Intern - Computational Social Science

Job Description

Work Location:

• In-person

Expected Duration:

• 3 to 6 months

Duties and Responsibilities

The intern will support the Policy Innovation Unit of OSAA, which contributes to Africa’s development through data-driven analysis and inter-agency coordination. Under the supervision of the Programme Management Officer, the intern will assist in the following areas:

• Data-Driven Policy Research
• • Contribute to quantitative analyses using socio-economic, political, and environmental datasets relevant to African development priorities (e.g., resilience, inequality, youth employment, regional integration).
  • Assist in applying statistical, econometric, or machine learning methods to identify trends, patterns, and policy-relevant insights.
  • Support the design of case studies, policy briefs, and data visualizations for internal and public audiences.
• Data Sourcing & Diplomacy
  • Contribute to identifying and collecting high-quality datasets from government portals, national statistical offices, regional bodies, and international organizations.
  • Assist in data diplomacy efforts, including liaising with data providers, preparing correspondence, and documenting data acquisition workflows.
  • Support efforts to improve data provenance, accessibility, and comparability across sources.
• Technical Development
  • Support the maintenance and extension of OSAA’s data processing and visualization codebase (in R and Python).
  • Contribute to the development and integration of an interactive data dashboard to visualize African development indicators.
  • Assist in implementing best practices in reproducible research, including GitHub-based version control, metadata documentation, and workflow transparency.
• Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing
  • Contribute to documenting analytical workflows and tools developed during the internship.
  • Participate in internal meetings, brainstorming sessions, and collaboration with interdisciplinary teams.
  • Support the translation of technical findings into policy-relevant outputs in collaboration with policy analysts and communications teams.

Qualifications / Special Skills

Applicants must meet one of the following requirements:

• Be enrolled in, or have recently completed, a graduate school programme (Master’s or equivalent) in Computational Social Science, Data Science, Economics, Political Science, Development Studies, Public Policy, or related interdisciplinary fields.
• Be enrolled in, or have completed, the final academic year of a first university degree programme (Bachelor’s or equivalent).

Other required qualifications include:

• Advanced proficiency in Python, Streamlit, Altair, and data visualization tools.
• Experience with CSS, Markdown, infrastructure-as-code (IaC), GitHub repo management, SQLMash, and data versioning.
• Familiarity with data collection from institutional websites and portals.
• Awareness of data diplomacy and open data practices, including sourcing data from national and regional institutions.
• Understanding of development issues in the African continent.

Note: Proof of meeting one of the academic eligibility criteria must be attached to the application. An official certificate will be required later.

Languages

• Fluency in spoken and written English is required.
• Knowledge of French is an asset.

Additional Information (Intern-Specific)

• Interns are not financially remunerated by the United Nations.
• Costs and arrangements for travel, visas, accommodation, and living expenses are the responsibility of interns or their sponsoring institutions.
• Interns who are not citizens or permanent residents of the internship location may need to obtain appropriate visas and work/employment authorization.
• Successful candidates must clarify their specific visa requirements before accepting the offer.

Deadline : Jul 8, 2025