Background

The UNDP Oslo Governance Centre (OGC) is UNDP’s dedicated Global Policy Centre for Governance issues, which advances global dialogue and knowledge on inclusive and transformative governance for peaceful, just and inclusive societies. The Centre builds knowledge, insight and data through drawing on the experience of practitioners, policymakers and researchers as well as stimulating global discourse and dialogue on key governance questions in the world today. OGC focuses on generating lessons from applied research and strengthening the evidence base on governance themes to inform policy development.

Relaunched in mid-2022, the Centre will leverage strong partnerships with key knowledge and research institutions to create and disseminate knowledge and insights. Its research and partnership function entails a constant horizon scan for new and emerging governance issues and cutting-edge knowledge. As an insight and knowledge generator that focusses on applied research, the Centre will connect practitioners and policymakers to researchers, and act as an arena for testing theory against practice.

In May 2022, Oslo Governance Centre (OGC) hosted the Power, Politics and Peace conference. It sought to shed light on how the world is facing multiple governance crises at the same time and launched several research products. To deepen and action conversations that started at OGC’s Power, Politics and Peace conference and to inform the Centre’s work over the next 1-2 years, OGC will hold a two-day workshop in mid-November 2022, bringing together researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to explore four challenges and opportunities for inclusive governance that are emerging strongly from global discussions that OGC has observed and analysed (working titles):

• Facing Disruption and Increasing Transparency: How to deliver public services in times of crisis and uncertainty?
• Protecting information integrity to defend democratic values: What collective action is needed to reduce the impact of information pollution on open public spheres and informed civic engagement?
• Managing Complexity while Building Consensus: How to govern the transition to a fair green future?
• Under Pressure and for a Higher Purpose: How to foster transformational leadership?

For the theme on Information integrity and democratic governance, the Oslo Governance Centre is looking for an expert to prepare, document and consolidate results from the workshop.

The theme on Protecting information integrity to defend democratic values addresses the dangers to democratic governance posed by Information pollution. It undermines the legitimacy of democratic institutions and processes, targets marginalised groups, and amplifies political and social divisions.  No significant governance challenge or public policy issue is safe from false, misleading and manipulated information. Two bedrocks of democratic governance –access to information and citizen engagement – are under constant threat everywhere in the world. The costs are enormous: human lives lost, communities torn apart, failed policies, government time and money wasted.  And furthermore, member states are the worst offenders, weaponizing disinformation against political opponents, journalists, human rights activists, and other nation states, to advance their own political interests.  But while there is general consensus on the dangers, scientific evidence to demonstrate those impacts is lacking, as are demonstrably effective programme and policy responses. What convening, research and communication efforts are now needed to bring this emerging field together in a way that can protect the public sphere from the worst manipulations of the new information ecosystem and promote citizen engagement?

The process will draw on established approaches such as strategic foresighting and systems thinking and entail three main steps: 1) background papers on each theme that frame, outline and guide the discussions, 2) the two-day workshop, including roundtable discussions on each theme as well as plenary sessions and 3) discussion notes on each (refined) theme that draw on the exchanges to point out aspects that are urgent and possible to address and that will be published.

The Oslo Governance Centre is looking for a governance expert to support the workshop process through, mainly:

• Working with designated OGC colleagues and relevant partners to scan, map and review existing work on Information Integrity and democratic governance (incl.  existing research and current UNDP programming efforts) identify   aspects that are relevant but under-addressed.
• Drafting a background paper on information integrity, access to information, trust, and/or inclusive public spaces (incl. framing of the theme, key elements and guiding questions).
• Document discussions at the workshop in mid-November and facilitate, where needed, parts of the workshop.
• Drafting a discussion note on information integrity, access to information, trust, and/or inclusive public spaces summarizing findings from the exchanges (incl. priority areas for action, existing efforts, key gaps and potential partnerships)

In addition, the expert may be asked to

• Provide inputs on the final workshop concept note, methodology and agenda
• Provide input to strategic OGC documents drawing on the workshop

Corporate Competencies:

• Takes responsibility for quality of own work
• Uses resources, methods, partners, and information effectively
• Identifies opportunities and challenges and recommends options
• Meets goals and timelines for team deliverables
• Understands responsibilities and meets expectations

Functional Competencies:

• Demonstrated ability to organise and structure information;
• Experience with democratic governance, access to justice, human rights and sustainable development; 
• Expert understanding of democratic governance and human rights and UNDP’s work in this area;
• Demonstrated ability to write in a clear and concise manner;
• Demonstrated experience with facilitating stimulating discussions.

Education and Experience

• Masters’ degree or equivalent in Media/Communication Studies, Politics or International Relations – or relevant work experience.
• At least 7 years’ experience in applied or academic research on online and offline Information Integrity, access to information, trust, and/or inclusive public spaces, ideally from a policy and/or programming perspective.
• Previous work with or knowledge of research institutions and other key stakeholders working on information integrity, access to information, trust, and/or inclusive public spaces (see “Background” for details).
• Demonstrated ability to organise and structure information and excellent and proven writing skills in English to make research accessible to policy-makers and practitioners

Desirable:

• Strong verbal communications skills;
• Strong understanding of data sources, analytical methods and techniques and ability to critically assess the validity and limitations of different data sources;
• Ability to complete tasks independently and take initiative, but also work well as part of a team;
• Ability to perform tasks in a timely manner, under pressure, and to tight deadlines;
• Previous relevant experience with UN or UNDP policy and programming processes at global, regional or country level.