HIRING: Senior Researcher/Consultant (Africa Engagement)

Senior Researcher/Consultant – Business case and strategy development for sub-Saharan Africa engagement

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Salary budget: £45k (full-time or part-time)

Mode of work: Remote work with occasional in-person meetings and travel

Term: Starting immediately or as soon as possible – duration of the work will be adjusted to the candidate’s experience level.

Closing date for applications: August 15th, 2022 (applications will be considered on a rolling basis)

Overview:

Data for Policy CIC is a premier global community of interest (independent non-profit) operating at the interface of data science and governance/policy. Its annual flagship conference series has been running since 2015 and attracts a large number of submissions from top universities, public and private sector institutions, intergovernmental organisations, and the voluntary sector. In 2019, the community launched an open-access journal, Data & Policy, in collaboration with Cambridge University Press (CUP).

The Data for Policy network reaches across 73 countries in the six continents, and we are ambitious to increase involvement of countries which are not well-represented in the global debate. The community has a positive commitment to inclusion and equity, demonstrable by initiatives such as the inclusion scholarship programme for conference attendance, and by support for open research and data, exemplified by its open access partner journal Data & Policy, published by Cambridge University Press.  To date we have seen organic growth of the network, but we now wish to expedite this through a positive strategy of engagement in under-represented regions.

Data for Policy CIC  is therefore delighted to enter into a new collaboration for 2022-23 with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Evans School Policy Analysis and Research Group (EPAR) at the University of Washington. We are looking to hire an experienced researcher/consultant to work with our leadership team in developing a longer term strategy and business case to facilitate sustainable collaboration with academics and policy practitioners/experts from sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Depending on securing further funding, the role may develop into an enhanced and/or longer term engagement of the candidate with the Data for Policy Global Community of Interest and its project partners.

Job Purpose: To produce a complete business case, setting out a plan for expansion of Data for Policy CIC engagement with African countries, and in particular sub-Saharan Africa. This business case will be used to attract further investment, leading to implementation of the plan.

Job Responsibilities:

• Research into the status of the emerging research field of data for policy in African countries;
• Identify potential outreach, content and funding partners in Africa who most directly serve local policy capacity, design and implementation needs;
• Conduct discussions with Data for Policy CIC and its project collaborators (the Foundation, EPAR and CUP) as well as relevant partners in Africa. Four potential (overlapping) regional policy-related networks to be consulted are RUFORUM (http://www.ruforum.org/), ARUA (https://arua.org.za/), RenaPRI (https://www.renapri.org/) and AGRODEP (http://www.agrodep.org/), and we are looking to expand this list with recommendations from the consultant and the broader Data for Policy networks;
• Lead the organisation of meetings and workshops in sub-Saharan Africa (one week travel visiting multiple organisations with the core project team) and Seattle (during Seattle edition of the Data for Policy 2022 conference in December), and potentially also in London/Cambridge where Data for Policy CIC activities are centred;

These activities are to be reported as a complete business case, proposing a detailed engagement strategy and implementation plan using evidence from all activities. We anticipate the core work to include elements of both desk-based research and proactive conversations and field engagement.

A primary success measure for the role will be the level of further funding attracted by the business case for implementing the strategy. We also highly value the organisational learning and development that will be gained through this engagement.

Qualifications and Experience:

We are looking for an experienced researcher/consultant with skills in business strategy development and familiarity with the sub-Saharan Africa context in the Data for Policy CIC areas of interest. Familiarity with  how knowledge is produced (conference papers, journal articles, reports, grey literature and other formats), disseminated and accessed and the particular challenges for African authors, policy practitioners and decision-makers, and other audiences is relevant. Early career researchers/consultants may be considered on a case by case basis.

How to apply:

Please send a CV and detailed Cover Letter to team@dataforpolicy.org by August 15th latest. Please note that applications will be assessed on a rolling basis until a suitable candidate is identified.