Political Economist - International Consultant

Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Under the UN-Women Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS) regional Strategic Note (2022-2023) Outcome 7.1 - Arab States accelerate the implementation of global and regional gender norms and standards with quality comparable data particularly on the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Cairo Declaration for Arab women – UN-Women has established GenTrack a data visualization platform, which offers easily accessible data that facilitates analyses and informs policy decisions. The platform currently hosts 194 gender indicators from nine credible global datasets and indices, covering a variety of thematic areas, including insights into the links between gender equality and women's economic empowerment, gender and governance, and violence against women and girls.

UN Women also created the Gender Justice and Equity Before the Law initiative which delivers a regional monitoring tool on the quantitative status of gender responsive legislation across 17 Arab states. The initiative is a collaboration with member states, UNDP, UNFPA and UN-ESCWA. The first regional dashboard of 18 countries was produced in 2019 covering 27 indicators across multiple sectors and was further expanded to 74 indicators in 2022.

In bringing together these two tools, UN Women is now adding a qualitative trends analysis to selected indicators in the GenTRACK on (18) women’s economic and empowerment and (3) women’s political empowerment, including through the use of the Gender Justice and Equality Before the Law dashboard covering 17 countries from the 2022 dashboard. This qualitative trends analysis will be fed into the nascent GenTrack Phase II portal aligning to relevant women’s economic and political empowerment indicators in the GenTrack. 

In consolidating qualitative information on the socio-economic and political factors influencing selected indicators of GenTRACK, UN Women aims to collect and classify information systematically and extensively through data mining, and web scraping techniques to identify relevant factors influencing the selected laws. These factors can be political trends and socioeconomic events that can be used to inform programme design and gain a deeper understanding of the role of the environment in influencing progress against global indicators.

The consultant will be reporting to Regional Monitoring Specialist on Evidence for Programming, and will be supported by Programme Analyst, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

The political economist will lead the web scraping specialist, to identify major events and trends in the region to gain a deeper understanding of the role of the environment in influencing progress against global indicators. The political economist will be responsible for identifying sources of data which include (Governmental entities, Academic institutions, UN Organizations, Research centers and think tanks), specify types of documents to scrape, which include policy documents, governmental reports, calendar of governmental events, reports, research papers, etc and guide the web scraping specialist in the identification and classification of political/socio-economic events, which include political/diplomatic meetings, elections, statements, reforms, policy shifts, conflicts, protests, policy changes, leadership transitions, institutional restructuring, and other significant developments. The political economist will be responsible for quality assuring the work and data scraped on the web.  

Deliverables:

The political economist should be lead the web scraping specialist’s work with the following deliverables: 

Data Source Identification Report: A comprehensive report listing identified sources of data, including governmental entities, academic institutions, UN organizations, research centers, and think tanks. This report should provide details on the reliability, accessibility, and relevance of each source.

Scraping Specification Document: A document outlining the types of documents to be scraped, such as policy documents, governmental reports, calendars of governmental events, reports, research papers, etc. This document should include criteria for selecting relevant documents and methodologies for web scraping.

Event Classification Framework: A structured framework for the identification and classification of political and socio-economic events. This framework should define categories of events such as political/diplomatic meetings, elections, statements, reforms, policy shifts, conflicts, protests, policy changes, leadership transitions, and institutional restructuring. It should also include guidelines for classifying events based on their significance and impact.

Quality Assurance Plan: A plan for ensuring the quality of the scraped data. This plan should include procedures for data validation, error detection and correction, consistency checks, and validation against known sources or benchmarks. It should also outline measures for maintaining data integrity and reliability throughout the scraping process.

Scraped Data Repository: A repository containing the scraped data organized according to the specified criteria and classification framework. This repository should be regularly updated and maintained to provide timely and accurate information on major events and trends in the region.

The political economist will work closely with the web scraper and Gentrack Expert consultant to organize and engineer/restructure/reformat the data as advised by the Gentrack developer. 

Deliverable Expected completion time (due day)  Payment Schedule (optional)  Data Source Identification Report

By July 2024

Onetime payment, upon the completion and the submission of all deliverables.  Scraping Specification Document By July 2024 Onetime payment, upon the completion and the submission of all deliverables.  Event Classification Framework By July 2024 Onetime payment, upon the completion and the submission of all deliverables.  Quality Assurance Plan By July 2024 Onetime payment, upon the completion and the submission of all deliverables.  Scraped Data Repository By July 2024 Onetime payment, upon the completion and the submission of all deliverables. 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy.  

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

  Core Competencies:

  • Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
  • Accountability;
  • Creative Problem Solving;
  • Effective Communication;
  • Inclusive Collaboration;
  • Stakeholder Engagement;
  • Leading by Example.

    Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

    Functional Competencies:

    • Excellent strategic planning, goal-setting, and prioritization skills;
    • Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision;
    • Proven analytical and problem-solving skills;
    • Strong interpersonal skills;
    • Strong writing and communication skills.

      Required Qualifications:

      Education and Certification:

      • Master’s degree (or equivalent) in law, politics, gender, research, or any relevant field is required OR A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. 

        Experience:

        • A minimum of 5 years of work experience carrying out research in political, and socio-economic spheres in the Arab States region;
        • Experience in developing data/knowledge products, preferably online is an asset.

          Languages:

          Fluency in English. Arabic is an asset.

          Statements :

          In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

          Diversity and inclusion:

          At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

          If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

          UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)