Organization Mission

Mission and objectives
Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (ICPSD) supports the private sector and foundations to become transformative partners in development through research, advocacy for inclusive business, facilitation of public-private dialogue and brokering partnerships. IICPSD, established in 2011 in partnership with the Government of Türkiye, is one of UNDP”s six Global Policy Centres. It leads UNDP’s global work on private sector and foundations and supports UNDP’s offices all over the world. The Center focuses on four thematic areas:

1. Inclusive Business;

2. Private Sector Engagement in Skills Development;

3. Impact investing;

4. Resilience and Crisis Response.

The Center also hosts four global initiatives: Business Call to Action, SDG Philanthropy Platform, Global Islamic Finance and Impact Investing Platform and Connecting Business Initiative.

Context:
Digital transformation has changed the rules of the game for entrepreneurship. Technology today makes it easier and faster than ever to launch and scale new businesses, and it creates opportunities for start-ups to tackle global challenges while advancing the SDGs. Virtual Digital Business Pre-incubation Initiative (VDBI) aims to remove physical barriers, offers a flexible, inclusive, and accessible pathway — giving young entrepreneurs from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) access to training, mentorship, and networks they might not otherwise reach.

VDBI is launched in partnership with UNDP ICPSD and HP Foundation and with Frontier Tech Leaders Programme”s Ethiopia and Global implementation students.
Each VDBI cohort runs over eight weeks, organized into four modules that take participants from the basics of entrepreneurship through to pitching and preparing for incubation or acceleration.

The Community Coordination Volunteer is expected to assist the Programme manager in arranging the training classes, maintaining the relationship with mentors and mentees, coordinating the communications among the trainers, participants and Programme team. This role also requires the collecting and tracking the participants” progress in the Programme and informing the trainers and Programme team in advance. The Community Coordination Volunteer is expected to contribute the Programme in the current cohort and the following cohort. In case the results are satisfying, the volunteer will be asked to support the Programme for the following cohorts.

Context

Context:
Digital transformation has changed the rules of the game for entrepreneurship. Technology today makes it easier and faster than ever to launch and scale new businesses, and it creates opportunities for start-ups to tackle global challenges while advancing the SDGs. Virtual Digital Business Pre-incubation Initiative (VDBI) aims to remove physical barriers, offers a flexible, inclusive, and accessible pathway — giving young entrepreneurs from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) access to training, mentorship, and networks they might not otherwise reach.

VDBI is launched in partnership with UNDP ICPSD and HP Foundation and with Frontier Tech Leaders Programme”s Ethiopia and Global implementation students.
Each VDBI cohort runs over eight weeks, organized into four modules that take participants from the basics of entrepreneurship through to pitching and preparing for incubation or acceleration.

Key Responsibilities

Areas of Support:
The areas of support of the Community Coordination Volunteer and the relevant tasks are as follows:
1- Overseeing the class and supporting the trainers: Retrieve the schedule from the trainers, send calendar invites to participants, the Programme team, and trainers according to the schedule, join the online classes, and assist the trainers during the sessions if needed.
2- Tracking student progress: Collect attendance reports from participants and create attendance sheets to track participation. Inform the Programme team and trainers about attendance results and overall attendance numbers.
3- Liaison with the mentors & mentees: Organize mentor–mentee matchmaking sessions and follow up with mentors and mentees (participants) if they do not attend the scheduled meetings. Ensure that the meetings take place. Track the attendance at the mentor-mentee sessions. Collect the mentee & mentor reports from each session and source them in the folders.
4- Overseeing communication platforms: Set up and manage communication within the group used by participants and the Programme team.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

– Candidates must be Bachelor degree (or higher) student in Social Sciences, Public Administration or STEM Areas or postgraduate programme (such as a Master’s programme or higher).

IT skills:

– Knowledge and a proficient user of Microsoft Office productivity tools.

– Interest and/or experience in online community platforms and apps like Whatsapp.

Language skills:

– Fluency in English with excellent reading and writing skills is required.
– Working knowledge in French is desirable.

Competencies:
1- Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline​.
2- Be a pragmatic problem solver and proactive when faced with unexpected challenges.
3- Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident​.
4- Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.
5- Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.
6- Have an interest and motivation in working in an international organization.
7- Communicates effectively when working in teams and independently.
8- Enthusiastic in organizing and structuring various tasks and responsibilities.
9- Ability to understand the needs and challenges faced by adult learners