Panel discussion: Can big data be used in evaluation?

This event discussed a recent paper on 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. It focused particularly on understanding the role of big data to evaluate the contribution of UN Women to women’s political participation and leadership (WPP).

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

• See the PowerPoint presentation