InternshipReport 

26MAY– 25JULY 

UnitedNationsOfficeforSustainableDevelopment 

Incheon– RepublicofKorea 

HUFS-UPEACEDualMasterProgram 

SustainableDevelopment 

NaruKang 

AboutUNOSD 

Structure 

The United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD) was established in 2011 by the United Nations and the Government of Republic of Korea (RoK). The Office is managed by the Division for Sustainable Development (DSD) of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). The purpose of UNOSD is to support governments in implementing international agreements on sustainable development, including Agenda 21, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, and outcomes of Rio+20. 

Focus Areas 

Collaborating with UN and international agencies, sustainable development networks, research and policy institutions, civil society organizations and other stakeholders, it fills a gap in sustainable development knowledge brokering and networking geared at supporting policy making in the South. Below are observations during internship and also connected to my tasks.

 - Prepared Second Summer School from 4 to 8 August 2014 on Sustainability
   Transition Policies and Practices

 - Developed Sustainable Development Transition Web (SDTW: http://www.sdtweb.org) ,
   which launched in April 2014 to include a searchable database of capacity building
   events and e-learning resources. 

Experiences 

Administrative job related to Summer School 

Our goal is to prepare the most desirable environment for participants of Summer School. It includes making guidelines with accommodation, transportation and restaurant. It sounds soft but I learned how different ways we can go with. It was good opportunity for me to recognize how I work with feedback and then to know better ways. The administrative part is important to move the UNOSD along very smoothly. It needs a great ability to feel empathy and visualize information to be informed. 

Steering Committee & Internal Meeting 

It was very pleasant to participate in steering committee with UN headquarter. I got so much impression how different role is interacting with each other. It was first time to have a meeting online with UNDESA, however, it successfully worked and there was no doubt that they did not have to book the flight anyway. In addition to that, internal meeting is held in a weekly basis. In the last week of internship, I could deliver internship report presentation in front of every staff of UNOSD. The atmosphere at that time was friendly and every feedback was useful for my further work. 

Sustainable Transition Web 

Tasks for interns were mainly about collecting data and giving feedback which taxonomies will be suited for sustainable development database. For better classification, interns searched website in the field of sustainable development and had a meeting with IT expert to report what we had found out and to discuss the next step for research. As a result, we analyzed eight organization and two documents from experts. My background majoring in sustainable development was really helpful to understand general and unique taxonomies in the websites concerning sustainable development issues. I, finally, drew an outline future version of SDTW, where the updated contents are arranged thematically and community of practice is actively captured.