The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance – International IDEA – is an intergovernmental organization that supports sustainable democracy worldwide. Its objective is to strengthen democratic institutions and processes. International IDEA acts as a catalyst for democracy building by providing knowledge resources, policy proposals and supporting democratic reforms in response to specific national requests. It works together with policy makers, governments, UN organizations and agencies and regional organizations engaged in the field of democracy building. International IDEA’s notable areas of expertise are: electoral processes, political parties, constitution-building processes, democracy and gender and democracy assessments. International IDEA works worldwide. It is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and has offices in New York, Latin America, Africa and Asia. International IDEA works across a range of areas to increase the knowledge and skills of those managing electoral processes in countries around the world.
The specific purpose of the Electoral Processes team includes the development and provision of comparative knowledge resources in the field of elections, institutional strengthening and capacity development, and promoting networking and dialogue opportunities for those engaged in electoral processes. As a part of this effort, the Electoral Processes team maintains International IDEA’s Global Database on Elections and Democracy (GDB) (http://www.idea.int/db).
Internship assignment (work tasks)
The intern, under the overall guidance of Senior Programme Manager and under the immediate supervision of the Programme Officer/Database and Research, shall perform the following duties:
a) Participate in global research on democracy and elections related topics as presented in the GDB from different sources;
c) Investigate new categories of democracy and elections related data which may be included in the database and suggest data sources;
d) Actively integrate the inclusion of a gender perspective in all activities.
The intern is expected to benefit from the position by gaining insights, experience and knowledge on;
a) Diverse national legislation and practices related to democracy and electoral processes;
b) Dealing with issues and problems related to gathering comparative data on national legislation in the area of democracy and elections;
c) The way international comparative research projects are conducted.
Length and scope of the internship
Spring semester 2016. Entire semester. Full time.
Desirable skills/experience
a) Interest in comparative research in politics, democracy and elections;
b) Ability to speak Spanish, French or Arabic would be advantage;
c) Preferably be enrolled in educational programme in Law or Politics.
Merit skills/experience
N/A
Other information
The intern must be enrolled in an internship course offered by a Swedish university and be eligible to receive credits (ECTS) for the internship. The intern must be insured through the university.