# External Advisory Charter

Status: **draft — no advisors appointed**

The MENA Open Data & Evidence Lab is founder-led. The advisory layer exists to introduce independent challenge at points where one-person judgment is most consequential without implying a board or governance structure that does not yet exist.

## Roles

1. **Methods & Reproducibility Advisor** — research standards, reproducibility, major methodological changes.
2. **Regional Data Advisor** — MENA official statistics, comparability and source interpretation.
3. **Open Research & Governance Advisor** — research integrity, conflicts, corrections, open research and data governance.

## Matters for advisory review

- material changes to research standards;
- high-impact methodological changes;
- corrections and retractions with substantive consequence;
- research-independence or conflict questions;
- annual research priorities and institutional-risk review.

## Appointment rule

A person is not listed publicly until they have accepted the role. Informal advice, email feedback, collaboration discussions and one-off review do not constitute appointment.

## Records

Once active, the Lab will publish appointment records, a conflicts register and an annual governance statement. Meeting notes are published when confidentiality and data-protection obligations permit.