Citizen Data 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.

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 being 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 on the assignment:

Monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly gender-related indicators, is crucial for tracking progress toward global commitments like SDG 5 (Gender Equality). However, many countries face significant data gaps in gender-specific SDG indicators, hindering comprehensive and accurate reporting. In response to these challenges, there is an increasing focus on alternative data sources, such as citizen data, which offer more granular and locally relevant insights, especially in areas where traditional data collection is lacking.

Citizen data can play a transformative role in filling these gaps by engaging communities, increasing participation, and providing real-time, localized data on gender disparities. It also offers the potential to highlight the experiences of marginalized groups, particularly women, girls, and LGBTIQ+ communities, whose voices are often underrepresented in traditional data systems. The 55th Session of the UN Statistical Commission recognized the potential of citizen data in filling these data gaps and highlighted the importance of integrating it into SDG monitoring. The United Nations Experts Group Meeting on Harnessing Data for Public Policy and SDG Monitoring emphasizes the role of citizen data 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.

In 2020, the Women Count project in the UN Women East and Southern Africa (ESA) Regional Office developed the Citizen Generated Data Methodological Guidelines, which provided a foundation for integrating citizen data into official data systems, particularly for monitoring SDG gender data. These guidelines focus on the general principles, best practices, and methods for incorporating citizen data into official statistics, particularly in the ESA region. However, while these guidelines provide a broad framework, the scope is limited to the ESA regional practices and experiences. The proposed global guidance aims to be broader and more diverse in scope and provide more up-to-date practical experiences. The global guidance is thus expected to provide more tailored guidance to countries with similar country situations vis-à-vis country examples included in the study to address gender data gaps in SDG monitoring and build on the new literature and guidance availa