Guinea-Bissau: External evaluation of the Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 2016 -2025 and Implementation Plan (2016 -2019) (Consultancy), Bissau, Guinea Bissau

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.

For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Background

Guinea Bissau has a population of 1.5 million people (INE, 2009), of whom 19.1 per cent are children under five years old, and 51.5 per cent are females. Guinea Bissau covers an area of 36,125 km2, including the Bijagos archipelago, which is composed of about 80 islands. Cashew nuts are the principal source of export income with the harvest from April to June.

The country, with fragile political and constitutional institutions is struggling to overcome the effects of several coups d'etat, the last of which, a military coup in April 2012, aggravated the already fragile economic development, worsened security, affected rule of law and overall provision of services to the population, rendering the country 178th in the 2015 Human Development Index.

Presidential and Legislative elections took place in April and May 2014, replacing a post-coup transition Government by democratically elected institutions (new President of Republic, National Parliament and Government). It restored constitutional order in the country, brought new hope for long term stability and the perspective of economic growth and human development. The new Government developed a long term vision (Terra Ranka - 2016-2025) for the development of the country and a donor round-table took place in March 2015 in Brussels, where donors pledged one thousand million euros.

The latest MICS shows that the resilience of the communities in the country visible on the Gross Enrolment Rates (GER), Guinea Bissau has been increasing its enrolment in primary education (grade 1-6) over the years with the latest data pointing at the rate of 123, however (i) the enrolment of children at the right age, (ii) the retention until completion of the full cycle, (iii) the lack of alternative opportunities for learning outside of the formal education remains a challenge.

Net attendance data showed by MICS indicates a decrease of 4 points from the previous NAR of 2010, indicating a worsening situation of the education system overall. This negative trend of attendance in primary education has multifaceted root causes like the political instability that affected the country in the recent years, the series of teachers' strikes that occurred almost every year and the slow development of the system, both in terms of increasing learning opportunities (new classrooms for increasing number of pupils) and quality of education (less and less qualified teachers are able to retain children in school). While the decrease is sharper for the urban population, it seems that rural girls have not been particularly affected by the decrease.

Since 2013, Guinea Bissau Ministry of Education, supported by UNICEF as the managing entity, has been implementing the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) fund, providing a crucial support in the effort to achieve the originally set Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA) goal of universal primary education. Under the GPE project 'Support to Education for All Implementation in Guinea Bissau', the MoE has prepared and developed a profound Education Sector Diagnosis (RESEN), including a Learning Achievements Assessment, and consequently developed a ten-year Education Strategic Plan (ESP, 2016 -2025) and a three-year Implementation Plan (2016 -2019).

In order to implement these plans, Guinea Bissau needs to increase its funding sources for education and the GPE has already announced that Guinea Bissau is eligible for a maximum country allocation of up to 4.7 million US dollars. To ensure the access to the GPE grant, the evaluation of the education strategic plan will guarantee it meets the quality standards defined in the IIEP/GPE plan preparation and appraisal guidelines. Once the ten-year Education Strategic Plan (2016 -2025) and the three-year Implementation Plan (2016 -2019) are finalized, the documents will be shared with relevant stakeholders and endorsed by its development partners.

UNICEF as the Coordinating Agency and Grant Agent (previously referred to as the Managing Entity) of the sector plan development grant is overseeing the finalization of the above documents, including an external evaluation.

In order to achieve this, it is proposed to recruit a consultant who will undertake the critical analysis and external evaluation of the Education ESP to ensure that it meets the minimum standards defined in the GPE/IIEP/UNESCO Guidelines for Education Sector Plan Preparation. The main focus areas of the evaluation will be such as to highlight a few are: quality of the ESP which include whether it addresses the issues related to equity, gender, evidence base, relevance of the policies and programmes, adequacy and credibility of the financial framework.

This consultant will have to work in close collaboration with the other consultant who is being recruited to review the financial aspect of the ESP.

Purpose of the Assignment

To carry out an external evaluation and critical analysis of the Guinea Bissau ten-year Education Strategic Plan (2016 -2025) and the three-year Implementation Plan (2016 -2019) in order to assess the soundness as regard to the minimum standards defined in the GPE/IIEP/UNESCO Guidelines for Education Sector Plan Preparation.

Activities and tasks:

The external evaluation and critical analysis of the ESP should use the framework proposed in the GPE and UNESCO IIEP Guidelines for Education Sector Plan Appraisal, the GPE and UNESCO IIEP Guidelines for Education Sector Plan Preparation and GPE's Education Sector Plan Assessment Methodology (an additional support tool attached separately) in carrying out the assessment. Guidelines available on the following link or the hyperlink above: http://www.globalpartnership.org/content/guidelines-education-sector-pla...http://www.globalpartnership.org/content/guidelines-education-sector-pla...

The consultant will assess the following: assessment of the expert consultant should broadly aim to:

More specifically, the assessment should cover (in a coherent manner) the general questions and sub-questions outlined under the following five key dimensions and sub-dimensions of the GPE/IIEP Appraisal Guidelines. An overview is provided below but the Appraisal Guidelines should be consulted for the full list of questions:

1.Leadership and participation:

(ii) Participatory Process: What is the level of involvement among the local stakeholders and development partners?

(iii) Capacity Development: To what extent was the plan preparation used as an opportunity to develop national capacities in education policy and planning?

2. Soundness and Relevance:

(i) Evidence-based education sector analysis: What empirical evidence was available and was it used effectively?

(ii) Relevance of Policies and Programs:

(iii) Soundness of the financial framework

(iv)Soundness of the action plan

3. Equity, Efficiency, and Learning in Basic Education:

(i) Robustness and relevance of the strategies: Do the proposed priorities and programs form a relevant response to the challenges?

4. Coherence

5. Feasability, Implementability, and Monitorability

The consultants will also be expected to use and run the ESP Assessment Methodology for Appraisers and Bridging Table. This document provides a qualitative assessment of the seven quality standards of a credible education sector plan as defined within the GPE and IIEP Plan Preparation Guidelines and bridges these with the GPE and IIEP Guidelines for Education Sector Plan Appraisal. The seven quality standards note that an ESP should be:

The consultant is required to annex the results of the ESP Assessment Methodology for Appraisers to the Appraisal Report.

Once the assessment is complete, UNICEF, as Grant agent of the Education Sector Plan Development Grant, will share the draft appraisal report with the Coordinating Agency, the Ministry of Education and the GPE Secretariat and the Donors/partners in the LEG. The consultant will also be expected to:

Expected Deliverables

Deliverables, timeframe and payment

Length/

Timeframe

Activities

February to mid-March 2017

Deliverables

5 days (remote work)

Activity 1:

Review existing and related documents available, desk review

Desk review document. Deliver an inception report

2 days

Activity 2:

Conduct preparatory meetings with the MoE and the LEG. Preparation meetings with UNICEF

Meetings conducted. Guiding principles established

2 days

Activity 3:

Preparation of agenda, program and facilitation tools.

Meeting with the key education actors to prepare the mission. Introduce the key elements of the evaluation exercise to national stakeholders

Agenda, program, meetings minutes

9 days

Activity 4:

Field work including field consultations

Facilitation and consultation meetings

3 days

Activity 5:

Preparation of the findings

Preparation of findings

1 day

Activity 6:

Presentation of findings to the LEG.

Presentation of findings

1 day

Activity 7:

Presenting key findings and recommendations for the evaluation to the LEG.

Draft Evaluation Report with all key findings and recommendations

7 days

Activity 8:

Preparing the Final Evaluation Report by MoE and Partners

Final Evaluation Report

Payment:

Please note, there are no advance payments. The DSA will be adjusted according to the field missions and duty station. All the deliverables will be paid after end of the contract and successful evaluation.

The evaluation of the ESP will be in the form of a detailed:

METHODOLOGY AND ORGANIZATION OF WORK:

An extensive literature review that should follow the evaluation guidelines, including:

A- Meetings and consultations with partners and LEG members, including:

The consultant will be provided with a list of resource persons to contact in the Ministry of Education and the technical and financial partners of the education sector in the Guinea Bissau. LEG, with the support of the GPE Coordinating Agency (UNICEF), will work directly with the consultant in order to ensure the provision of all the required support including the documentation and also to facilitate the organization of work sessions for the consultant.

Qualifications of Successful Candidate

Education

The selected consultant expert on quality, equity and governance will possess:

Competencies of Successful Candidate

Years of relevant experience

Language requirements:

Available for 30 working days, from February to mid-March 2017.

To view our competency framework, please click here.

Please indicate your ability, availability and daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above (including travel and daily subsistence allowance, if applicable). Applications submitted without a daily/monthly rate will not be considered.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organisation.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization. To apply, click on the following link http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/?job=502557