Consultant, Citizen Data Quality Assurance

Context

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.

UN Women’s global gender data programme, “Making Every Woman and Girl Count” (Women Count), delivered significant results in scaling up work on gender statistics availability, accessibility, and use during Phase I of its implementation. In the ongoing implementation of Women Count Phase II, with gender data elevated as one of the strategic outcomes of UN Women’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, UN Women is steadfastly supporting Member States and leading efforts on mainstreaming gender perspectives in three key interventions:

• Enabling environment for the production and use of gender statistics: Put in place supportive policy, legal and financial environment to ensure gender-responsive national adaptation and effective monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• Increasing the production of gender statistics: Increase availability of quality, comparable and regular gender statistics to address national data gaps and meet policy and reporting commitments under the SDGs, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and Beijing Declaration
• Increasing data accessibility and use: Ensure that gender statistics are accessible to all users (including governments, civil society, academia and private sector) and can be analysed, communicated, and used to inform research, advocacy, policies and programmes, and promote accountability.

Background

Citizen data is increasingly being adopted and used to measure and monitor developmental parameters on achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment such as economic participation, violence, digital access, and health disparities among women and girls. It is aimed to strengthen data-driven gender-responsive policy interventions. It fills critical gender data gaps, providing timely insights and amplifying the voices of marginalized groups, particularly women facing intersectional vulnerabilities, offering granular and real-time information often underrepresented in official statistics. It offers locally relevant insights, complementing traditional data collection. Hence, it is imperative to effectively integrate citizen data into traditional statistical systems, ensuring its data quality and interoperability. When validated, high-quality citizen data can complement survey data bridging critical gender data gaps, broadening traditional statistical systems to gender data ecosystems. 

Citizen data increasingly contributes to monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly gender-related indicators. To maximize its potential, it is important to establish robust mechanisms that align citizen data with established quality standards, ensuring its reliability and credibility to integrate into official statistics effectively. The 55th Session of the UN Statistical Commission recognized the potential of citizen data. The United Nations Experts Group Meeting on Citizen Data emphasized its role in enhancing the inclusiveness and responsiveness of official data systems. Allowing communities to participate directly in the data generation process can help address the persistent gaps in gender-related indicators, contributing to more comprehensive and equitable SDG reporting.

UN Women and UNSD will collaborate to enhance the relevance and use of citizen data and traditional data sources to measure socio-economic indicators for gendered analysis. The expected outputs of this work will develop global guidance on gender-related citizen data.  The guidance will also showcase how gender data from traditional sources (in this project, specifically survey) are used to validate and calibrate the insights generated from citizen data sources to ensure quality assurance. The work will be informed by two existing national case studies on citizen and gender data (Ethiopia and Senegal), and the Consultant will also conduct the global scoping and literature review of other country examples or experiences. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of UNSD’s OIC for its Data Integration, Web Development, and Data Visualisation Section and UN Women’s Women Count Inter-Regional Advisor on Gender Statistics, the Consultant will have the following responsibilities and tasks:

1. Scoping of Case Studies and Desk Review

To inform the development of global guidance on gender-related citizen data, conduct a scoping of case studies to achieve the following:

• Review Two Existing National Case Studies: The Consultant will review and utilize existing UNSD-ODW-UN Women case studies on Ethiopia and Senegal, highlight data quality assurance processes and practices; include data integration strategies (survey and citizen data), if any.
• Identify and Select Other Country Examples: Conduct in-depth desk research to supplement knowledge from the existing country case studies with other country examples and experiences (preferably from diverse regions and income levels). Determine data quality assurance processes and practices; include data integration strategies (survey and citizen data), if any.
• Data Quality Assessment: Identify critical aspects of data quality and quality assessment tools required for producing and using gender-related citizen data. Furthermore, guidance on the interoperability of citizen data and traditional data sources (i.e., surveys) and methods to calibrate data to enhance quality and useability will be included. 
• Stakeholder Engagement: Conduct key informant interviews and/or focus group discussions to gather qualitative insights, including:
  • Consultations: Engagement may involve civil society organizations (CSOs), women’s advocates or grassroots movements, national statistical offices (NSOs), national statistical systems (NSSs), international organizations, and development partners.
  • Partnership Insights: Explore practical partnerships between state and non-state actors and identify how collaborations can be optimized for gender-responsive SDG monitoring.
  • Enabling Mechanisms: Assess barriers, opportunities, and enabling mechanisms that citizen data producers and users encounter for sustainable integration into gender data ecosystems.
  • Capacity-Building Needs: Areas requiring capacity development for stakeholders ensuring quality and relevant gender-related citizen data initiatives.
• Analysis and Synthesis: Analyze findings and synthesize them to inform the development of global guidance on data quality assurance of gender-related citizen data, with an element of data integration of survey and citizen data. 

2. Development of Global Guidance on Gender-Related Citizen Data Quality Assurance - This guidance will:

• Draw linkages with the Generic Statistical Business Process Model[1] (GSBPM).
• Report: 
  • Propose an outline, define key characteristics of quality-assured gender-related citizen data, and explore frameworks for aligning it with traditional (or official) statistical frameworks.
  • Prepare a practical/operational Global Guidance on Gender-Related Citizen Data Quality Assurance incorporating findings from the existing case studies and scoping exercises.  An element of data integration of survey and citizen data as a means of enhancing data quality will be included.
  • The guidance will shed light on how to understand, compile, organize, manage, disseminate, and use gender-related citizen data (e.g., identifying data properties, harmonizing concepts, ensuring consistent use of classifications, meeting user needs when publishing statistics, national and international reporting).

Provide actionable recommendations, including overcoming challenges in ensuring quality-assured gender-related citizen data as well as integrating citizen data with traditional data systems to enhance gender data ecosystems.

[1] The study is cognizant that the GSBPM has primarily been developed to guide the management, coordination, and implementation of statistical projects and activities in national statistical systems; and guidelines, standards and classifications of official statistics may not necessarily be most relevant in the context of production and use of citizen data. Nevertheless, the GSBPM is suggested (i.e., not prescribed) as a guiding framework and may be adapted to the context of this study on gender-related citizen data whenever relevant.  

Deliverables

Deliverable Expected completion time (due day)  Payment Schedule (optional) 1. Consultant Onboarding 2nd week of April 2025 NA 2. Annotated Outline 3rd week of April 2025 20% 3. Desk Review and Interviews/Consultations with Stakeholders 4th week of April – 3rd week of May 2025 30% 4. Development of the Global Guidance on Gender-Related Citizen Data Quality Assurance     4.1 First Draft 4th week of May 2025 – 3rd week of June 2025   4.2 Review of First Draft 4th week of June 2025 – 1st week of July 2025   4.3 First Revision 2nd – 3rd week of July 2025 30%  4.4 Review of Second draft 4th week of July 2025   4.5 Consultation Webinar, particularly with country  1st week of August 2025   4.6 Preparation of the Executive Summary 4th week of August – 1st week of September 2025   4.7 Second Revision 2nd week of Sep 2025   4.8 Final Review of Guidance and Executive Summary 3rd week of Sep 2025   4.9 Final Guidance and Executive Summary 4th week of Sep 2025  20% 5. Copyedit and Design 1st to 4th week of October 2025  

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. As part of this assignment, there will be a no travel required, unless a need arises at a later point of time. 

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity 
• Professionalism

Core Competencies

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

Functional Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of gender statistics, particularly in the context of citizen data, qualitative and quantitative data, and individual- or household-based surveys
• Experience working with or for NSOs, national women’s machineries, or other actors of the NSS in the context of gender-related citizen data
• Strong analytical skills, including linking analytical results with data use
• Ability to identify and analyze trends and opportunities for effective and efficient production and use of gender-related citizen data, regardless of data collection modality

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:  https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values 

 

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in demography, statistics, social sciences, development studies, development economics, gender/women's studies, international relations, or a related field is required. PhD is an advantage.

Experience:

• A minimum of five years of demonstrated extensive experience in conducting gender data-related research or methodological studies at the national and international levels is required
• Experience working with countries, particularly with NSOs, national women’s machineries, other key actors of NSSs, CSOs, NGOs, and other non-state actors, as well as the UN System
• Solid knowledge of statistical production on official or non-traditional statistics, particularly on gender data
• Experience in data quality assurance is required. 
• Track record of papers, journals, or publications related to gender data, preferably using citizen data 
• Excellent technical writing and analytical skills
• Knowledge of the Sustainable Development Goals and national efforts to implement them is desirable.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required
• Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset