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Partial Funding Undergraduate Masters PhD Internship the USA

UN Women Internship Programme 2027 - Unpaid, Year-Round

Deadline Rolling. No published cutoff, vacancies appear year-round on UN Women Careers 196 days left · Hosted by UN Women (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women) · Published

The UN Women Internship Programme is the entry route into the United Nations entity for gender equality, and it works nothing like a scholarship competition. UN Women offers internships depending on the availability of meaningful assignments and the capacity of a unit to supervise an intern, so placements surface on the careers site through the year rather than in one annual round. Assignments run from a minimum of two months to a maximum of six, are generally full-time, and cover strategic partnerships, communications, advocacy, policy, evaluation, human resources, programme planning, research and data, finance and ICT. Most interns end up supporting the design, implementation and evaluation of UN Women projects, with a country, regional, sectoral or thematic focus attached. For readers looking at the United States, the relevant duty station is the New York office at 220 East 42nd Street, which sits alongside the global offices in Nairobi and Bonn and a long list of regional, country, multi-country and liaison offices. Be clear-eyed about the money before you invest time in the application. UN Women states plainly that interns are not financially remunerated for their work. A stipend towards basic daily costs such as meals and transport at the duty station is possible, but only where no university, government, foundation or scholarship programme is funding you, and UN Women publishes no figure for it. Travel, insurance, accommodation and everything else you live on come from you or your sponsoring institution, and proof of health insurance is checked before you start.

No salary paid
Unpaid
Students and recent grads
Final year to PhD
No fixed deadline
Year-round
And offices worldwide
New York HQ
How to apply Am I eligible? Official website

What is the UN Women Internship Programme?

The UN Women Internship Programme puts students and recent graduates inside the United Nations entity for gender equality for two to six months, either at the New York headquarters on East 42nd Street or at one of the offices UN Women runs around the world. The work is real programme work rather than shadowing. Interns support the design, implementation and evaluation of UN Women projects, and the subject areas UN Women lists are wide: strategic partnerships, communications, advocacy, policy, evaluation, human resources, programme planning, research and data, finance and ICT. Past interns quoted on UN Women's own page describe working across the UN SWAP and the Corporate Evaluation Plan in the Independent Evaluation Office, running with unpaid care work in economic empowerment, and joining the UNiTE campaign team.

Money is where this programme demands honesty. UN Women pays interns nothing. Its wording is that interns are not financially remunerated for their work, and the only softening is a stipend towards basic daily expenses such as meals and transport at the duty station, payable only to interns whom no university, government, foundation or scholarship programme is already supporting. No figure is published for that stipend anywhere on the official page, so treat any amount you see quoted on an aggregator as unverified. Travel, insurance, accommodation and living costs sit with you or your sponsoring institution, and proof of health insurance is one of the documents you hand over before you start. For a New York placement that adds up fast, which is why the applicants who make this work tend to arrive with a university internship grant or a government scheme behind them.

The timing mechanic catches people out more than the eligibility rules do. There is no annual application round and no published cutoff. UN Women offers internships depending on the availability of meaningful assignments and the capacity of units and offices to receive and supervise interns, so vacancies appear on the UN Women Careers site through the year and close on their own short windows. A check of that careers site on 15 September 2026 returned 58 live vacancies with nothing at all in the Internships category, the others splitting into 27 local opportunities, 16 international opportunities, 14 consultancies and 1 internal opportunity. That is not a sign the programme has stopped. It is what a demand-driven scheme looks like between postings, and the fix is to check the Internships filter weekly rather than treating one empty search as an answer.

Get the mechanical parts right and you save yourself the most common failure. Complete every section of the online application form, including education and employment history, because UN Women says an incomplete application may be disqualified from selection and that attaching your resume does not replace filling the fields in. The old Word P11 form is no longer required, whatever older posts tell you. Submit well before the stated hour, since deadlines run in the time zone of your current location and late applications are refused. If you are weighing several UN and multilateral routes this year, the UNFPA Global Internship Roster guide covers a stipend-paying alternative, the World Bank Treasury internship guide covers a paid Washington option, and current vacancies sit on the UN Women internship programme page.

Who can apply

Eligibility

Your progress 0 / 7
  • ✓
    Enrolled in a postgraduate degree programme
    UN Women accepts enrolment in a master's, post-master's or doctorate programme as the first route in. You only need to satisfy one of the four routes, so a PhD candidate and a master's student clear this gate on the same line.
  • ✓
    Or in the final year of a first degree
    Students in the final year of a bachelor's programme or equivalent qualify. Earlier undergraduate years do not, which is stricter than several other UN agencies, so a second-year student should wait rather than apply and hope.
  • ✓
    Or a recent graduate who can start within two years
    If you have already finished university, you remain eligible as long as the internship starts within two years of your graduation date. That two-year window is generous by UN standards and is the route most career changers use.
  • ✓
    Or on national service or a postgraduate traineeship
    Two further routes exist. One covers enrolment in a national service obligation programme of which the internship may form a part. The other covers a professional traineeship programme attached to a postgraduate degree, of which the internship may form a part.
  • ✓
    Any nationality, judged on values as well as study
    UN Women says it welcomes applications from all backgrounds, including different nationalities and study profiles, so citizenship is not a gate in itself. Applicants are expected to show the UN Women values of professionalism, respect for diversity and integrity.
  • ✓
    Your own health insurance for the whole placement
    Interns arrange and pay for medical cover themselves. Proof of health insurance coverage is one of the documents UN Women asks for once a hiring office has selected you, so cover has to be in place before the start date rather than sorted out later.
  • ✓
    The money to live on while unpaid
    This is the gate that stops most people, and it is worth treating as an eligibility rule rather than a detail. Travel, insurance, accommodation and other living expenses must be borne by you or your sponsoring institution. A New York placement means paying New York rent out of savings, a university grant or a government scheme.
What you get

Benefits

  • Salary Unpaid. Interns are not financially remunerated
  • Daily expenses stipend Only if no university, government, foundation or scholarship funds you. No amount published
  • Placement length 2 to 6 months, generally full-time
  • Duty station UN Women New York office, 220 East 42nd Street
  • Work you get Design, implementation and evaluation of UN Women projects
  • Start dates Available throughout the year, subject to a unit having an assignment
  • Medical insurance Not provided. You show proof of your own cover
  • Travel, visa and accommodation Paid by you or your sponsoring institution
  • Salary Unpaid at every duty station
  • Daily expenses stipend Same conditional stipend rule applies worldwide
  • Where placements sit Global offices in Nairobi and Bonn, plus regional, country, multi-country and liaison offices
  • Focus of the assignment Country-specific, regional, sectoral or thematic
  • Subject areas Partnerships, communications, advocacy, policy, evaluation, HR, planning, research and data, finance, ICT
  • Supervision Each placement sits inside a unit that has capacity to supervise
  • Living costs Accommodation and other living expenses are yours
  • Guaranteed placement No. Internships depend on the availability of meaningful assignments
What to prepare

Document checklist

Documents gathered 0 / 8
  • ✓
    A fully completed online application form
    Every section counts, including education and employment history. UN Women warns that an incomplete form may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process, and this is the single most common way applications die before anyone reads them.
  • ✓
    Your CV or resume as an attachment
    Attach it in the Attachments section, but do not treat it as a substitute. UN Women states that attaching a resume does not replace completing the required fields in the online form, and doing so leaves your application counted as incomplete.
  • ✓
    No P11 form needed any more
    The Word version of the UN Women P11 personal history form is no longer required. Older guides and aggregator posts still tell applicants to fill one in, so ignore that instruction and put the time into the online form instead.
  • ✓
    Two letters of recommendation
    Requested after a hiring office has contacted and selected you, not at the application stage. Line up two people who can write quickly, because this sits in the pack that has to be complete before the internship can start.
  • ✓
    Proof of health insurance coverage
    A document showing you hold medical cover for the internship period. UN Women provides none, so buy a policy that covers you at the duty station and keep the certificate ready.
  • ✓
    Proof of school enrolment or graduation
    Whichever route made you eligible has to be evidenced. An enrolment letter from your registrar covers current students, and a degree certificate or dated transcript covers recent graduates applying within the two-year window.
  • ✓
    Passport, plus a visa where one applies
    A scanned copy of your passport goes into the pre-start pack, along with a visa if applicable to your situation and duty station. Ask the hiring office early what the New York office needs from a non-US national, since UN Women publishes no visa terms for interns.
  • ✓
    The signed internship offer and agreement
    UN Women provides the offer and agreement once you are selected. You accept and sign it, and that document sets the start date, the end date and the terms of the placement.
Step by step

How to apply

Postgraduate enrolment, final year of a first degree, graduation within the past two years, or a national service or postgraduate traineeship programme. One route is enough, but you need at least one, and the final-year rule rules out most undergraduates.
The placement is unpaid, so plan the funding before the application. Many universities run internship grants for exactly this, and some governments fund UN placements. If a funder covers you, note that the UN Women stipend then does not apply, since it exists only for interns nobody else is supporting.
Postings appear on the UN Women Careers site under the Internships vacancy category. When this guide was written the category was empty and 58 other vacancies were live, which is normal for a programme that advertises only when a unit has an assignment. Check weekly rather than once.
Education and employment history are the sections applicants skip, and skipping them is grounds for disqualification. Write the content in a document first, then paste it in, so a browser timeout does not cost you the work.
Upload your resume in the Attachments section. UN Women states that an attachment does not replace the required fields, so the form has to stand on its own. The old Word P11 form is not needed.
UN Women applies application deadlines in the time zone of your current location and does not accept late applications. Aim to file a full day early, because a posting closes on the hour stated, not on the day.
UN Women replies only to applications it wants to take further. If a hiring office selects you, it asks for two letters of recommendation, proof of health insurance, proof of enrolment or graduation, a scanned passport and visa where applicable, and your signed internship offer and agreement.
When

Deadline and timeline

Application deadline
Rolling. No published cutoff, vacancies appear year-round on UN Women Careers
196 days left
Any month
A UN Women unit identifies a meaningful assignment and the capacity to supervise an intern, then posts the vacancy. There is no annual opening date to diarise, which is why the Internships filter on the careers site is the thing to bookmark.
The posting window
Each internship advert runs its own short window. Deadlines are applied in the time zone of your current location and late applications are not accepted, so treat the closing hour as real.
After the closing date
The hiring office screens applications and contacts only those candidates in whom there is further interest. Silence is the normal outcome and no rejection message is guaranteed.
Two to four weeks before starting
Selected candidates put the pack together: two letters of recommendation, proof of health insurance, proof of school enrolment or graduation, a scanned passport and visa where applicable, and the signed internship offer and agreement.
2 to 6 months
The internship itself runs full-time at the assigned duty station, whether that is the New York headquarters, a global office in Nairobi or Bonn, or a regional or country office.
March 2027
The planning date shown on this page. It is a placeholder for a rolling programme, not a published cutoff, and any internship advertised before or after it follows exactly the same process.
Questions

FAQ

What is the UN Women Internship Programme?

It is the internship scheme run by UN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women describes it as a chance for students to get direct exposure to its work in strategic partnerships, communications, advocacy, policy, evaluation, human resources, programme planning, research and data, finance and ICT. Assignments vary a lot. Some carry a country or regional focus, others a sectoral or thematic one, and most interns support the design, implementation and evaluation of UN Women projects. Internships are offered depending on the availability of meaningful assignments and the capacity of a unit to receive and supervise an intern, so the programme runs continuously rather than in one annual intake.

Is the UN Women internship paid?

No. UN Women states that interns are not financially remunerated for their work. There is one narrow exception: interns may receive a stipend to help cover basic daily expenses such as meals and transportation at the duty station, and only when they are not financially supported by any institution or programme such as a university, government, foundation or scholarship. UN Women does not publish an amount for that stipend, so do not budget around a figure you read elsewhere. Everything else stays with you: travel, insurance, accommodation and other living expenses are borne by the intern or a sponsoring institution.

Who can apply for a UN Women internship?

You need to satisfy one of four routes. Enrolment in a master's, post-master's or doctorate programme; enrolment in the final year of a first university degree at bachelor's level or equivalent; recent graduation, provided you can start the internship within two years of graduating; or enrolment in a national service obligation programme or a professional traineeship attached to a postgraduate degree, of which the internship may form a part. UN Women welcomes applications from all backgrounds, including different nationalities and study profiles, and asks applicants to demonstrate its values of professionalism, respect for diversity and integrity.

Are there UN Women internships in New York?

Yes, the New York office is one of the duty stations, at 220 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017. It is the headquarters, sitting alongside global offices in Nairobi and Bonn plus regional, country, multi-country and liaison offices. UN Women's own intern testimonials come from headquarters teams, including the Independent Evaluation Office and the UNiTE campaign. What no page promises is a New York seat at any given moment: like every other duty station, the office advertises an internship only when a unit has an assignment and someone to supervise it.

When is the UN Women internship deadline?

There is no single annual deadline. Each internship advert carries its own closing date, and UN Women applies that deadline in the time zone of your current location, with late applications refused. The March 2027 date on this page is a planning marker for a rolling programme, nothing more. A check of the UN Women Careers site on 15 September 2026 found 58 live vacancies with none in the Internships category, split across 27 local opportunities, 16 international opportunities, 14 consultancies and 1 internal opportunity, which shows what an empty week looks like on a programme that posts on demand.

How long is a UN Women internship?

Between two and six months. UN Women sets a minimum of two months and a maximum of six, and the exact length depends on your availability, your academic requirements and what the hiring unit needs. Assignments are generally full-time and are available throughout the year, so a summer placement, a semester placement and a post-graduation placement are all workable within the same rules. Plan the length against your funding, since an unpaid six months in New York costs a great deal more than an unpaid two.

Do I need a visa to intern at UN Women in New York?

UN Women asks selected candidates for a scanned copy of their passport and a visa where one applies to their situation, which is as far as its published material goes. It does not state visa sponsorship terms for interns on its internship page, so a non-US national should ask the hiring office directly what will be required and how long it takes, as soon as an offer is on the table. Build that answer into your timetable before you commit to a start date, because immigration processing is the part of an internship plan that most often slips.

What documents do UN Women interns need before starting?

Once a hiring office has contacted and selected you, the pack is two letters of recommendation, proof of health insurance coverage, proof of school enrolment or graduation, a scanned copy of your passport and a visa where applicable, and an accepted and signed internship offer and agreement, which UN Women provides. None of this is needed at the application stage. What matters then is a complete online form, since UN Women says an incomplete application may be disqualified and that attaching a resume does not replace filling in the required fields.

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