United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - Geneva, Switzerland (Partnerships 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 humanitarian 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 contributes to the wider UNHCR Innovation work by supporting partnerships and fundraising related tasks and leading on dedicated projects. The role contributes to delivering the Section’s objectives by supporting efforts to identify new opportunities for collaboration and manage existing relationships with donors and technical partners, including governments, private sector, foundations and displaced communities.

This is a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience across a broad range of partnerships and fundraising activities and to learn about and champion innovative ideas that can make a meaningful difference for people forced to flee. The Fellow in summer 2026 can expect to contribute to partnerships initiatives spanning multiple workstreams and channels, working closely with a number of UNHCR teams of inside and outside the Innovation Section to advance innovative solutions to humanitarian problems.

Specific projects of the fellow might include:

· Researching potential partners in a particular geographical context

· Design and draft new partnerships documents/proposals

· Lead on the identification of technical partners that can provide innovative solutions for UNHCR's humanitarian work

· Lead on preparing the team's engagement for key industry events and support leadership during their attendance

General activities will be determined in collaboration with the Fellow, but may include:

· Support the identification of new funding opportunities, including private sector partnerships and governmental donors.

· Conduct research on potential donors and partners to provide intelligence for strategic decision-making.

· Assist in preparing fundraising materials, including concept notes, proposals, presentations, talking points, and reports.

· Support engagement with non-funding partners (e.g., private sector innovators) exploring collaborations with UNHCR to test new solutions.

· Support the organization of key partnership and fundraising events, such as the Summit for the Future, AidEx, AI4Good, etc., coordinating side events, talking points, and presentations.

· Assist in partnership-related meetings by taking notes, drafting minutes, and preparing accompanying materials.

· Develop compelling, donor-facing content such as success stories, impact reports, social media materials, and case studies highlighting the role of innovation in refugee response.

· Mapping of calls for proposals from major funders and companies, relevant to the Innovation Section

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

Desired Skills

· 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, , including the ability to draft and proofread a wide range of written materials.

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

· Good command of MS Office with a focus on PPT and Word applications.

· 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.

· Academic background in international relations, governance, policy, business development, 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.

· Knowledge of innovation, partnerships, contact management, event management or fundraising 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.