Background
Founded in 2004, Shelter Centre, www.sheltercentre.org, is a small international humanitarian NGO registered in Switzerland which does not implement operations alone but instead collaborates with agencies in direct support of their operations, as well as building capacity in the sector. Shelter Centre is dedicated to supporting collaboration, consensus and capacity throughout the global technical humanitarian community of practice. We serve the global technical community of practice through regular global practitioners’ events and resources.
Shelter Centre’s Humanitarian Library (HL), Humanitarian Library|, has been consistently indexed for the last 15 years and now ranks at the same level as leading UN websites. It was designed in conversation with ReliefWeb to dovetail a cord-sourced and community moderated knowledge sharing platform with more formal, peer-reviewed normative platforms. We offer a big shared drive, where local and international humanitarians can share and organize knowledge: ‘learn what works, share what works’ We offer unique functionality enabling users to collate knowledge around a specific operational activity, so they can ‘do’ policies appropriately locally and share how they did them, so others may learn from their experiences. The availability of AI tools combined with our small language model have the objective of making humanitarian knowledge accessible as far as possible across languages and cultures, it’s now directly accessible to different communities in variety of languages, with the most recent language being, Urdu, for humanitarian workers in Sindh, Pakistan. The HL is a pioneer in Humanitarian Knowledge management, and we have presented twice at the UN annual innovation conference HNPW, including this year.
The Pakistan project is one of the projects that the Humanitarian Library team is working on. It focuses on supporting humanitarian efforts through technical coordination, knowledge sharing and field engagement with local partners in Sindh province, Pakistan. Shelter Centre is currently collaborating with the Sindh Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform (SHRRP),SHRRP, to contribute to resilient housing and WASH interventions locally, with an emphasis on culturally sensitive data collection and resource development. The project also aims to strengthen collaboration mechanisms and integrate Geneva-based expertise where relevant.
Internships Description and Requirements
Benefits
The internships offered, which over 1,000 have valued to-date, are for those committed to a future career in humanitarian action, seeking experience and opportunities to inform their decision in identifying directions. Interns are the foundation to our work, and we offer weekly bilateral personal development opportunities. Former interns have gone on to work with donors, UN agencies, the Red Cross Movement, and INGOs, local NGOs and CSOs.
Main Responsibilities and Tasks
Selected interns will support Shelter Centre in the following activities, but not limited to:
- Understanding the contexts and audiences of the guidance, as Shelter Centre always recognises affected populations as the primary responders
- Research of existing information available and/or structured interviews of subject matter experts
- Drafting and redrafting of content and reports, involving multiple iterations in response to further comments received
- Review of existing drafts and implementing revisions
- Attend various meetings and workshops with government, international organisations, and NGOs
- Coordinating other on-going projects
Additionally, volunteers are expected to contribute to a series of ongoing projects, including but not limited to
- Supporting the Fundraising team
- Developing the Humanitarian Library website (www.humanitarianlibrary.org) by building channels, collections of resources and reviewing website functionalities
- Communicate the strategy across social media platforms
- Support Humanitarian Library partners, including Inter-Agency Standing Committee Shelter Cluster Technical Working Groups (IASC SC TWG), InterAction and DIHAD
- Participate in the development and delivery of presentations at conferences
Education, Skills, and Experience
Required:
- Commitment to humanitarian action, seeking career transfer into the humanitarian profession
- University degree involving structured research, ideally in Social Sciences, Humanitarian Studies, Social Work or Community Development. Applicants with research and proposal development experience will also be considered carefully
- Demonstrated experience in project management, multi-tasking, prioritising and working accurately to set deadlines
- Understand the current humanitarian context with the ability to gather relevant resources and write proposals.
- Fluent spoken and written English (minimum Level C1 proficiency), French and any other language is considered an advantage.
Desired
- Experience in working effectively and harmoniously in a team of colleagues of varied cultural and professional backgrounds.
- Experience in Microsoft Office and communication and social media platforms, such as, Facebook, LinkedIn, X (Twitter)
- Experience in desktop publishing, such as in using Adobe products like Photoshop, Illustrator and Canva
Conditions
- Availability:Â The availability sought is six months, with a minimum of four months. This position will be either full-time (35 hours a week) or part-time (20 hours a week). All positions will begin with a one-month probationary period
- Location:Â The positions are virtual, meaning interns will work from home. Shelter Centre will only consider applications from individuals who hold or are likely to obtain a valid permit which allows them to reside and undertake internships in their country of work
Successful candidates will bear their own insurance, accommodation, living and travel costs. Travel is not required, however some costs may be defrayed for any travel, depending upon budgets available.
How to apply
Applicants are encouraged to submit a CV and motivation letter as soon as possible, as recruitment will be undertaken on a rolling basis.
To apply, please send your CV and a cover letter in English by email to recruitment@sheltercentre.org
Closing date: 29th December 2025 at 23:59 CET (Geneva time)