Consultancy: Education Specialist (Data and M&E for Education Recovery) - Education Section, Programme Group – HQ New York (Remote position) - Req

Contract

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child hope.

Consultancy Title: Education Specialist (Data and M&E for Education Recovery)

Section/Division/Duty Station: Education /PG/NYHQ (remote)

Duration: 1 April to 30 December 2022

About UNICEF

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. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the worst shock to education systems in a century, with the longest school closures combined with the worst recessions in decades. More than 1.6 billion children have lost instructional time for many months at a time, if not for much of the last year, and over 6oo million children are still affected. School closures and the resulting disruptions to school participation and learning have had profound consequences on children’s overall health and wellbeing. The effects on children in fragile and conflict-affected settings with increasing inequities has been the most severe. Without rapid and scaled action, this generation of children and youth will never recover.

For these reasons, UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank launched Mission: Recovering Education in 2021 to ensure all children and youth are back in school and receive the tailored services needed to meet their comprehensive needs including learning, health and psychosocial well-being. The Mission was designed to support countries to take all actions possible to meet three priorities: bringing all children back to school, recovering learning losses, and preparing and supporting teachers.

Under this approach, and in order to ensure we are reaching the most marginalized children in humanitarian situations, UNICEF is supporting countries to take an all-inclusive approach focused on the most marginalized children: To identify those who have not returned to school, provide at-scale interventions to catch up on lost learning, and provide tailored and integrated services focused on health, well-being and nutrition. UNICEF has received funding to implement this programmatic approach in a number of countries with complex emergencies and Humanitarian Action Appeals.

At the global and regional levels, the programme will focus on knowledge management, provision of technical support and sharing lessons across regions on each of these priorities. Additional technical assistance will be provided through UNICEF global technical teams on early childhood education; primary and secondary/skills level (including cross-cutting nature of gender and inclusion). These will be harnessed to share the breadth of international experience on successful school reopening and learning recovery, and support proven programmatic interventions at scale.

Ambitious targets have been set for the programme, and fast-paced action is needed to support countries in responding to their overwhelming needs. The purpose of this Terms of Reference is to contract an overall coordinator to support and lead the process for UNICEF.

Terms of Reference / Deliverables

Scope of Work

Under the supervision of the Education Specialist, the purpose of this consultancy is support Data generation, dissemination and use on Mission: Recovering Education 2022. This will include technical support to dedicated data collection and analysis exercises, secondary analysis of existing datasets, and production of related knowledge products.

1. Data collection. Contribute to the data collection processes (survey design, preparation of data collection tools, follow up of respondents, data cleaning) in relation to learning recovery, in particular:

• The Global Education Recovery Tracker (a joint initiative between UNICEF and the World Bank)
• The joint surveys (UNESCO Institute for Statistics/World Bank/OECD/UNICEF)
• Ad hoc data collection with UNICEF Country offices

2. Data analysis and reporting on mission recovery from the above-mentioned data sources, including contribution to interagency reporting.

3. Secondary analysis of the previous round of data collection and other data sources (previous round of the recovery tracker).

4. Development of knowledge products: blogs, case studies, policy briefs, summary briefs, academic publications).

5. Support to the development of data visualization tools and infographics in relation to the Global Education Recovery Tracker, joint surveys and ad hoc surveys, as well as promotional content of the different tools/reports either for internal audiences or external platforms.

Undertake any other task upon request of supervisor.

Key deliverables:

1. Data collection. Contribute to the data collection processes (survey design, preparation of data collection tools, follow up of respondents, data cleaning) in relation to learning recovery, in particular:

• The Global Education Recovery Tracker (a joint initiative between UNICEF and the World Bank)
• The joint surveys (UNESCO Institute for Statistics/World Bank/OECD/UNICEF)
• Ad hoc data collection with UNICEF Country offices

2. Data analysis and reporting on mission recovery from the above-mentioned data sources, including contribution to interagency reporting.

3. Secondary analysis of the previous round of data collection and other data sources (previous round of the recovery tracker).

4. Development of knowledge products: blogs, case studies, policy briefs, summary briefs, academic publications).

5. Support to the development of data visualization tools and infographics in relation to the Global Education Recovery Tracker, joint surveys and ad hoc surveys, as well as promotional content of the different tools/reports either for internal audiences or external platforms.

Undertake any other task upon request of supervisor.

Qualifications

At least a Master’s in economics, education, social sciences, statistics, public policy or another related field. Significant coursework in economics and statistics highly preferred.

Fluency and strong writing skills in English are required. Fluency and strong writing skills in another official UN language highly desirable.

• 5-8 years of mid-level experience in applying research, evidence and data-driven decision making to medium and large-scale programs with an appreciation for practical and logistical constraints.
• Experience in research and M&E design and implementation in development or protracted conflict contexts desirable.
• Strong familiarity with various research and evaluation design concerns, including experimental and quasi-experimental methods.
• Proven analytical skills and knowledge of common statistics software packages (e.g. STATA, R).
• Experience in managing large rounds of data collection including experience developing digital data collection tools using common online / offline data collection packages (e.g. ODK, Kobo, Survey CTO) highly desirable.
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills to work effectively with a team that is geographically dispersed.
• Self-directed/self-motivating personality, with proven ability to manage demands from multiple stakeholders while adhering to program deadlines and priorities.
• Quick to learn, motivated to self-teach and capable of independently translating new knowledge into practice.
• Willingness to travel as needed to meet the demands of the programme.
• Excellent attention to detail.

Requirements****:

• Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and provide Personal History Form (P11) Upload copy of academic credentials
• Financial proposal that will include:
• your daily/monthly rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference (can be downloaded here: https://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_consultancy_assignments.html
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability
• Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.
• At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.
• Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.