Legal Research Consultant - Vacancy Alert!

Open Knowledge Foundation Nepal (OKF Nepal) is seeking an experienced Legal Research Consultant to design, run, and analyze a baseline and endline evaluation for Nagarik Niti, our new bilingual platform that makes Nepal's federal legislative process easier to follow and easier to shape.

This is a part-time, two-block consultancy running across the project's nine months. It suits a researcher who wants to own an evidence base end to end, from instrument design to a final before-and-after comparison.

📅 Application deadline: Oct 10, 2026

OKF Nepal is a non-profit civic tech organization comprised of openness enthusiasts. We believe that open data fosters a participatory government and civil society, contributing to sustainable development. The organization is actively engaged in research, advocacy, training, and the development of open knowledge tools, including Nagarik Niti, supported by CIVICUS Digital Action Lab (DAL) Cohort 3.

Key Responsibilities

Baseline Research (October to November 2026)

• Design a bilingual survey instrument, built for reuse at the endline.
• Design a key informant interview (KII) guide with two tracks: an institutional track (lawyers, parliamentary staff, ministry officials) and a demand-side track (youth, civil society, journalists).
• Administer the survey (60+ responses) and conduct 10+ KIIs (at least 4 demand-side).
• Analyze the data and write the baseline report.

Ongoing Support

• Contribute research input to the aggregated citizen engagement report.
• Provide ongoing research input as the platform develops, including how summaries and legal mappings should handle ambiguous or contested bill language.
• Weigh in on discussions around specific bills during the testing and launch phases, where a research perspective helps sharpen what gets published.
• Take on other related research or evaluation tasks as they arise over the course of the nine-month engagement.

Endline Research and Reporting (April to May 2027)

• Administer the endline survey using the same instrument (60+ responses).
• Conduct 8+ endline KIIs across both tracks.
• Contribute to compiling 5+ Most Significant Change stories.
• Analyze the baseline-to-endline comparison and co-author the final learning report.

Qualifications

Required

• Postgraduate degree in law, social science, public policy, statistics, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience designing and running mixed-methods research (surveys plus KIIs) in Nepal, ideally on governance, civic participation, or access to justice.
• Fluency in Nepali and English, with the ability to draft research instruments in both.
• Experience designing baseline and endline evaluations for donor-funded projects.
• Strong quantitative and qualitative analysis skills, with clear report writing in English.

Nice to Have

• Familiarity with Nepal's federal legislative process.

Duration and Location

The consultancy runs in two blocks across the project's nine months: October to November 2026 for baseline design and fieldwork, and April to May 2027 for endline fieldwork and reporting. The consultant reports to the Project Lead and coordinates with the Tech Lead where platform usage data feeds the research analysis.

Remote work with flexible scheduling. Candidates must be based in Kathmandu, Nepal
(Occasional in-person coordination, such as validator briefings or stakeholder sessions, may be required.)

How to Apply

Interested candidates should send a CV, a short writing sample, and a one-page note on their approach to baseline and endline design to info@oknp.org by October 10, 2026, with "Legal Research Consultant" in the subject line.

OKF Nepal will shortlist and schedule interviews on a rolling basis. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.