in additional languages is an asset.

· Students and candidates with lived experience of displacement, statelessness, or migration are particularly encouraged to apply.