Internship â Ethics Team in Foresight, Leadership & Ethics in Science

WHO - World Health Organization; Genf; Vor Ort; CHF 17.000 - 23.000; Vollzeit

Zusammenfassung

WHO – World Health Organization in Geneva invites interns to join the Ethics Team in Foresight, Leadership & Ethics in Science to explore global bioethics issues spanning surveillance, genomics, and health equity. Under the supervision of the Senior Ethics Specialist, you will contribute to briefs, evidence summaries, and meetings, and help develop guidance on public health ethics.

You will gain practical experience in coordinating multi-country projects within a multicultural, multidisciplinary

Qualifikationen

• Postgraduate student or within 18 months of completion.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly in writing and speaking.

Aufgaben

• Assist Ethics team with ongoing projects and meetings.
• Prepare briefs, evidence summaries, meeting notes, and presentations.
• Review literature and synthesize information on ethics topics.
• Support development of tools for anticipatory governance of emerging technologies.
• Help implement findings from reviews on ethics in public health surveillance.
• Organize consultations, workshops, and expert meetings with agendas and summaries.
• Support outreach activities such as Global Forum on Bioethics and related platforms.

Kenntnisse

Team work

Communication

Respecting and promoting differences

Ausbildung

Postgraduate in bioethics/public health/medicine/law

Jobbeschreibung

Job Description - Internship – Ethics Team in Foresight, Leadership & Ethics in Science (2604183)

Internship – Ethics Team in Foresight, Leadership & Ethics in Science - ( 2604183 )

Grade : No grade

Contractual Arrangement : Intern

Contract Duration (Years, Months, Days) : 24 weeks

Job Posting

Oct 2, 2026, 2:51:33 PM

Closing Date

Oct 23, 2026, 9:59:00 PM

Organization

HQ/SFH Science for Health

Schedule

Full-time

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that the deadline for receipt of applications indicated above reflects your personal device's system settings.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

The Ethics team within the science division is the focal point for the examination of ethical issues raised by activities throughout the Organization and develops global norms in the area of health ethics. The team also supports Member States in building health ethics capacities and addressing ethical issues that arise in their public health programs and policies. These issues cover a range of global bioethics topics from public health surveillance to developments in genomics, and from research with human beings to fair access to health services. This team’s work is particularly important in the context of contemporary global health challenges which present difficult questions in areas such as global governance of emerging technologies, health inequalities, resource allocation and priority setting, emergency preparedness and responses, research and multi-country studies, and climate change and health.

DESCRIPTION OF DUTIES

Under the supervision of the Senior Ethics Specialist, the intern will assist the Ethics team at WHO in technical work as assigned in the agreed terms of reference:

• Participate in on-going ethics technical projects and meetings, and FLS unit and SFH departmental projects and meetings, as requested.
• Working closely with the ethics team, support the preparation of technical outputs, including briefs, evidence summaries, meeting notes, draft reports and presentations on a diverse range of ethical issues to help research and develop normative guidance on public health and research ethics.
• Review and synthesize academic and grey literature on specific topics in line with the objectives of the ethics team.
• Support the development, piloting and implementation of TArGET: the WHO-OECD Tool for the. Anticipatory Governance of Emerging Technologies in Public Health.
• Support the development of a programme of work with the health emergencies team to implement the findings of a review of ethical issues related to advances in public health surveillance.
• Support the organization and documentation of consultations, workshops and expert meetings, including agendas, background notes, presentations, participant lists, summaries of discussions and follow-up actions.
• Supporting the teams’ major outreach activities, namely the Global Summit of National Ethics committees and regional meetings, the Global Forum on Bioethics in Research and the Ethics2Policy Platform.

Learning objectives

The purpose of the WHO Internship Programme is to provide an enriching learning experience for students and recent graduates. The Learning Objectives outlined within each internship vacancy are a key component of the programme.

• Understand the objectives of WHOs work in ethics, particularly as it relates to the ethics and governance of emerging technologies, climate change and health action, emergency preparedness and response and uptake of ethics in policy and decision making in global health.
• Understand how WHO engages Member States, expert groups, regional and country offices and external partners in the development and implementation of ethics-related guidance.
• Acquire knowledge about the process of developing international guidelines at WHO.
• Contribute state of the art ethics research to pressing global health issues.
• Working in a multi-cultural, pluri-disciplinary environment.
• Gain practical experience in managing complex projects in global health ethics.

DURATION OF INTERNSHIP

1 February to 16 July 2027: 24 weeks

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

The intern is expected to be enrolled in a postgraduate qualification (or apply within eighteen months of completion), in bioethics, public health, medicine, philosophy, law or related disciplines.

Skills

Core competencies

• Team work
• Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences
• Communication

All interns should be able to demonstrate the following skills in line with the WHO core competencies:

• Communicating effectively orally and in writing
• Showing willingness to learn from mistakes
• Producing and delivering quality results