Country: United States of America
Closing date: 02 Feb 2015
1. Background
Thematic funds are contributions that donors earmark for one of the seven UNICEF Strategic Plan (SP) 2014-2017 outcomes or humanitarian response, without further earmarking for specific programme activities. Thematic funding was created after the adoption of the Medium Term Strategic Plan (MTSP) 2001-2005 as an opportunity to facilitate financing of UNICEF programmes in a more strategic and flexible manner in order to achieve the results of the strategic plan. The arrangement entails donors agreeing to one consolidated report per outcome area. Each year, each outcome area is required to produce a report addressing UNICEF’s global work in each outcome area demonstrating progress against targets set in the SP 2014-2017 for sharing with all donors.
The Education Outcome (Improved learning outcomes and equitable and inclusive education) spans diverse programmes and activities across six outputs relevant to varied country contexts. The Outputs include the following:
Output 1: Enhanced support to communities with disadvantaged and excluded children to start schooling at the right age and attend regularly
Output 2:Increased national capacity to provide access to learning opportunities and quality primary and secondary education
Output 3:Strengthened political commitment, accountability and national capacity to legislate, plan and budget for scaling-up quality and inclusive education
Output 4:Increased country capacity and delivery of services to ensure girls and boys access to safe and secure forms of education and critical information for their own well-being in humanitarian situations
Output 5:Increased capacity of governments and partners, as duty bearers, to identify and respond to key human rights and gender equality dimensions of school readiness and performance
Output 6: Enhanced global and regional capacity to accelerate progress in education
With the start of the new Strategic Plan 2014-2017, the education programme has made strategic changes and shifts working towards further sharpening the focus on equity in education through multiple strategies and initiatives focusing on the Out-of-School Children Initiative, girls’ education and children with disabilities. Similarly, education programmes across countries and regions are working to address specific issues as they get played out within the regional, national and sub-national contexts to further promote the equity agenda.
There has also been a growing global attention towards learning outcomes as more evidence shows that many children that attend school are not learning. The Global Monitoring Report in 2012 showed that out of 650 million children of primary-school age, at least 250 million could be failing to read or count. The education programme continues to strengthen national capacities, knowledge and resources to expand access to and completion of quality basic education for excluded and marginalized children (including transitions from pre-primary to primary to secondary), with improved and relevant learning outcomes in development contexts and in emergency preparedness, response and recovery. Additionally, in the last year, innovations in educationas a concept and approach to support education change and to accelerate progress in the sector has significantly been addressed, but more needs to be done.
The four priority areas for education in the Strategic Plan include: equity, early learning, learning and education in humanitarian settings.
1. Purpose
The purpose of the consultancy is to coordinate the production of and write the of Education Result narrative report for 2014.
2. Tasks and Expected Results
Under the supervision of the Education Section’s Planning, Capacity Development and Knowledge Management hub and with the guidance of the Associate Director (Global Chief of Education), we invite consultants to indicate their interest to undertake the following tasks:
1) Provide an overall in-depth analysis of available information and identification of achievements, gaps and challenges of the education sector context and programme based on the following:
o Key trends in basic education with reference to all relevant global data sources from Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey(MICS), UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), Demographic Household Survey (DHS), etc. with a focus on gender and social equity and learning;
o Analyses of the overall patterns of UNICEF investment in education aiming to generate a logical flow between the targets set, the types of investment and choices made, and the reported results (attributable to UNICEF) from country offices globally.
o Develop a logical and evidence-based storyline to demonstrate the attribution to and contribution of UNICEF’s work at the outcome level; where relevant and plausible, also further develop the storylines to make the linkages with broader changes evident at the impact level;
o Highlight the overall bigger results that could be reported at the global and regional education outcomes and the successes/challenges in key education indicators for 2014 and relate it to the accompanying trends in the financial investment analysis;
2) Develop 4-6 supporting case studies of countries with high impact interventions based on analysis of field-based data and through communication with UNICEF colleagues in the field; countries selected on the basis of the data analysis[1],will be a source of quantitative verifiable data and accomplishments ;
3) Make recommendations for future reports beyond 2014 using UNICEF multiple data sources;
4) Based on the overall analysis and reporting of available information sources (UNICEF and non-UNICEF);
o identify the existing knowledge and data gaps accompanying recommendations to address them as part of regular reporting from the field;
o recommendations for a framework on reporting for results specific to the thematic needs;
- References and materials to be used for the analysis above include:
o Country Office Annual Reports (COAR) and COAR analysis documents produced by Education Headquarters (HQ);
o Regional Analysis Reports (RAR);
o Results Analysis Modules (RAM);
o Global data sources such as MICS, UIS, DHS,LSMS, and other related household surveys, etc.;
o Annual report of the Executive Director of UNICEF: progress and achievements against the medium- term strategic plan;
o Data companion to the annual report of the Executive Director;
o Regional summary of mid-term reviews of country programmes;
o Reports of MTR countries in 2014;
o 2014 Millennium Development Goals (MDG) stocktaking papers;
o Evaluation studies from UNICEF HQ, regional and country offices;
[1] The selection criteria will be made on the basis of quality results reported by the UNICEF Country Offices using the given components and format provided to the UNICEF Regional and Country Offices.
1. Time Frame
Phase 1: Planning and consultation
o Preliminary planning discussion with section focal points and agree to plan of action/timelines and synthesis of existing data/relevant information from key documents (see list of references and materials above)
o Liaise and conduct consultations (in person, by phone/Skype, or email, as required) with key Education Section staff and others (Public Partnership Division, Division of Data Research and Policy, Programme Division, as required) to gather and internalize the relevant information
o Liaise/initiate with Section focal points in writing the key components of first draft of Education Result Report: a) overall trends with reference to the list of relevant global data sources; b) in-depth analysis of year 2014 and SP 2014-2017 implementation; c) global and regional education outcomes- success and challenges; d) impact of education outcomes and outputs that links to a broader change; e) highlights of selected innovative strategic decision that led to cost efficiency and economies of scale of strategic interventions in catalyzing and creating impact in delivering results
Phase 2: Draft and revisions
o Produce draft submissions as required of Education Result report and incorporate feedback from section focal points, Section Chief, Inter-Divisional Review Team, Editor and Programme Division Deputy Directors
o Based on a global assessment, draft 4-6 case studies of high impact interventions from countries in selected successful educational programmes
Phase 3: Finalization
o Finalize Education Result Report, including final proofread, making any additional necessary changes
o Finalize 4-6 case studies of high impact interventions in selected educational programmes
o Provide recommendations for future Education Result Report using UNICEF multiple data sources
*NB: Number and date of draft submissions required is subject to change pending forthcoming guidance and adjustments to timeline.
2. Duration
Period of assignment. The consultant is expected to work 45 days between 9 February and 18 May 2015**.** Qualified consultant will work off-site most of the time but also in person at UNICEF NYHQ as per needed. The consultant will be available by email, telephone and skype to facilitate inputs to and production of the report.
3. Key Skills, Technical Background, and Experience Required
Desired Competencies for the consultant: Consultants must offer the following demonstrated experience, knowledge and competencies:
· Master’s degree or higher in Social Sciences and/or other relevant area;
· 8-10 years (senior) of experience working in the development field with preference in the education sector;
· Strong knowledge in programming and relevant technical fields (policy analysis, statistical analysis or other social science discipline). Education is a plus;
· Significant knowledge and experience of evaluation concepts and approaches;
· Good knowledge of national programming principles, INGOs and NGO networks, and a strong knowledge partnership principles in development work;
· Knowledgeable in results based management and results oriented approach to project implementation;
· Proven strong knowledge and practical application of evaluation methodologies and data collection and data analysis skills;
· Strong quantitative and qualitative data analysis skills;
· Experience in results reporting for bilateral donors;
· Multilingual versatility and experience in case study country (CSC);
· High level proficiency in standard computer software, in particular, Microsoft word and Excel;
· Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines;
· Excellent written in English, of publication standard;
· Familiarity with the UN and UNICEF programmes.
The consultant must have experience of working cross-culturally in development, and demonstrated capacity in managing programmes.
How to apply:
Qualified candidates are requested to submit a cover letter, CV, and signed P11 form (which can be retrieved at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc) to with subject line “Education Thematic Report Consultant” by 30 January 2015, 5:00 PM EST.
Please indicate your ability, availability and daily rate to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a daily rate will not be considered.
PLEASE SEE ATTACHED DOCUMENT FOR DELIVERABLES CHART.
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