Media monitoring and analysis of geopolitical, security and safety developments

Host entity: UNDP

Areas of expertise: Knowledge management, research, reporting, Safety and security

Application deadline: 04/11/2026

Mission and objectives

Established in 1965, UNDP is the United Nations’ global development network, operating in nearly 170 countries and territories. Its mission is to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities, and build resilience to crises and shocks. The Istanbul Regional Hub (IRH) is UNDP’s primary knowledge and advisory center for the Europe and Central Asia region.

Assignment context

The goal of the United Nations Security Management System (UNSMS) is to enable the activities of UNSMS organisations, including UNDP, within acceptable levels of security risk.

The UN Security Risk Management (SRM) process is a United Nations Security Management System (UNSMS) tool to identify, analyse and manage safety and security risks to United Nations personnel, assets and operations.

The goal of the assignment is to assist the ongoing security risk management process aimed at enabling the delivery of UNDP programmes in the region. This will be done by producing comprehensive weekly and/or biweekly reports of geopolitical, security and safety developments from open-media sources. There is no set start date for this online assignment, but once selected, the candidate is expected to start as soon as possible.

Task description

We are looking for an Online Volunteer who, under the immediate supervision of the Security Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Istanbul, Türkiye, will support the monitoring of the safety and security situation in Europe and Central Asia by producing one weekly analytical report covering geopolitical, security and safety-related information.

The focus of the Europe and Central Asia media monitoring is categorized into subregions: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Balkans, Caucasus, and Central Asia.

As an Online Volunteer, you will be expected to:

- Analyse the daily media monitoring reports covering each sub-region and produce a Weekly Regional Report, to be submitted on Fridays at noon (GMT+3).

This DoA is composed of one assignment: Produce a Weekly Regional Situation Report based on the daily media monitoring reports for the previous week covering each sub-region. To be submitted on Fridays at noon (GMT+3).

Once every two weeks, Volunteers meet online for a feedback session with the supervisor to discuss progress and relevant situational matters (the exact time and date will be set later based on mutual availability).

The online volunteers who will support with research and analysis are expected to use primarily local open-media sources (media, newspapers, articles in local languages, etc.) to report on relevant regional developments.


On days when the Volunteer considers that there are no meaningful developments to report, the Volunteer may inform the team that there is nothing significant to report. On days when the Volunteer is not able to submit the report, the work will be covered by the UNDP RBEC Security Team.

Skills and experience

- Prior experience in research, analysis and reporting is required;
- Proven motivation and interest in the fields of: security, international affairs, geopolitics, Western and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and /or Central Asia, is a strong asset.
- Additional knowledge of local languages spoken in the region is a strong asset.

Full eligibility requirements, conditions of service and application instructions are available on the official UNV platform.