مطلوب باحثين بيانات للعمل لدى منظمة دولية

BACKGROUND

Internews Jordan Program is seeking a Data Researcher to conduct an assessment of open data in Jordan. The ideal candidate would leverage their strong network of contacts with government institutions, research-oriented CSOs and data enthusiasts in Jordan, would be familiar with data collection methodologies and local and regional data sources, and would have excellent problem solving and analytical skills.

Anticipated timeline is 4-8 weeks.

SCOPE OF WORK

• Gather data sources into the Jordan open data assessment.
• Contact by phone, email and in person, government ministries (5), CSOs (5), academic (5) and international bodies (5) to solicit Jordanian data following our data request guidelines.
• Develop trust relationships with data providers and document at least 60 datasets.
• Acquire at least five full raw (disaggregated, anonymized) relevant datasets. Be specific in your data requests. For example, from the Ministry of Health, you could require the last 10 years of hospital inspection data, for the Ministry of Education, the last 10 years of school-level staffing, performance, budget and infrastructure data, from the police, the complete records of all domestic violence cases.
• Familiarize yourself with common data formats and preferred formats for this project.
• Compile data following Internews’ open data assessment template. Gather complete metadata for all data sets.
• Focus data requests on sectors prioritized by trainers (gender, employment, crime).
• Submit at least 20 FOIA requests for additional relevant disaggregate data sets.
• Communicate regularly with Internews on progress and difficulty in accessing and verifying data provided by Jordanian institutions.

Target Institutions:

• Government ministries
• Research-oriented civil society organizations
• Academics involved in data collection
• Local branches of INGOs engaged in data collection

Target Data

• Disaggregated, anonymized data on public interest issues (health, education, crime, employment, public spending, tax revenue, company registries, procurement, gender, etc.)
• Data related to SDGs, inequality and marginalized groups
• Time series data that allows analysis of evolution of trends
• Granular data with geolocation and meta data available
• Data with methodology, sourcing and a code book available

Process

1. Develop a list of government bodies, CSOs, INGOs and academics who may be engaged in data collection.
2. Identify relevant datasets available online through their websites and enter them into the Data Sources spreadsheet.
3. Identify news briefs, research reports or other communications materials that mention research done by the institution but that do not make the data available online.
4. Contact the institution for access to the relevant, anonymized datasets in electronic format (preferably CSV files). This will usually involve a one-on-one meeting with statisticians in the relevant government ministries to discuss available data, metadata and the validation process. Remember to bring a flash drive in case they want to give you data files during the meeting.
5. Enter datasets with appropriate notes about validation challenges and data limitations.
6. Submit FOIA requests for data you were not able to obtain in the FOIA tab. Make sure to request disaggregated data. Be specific about the data you are requesting. See an example of a FOIA request on maternal deaths here.

Goals

• Compile at least 100 data sets from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources including 5 relevant disaggregate data sets.
• Establish trust relationships with data producers
• Identify release schedules for upcoming data
• Also consider contributing to the Open Knowledge Foundation Open Data Index

QUALIFICATIONS

• A bachelor’s degree in research-related field; Masters preferred;
• A minimum of 3 years related work in research for academic, civil society or government;
• Familiar with global data sources and their data portals including the World Bank, World Health Organization and UNDP.
• Familiarity with machine readable data file formats;
• Familiarity with data collection methodologies;
• Proven analytical and problem-solving ability;
• Must have contacts within Jordanian research institutions and the Jordanian Department of Statistics;
• Must be highly computer literate; Excel skills required;
• Fluency in English and Arabic required;
• Knowledge of development sector preferred;
• Excellent interpersonal skills to develop partner trust;

Interested candidates may apply by submitting their resume and a cover letter outlining how their skills and/or experiences match the job requirements