ACLED is recruiting an Afghanistan Researcher: Fully Remote Position + 20USD Per Hour Renumeration

About the organization

Armed Conflict Location & Event Data organization (ACLED) is a disaggregated data collection, analysis, and crisis mapping institution. The ACLED team collects conflict information, conducts analysis to describe, explore, and test conflict scenarios, and makes both data and analysis open for free use by the public. ACLED’s work is regularly used to inform journalism, academic research, and public discourse on conflict, and to support practitioners and policymakers. ACLED is the highest quality and most widely used real-time data and analysis source on political violence and protest around the world.

The opportunity

ACLED is recruiting an Afghanistan Researcher to assist in the collection, review and management of political violence and protest data across Afghanistan. Researchers must be available for around 10 to 15 hours per week. This opportunity is fully remote and can be done from any location with reliable internet service. This is an entry-level independent consultant opportunity and may require regular submissions on mid-week and weekends.

This opportunity is open to nationals of any country. For more information, please review the Applicant FAQs.

Collection of data is conducted by reviewing news, international organization, NGO and security reports on a list of assigned countries, and recording the incidents of political violence into an Excel template. Researchers will focus on coding events to provide holistic coverage of current political violence, ranging from protests to battles.

Review and management of data involves ensuring the quality, consistency and reliability of the data produced. The role provides team members with experience conducting detail-oriented tasks, and producing and managing quantitative data.

Please note that this position involves working with conflict-related media and reading about violent events.

Specific deliverables and responsibility:

Candidates who are selected will undergo extensive ACLED training. The training consists of several exercises. Candidates’ exercises will be scrutinized and only those who are performing at the required level will be retained as Researchers.

For those selected, the initial consultancy period will be from September 2025 to June 2026. After this, continuation may be possible, pending performance and availability of funding.

Remuneration:

Remuneration is 20 USD per hour.

Skills and competencies:

ACLED is seeking applicants who have the following skills and experience:

• University degree in international relations, political science, conflict studies, peacebuilding, international development, or related field;
• Familiarity with Excel (essential);
• Fluency in English (essential);
• Fluency in Dari (essential);
• Fluency in at least one or more major regional languages, including Pashto and Farsi (preferred);
• Experience conducting desk-based research;
• Experience working to deadlines with limited supervision;
• A high level of attention to detail and ability to receive and incorporate feedback;
• Research focus or professional experience in conflict research or peace-building in Afghanistan (essential);
• An in-depth understanding of conflict dynamics and relevant actors in
  Afghanistan (essential), and in the larger South Asia region (preferred);
• Experience in media monitoring or related areas is advantageous;
• Access to a computer, a reliable internet connection, email, and the Microsoft Office Suite.

How to apply

To apply for this opportunity, please submit a CV and cover letter detailing qualifications, experience and language proficiency to our career portal. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Interested candidates are advised to apply as soon as possible. We will only review applications received through our career portal, so please make sure to use the application form on the portal. Shortlisted candidates will be asked to complete a two-hour exercise as part of the evaluation of their coding aptitude.

Please make sure to check your spam folder for correspondence.

Further information is available online at acleddata.com.

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Disclaimer: Global South Opportunities (GSO) is not the hiring organization. For any inquiries, please contact the hiring organization directly. Please do not send your applications to GSO, as we are unable to process them. Due to the high volume of emails we receive daily, we may not be able to respond to all inquiries. Thank you for your understanding.