Data Consultant for Strategic Foresight, Forecasting and Capacity Building

Background/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 is embarking on the development of a new strategic plan to guide the organization’s work until 2029 and into the future. To ensure a robust and forward-thinking strategy and in line with the UN 2.0 pillar on data, UN Women will focus on the use of robust data to inform and enhance strategic decision-making.

To support the development of the Strategic Plan and its various workstreams, UN Women seeks a data consultant with advanced data science and Artificial Intelligence expertise. The consultant will play a critical role in leveraging data from different internal and external sources to strengthen UN Women’s strategic foresight, financial forecasting and planning capabilities and build data capacities across the organization. The consultant will work within the Strategic Planning Unit (SPU) and closely collaborate with teams across UN Women including headquarters divisions, as well as regional offices and country offices. The consultant will be reporting to the Programme Specialist – Results Management with SPU/SPRED and will be supported by team members within SPU.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

The objective of this consultancy is to:

1. Provide data analysis and insights into financial forecasting and organizational effectiveness as well as development results trends to guide future strategic decisions.
2. Integrate data from multiple sources (e.g. consultant’s own analysis, strategic foresight exercise, trends analysis, Mid-term review of the strategic plan, UN Women’s existing systems, and publicly available data) for a comprehensive analysis.
3. Build capacity across the organization to use data analysis tools and artificial intelligence.

This work will enable UN Women to anticipate and prepare for future trends, opportunities and challenges in gender equality and organizational development, ultimately aiding in the design of better strategic futures.

Key responsibilities include:

• Conduct advanced data analysis and apply machine learning and/or artificial intelligence solutions to support various workstreams of the strategic plan development process, including strategic foresight.
• Develop predictive models to assess and forecast organizational performance.
• Analyze organizational effectiveness and efficiency as well as development results metrics.
• Identify and assess factors associated with results acceleration/attainment.
• Perform financial forecasting to inform strategic decision-making.
• Integrate data from various sources into a cohesive analytical framework.
• Create data visualizations and interactive dashboards to communicate insights effectively.
• Provide data-driven recommendations for strategic initiatives.
• Collaborate with teams across UN Women, including headquarters divisions, regional offices, and country offices.

Deliverables

1. A comprehensive data analysis report and accompanying PPT presentation that includes a trends analysis for organizational effectiveness and efficiency, a financial forecast analysis, predictive models and strategic recommendations.
2. An internal interactive dashboard integrating data from multiple sources (consultant’s own analysis, strategic foresight exercise, trends analysis, Mid-term review of the strategic plan, UN Women’s existing systems, and publicly available data).
3. Data visualization assets based on the analyses that can be used for external communication purposes as well as in other reports developed as part of the Strategic Plan development process.
4. Learning materials and sessions on data analysis, forecasting and artificial intelligence based on the work conducted.
5. Full accompanying data pipeline management and analysis programming scripts, together with all working files.

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;