Can big data be used for evaluation? A UN Women feasibility study

The objective of the study was to investigate the feasibility of leveraging big data sources—particularly Twitter, Facebook, and radio data—to improve the evaluation of gender equality and women’s empowerment initiatives. In particular, this study seeks to understand the role of big data to evaluate the contribution of UN Women to women’s political participation and leadership (WPP).

Taking Mexico and Pakistan as two case studies, which present different challenges to access of big data sources and distinct barriers to WPP, processes of accessing, analysing, and triangulating big data sources were documented with traditional data as a feasible means to provide more credible and robust insights about the effectiveness of UN Women interventions.