Consultancy: Livelihoods study, baseline on the situation of learning to earning for youth with disabilities in Eastern and Southern Africa

Consultant Teaching & Training Programme & Policy

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TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR CONSULTANT

PART I

Title of Assignment

Livelihoods study: baseline on the situation of learning to earning for youth with disabilities in Eastern and Southern Africa

Section

Education

Location

Remotely, with regular communication with the Regional Office and Country Offices.

Duration

80 days

Start date

From: 01/11/2021

To: 30/06/2022

Background and Justification

Young people with disabilities are among the poorest and most marginalised of the world’s youth. Estimates suggest that there are between 180 and 220 million youth with disabilities worldwide, and nearly 80 percent of them live in developing countries.Youth with disabilities experience more adverse socioeconomic outcomes than youth without disabilities. These include less education, lower literacy levels, lower employment levels, and higher poverty rates. Youth with disabilities are far more likely to be unemployed, underemployed, or economically inactive. For young women with disabilities, the situation is even worse as they have to counter disability and gender based societal prejudices.

In the current COVID context, with unprecedented change, uncertainty and insecurity, millions of youth are no longer attending school or at risk of not returning to any form of learning, severely impacting their future. In situations of economic downturns and shrinking labour markets, youth with disabilities face even greater discrimination in hiring practices.

To achieve universal employment, and therefore economic growth, we need to include the hundreds of millions of persons with disabilities who, at this moment, do not have the opportunity to provide for their own livelihood. Having the right skills is the key to decent work – work that offers a better income, security, and self-respect. In order to be able to compete in the workplace, young people need to have the skills necessary to secure (and keep) a job or set up and maintain their own business. Access to training and skills development is therefore of critical importance to move young people out of the cycle of low-skilled, low-productivity and low-waged employment and into positions with decent income, workplace security, and opportunities for social inclusion.

In ESAR, countries are making efforts to harmonize national legislative and policy frameworks with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), including to domesticate provisions regarding the right of persons with disabilities to work and employment.

Some countries such as Ethiopia have developed national employment policies that include provisions to ensure the right of persons with disabilities to equal employment opportunities. National quota systems currently in place apply to employers in either the public or private sector or to both, and sub-Saharan Africa has the highest quota levels.

The public sector has also stimulated the creation of decent work for persons with disabilities by including disability-related provisions in public procurement policies. For instance, under the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework of South Africa, enterprises are awarded contracts based on a preferential points system which features disability inclusion as one of the areas that positively impact the company’s overall rating vis-à-vis the public sector.

There are also promising initiatives to support entrepreneurship among persons with disabilities, particularly by removing discriminatory practices and improving access to financial services. In Uganda, the Association of Microfinance Institutions has taken measures to create equal opportunities for persons with disabilities to access their financial services, with a particular focus on sensitizing its staff on disability rights. In Kenya, the National Fund for Persons with Disabilities has created many opportunities for persons with disabilities to start their own businesses. Also in Kenya, Humanity and Inclusion (HI) support refugee microentrepreneurs with disabilities living in Kakuma.

Some countries such as South Africa have taken steps to create more disability-inclusive apprenticeship schemes, such as workplace programmes and hands-on learning that are also open to persons with disabilities at companies that combine on-the-job-training with complementary school-based training for a full occupation, craft or trade. In Mozambique, support has been provided for young persons with disabilities to access technical and vocational training by removing physical barriers in accommodations and training centres, for example, by developing accessible lavatories and installing lower door locks and light switches. In Uganda, Sense International Uganda works with partner vocational training institutes to conduct a mandatory assessment of learning environments and suggests adaptation to reduce the risk of accidents and falls. In Rwanda, Educate! has developed a distance learning model with multi-mode delivery‒ through written SMS and audio phone messages & radio‒ to make it inclusive. Educate! has integrated a one-on-one mentorship component in the program to support youth in their unique learning needs. Based on the EmployAble programme in Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda, Light for the World developed a seven step model of interventions that lead to sustainable employment through inclusive skills development.

UNICEF’s work at the country and regional level is to support the participation and inclusion of all youth in livelihoods programmes. UNICEF programmes aim to advance learning to earning by: improving laws and policies, improving the quality of the vocational and skills training, developing teaching and learning materials, building capacity of human resources and institutions, changing negative attitudes about the potential of youth with disabilities and improving data and monitoring systems.

UNICEF and partners are “reimagining secondary age education,” using this moment to build back stronger, with flexible, accredited, wide-breadth of skills, and innovative measures for safe learning to earning. UNICEF’s investment in adolescent learning and skills development, especially for the most marginalized is a priority for the organization’s efforts around the second decade. This priority links directly to the achievement of SDG targets, including ending poverty, enhancing education and life-long learning opportunities and promoting employment and decent work for all. UNICEF in the region is emphasizing the importance of flexible multiple-pathways (and blended learning), leveraging various innovations/tools.

This baseline study will take stock of the work done in recent years in countries on learning to earning programmes and initiatives in order to build and guide the agenda for the region in the coming years and assess the feasiability of inclusion in relevant key intiatives (e.g. yoma). The assignment requires dedication of time which is beyond the time available for the Education Specialist in charge of adolescents’ learning to earning supporting these priority areas of work.

Scope of Work

1. *Goal and Objective*****:

Under the supervision of the Disability Inclusion Specialist, the consultant will map information on adolescent and young persons with disabilities education and training; employment and skills-building, including wrap-around services (job-matching, mentorship, internship); empowerment and engagement in the ESA region, and identification of scalable initiatives.

2. Provide details/reference to AWP areas covered:

The study will contribute to the Education section outcome of the ROMP and the Output 2: “Enhanced capacity of COs to design, implement, monitor and evaluate risk informed education programmes that ensure that girls and boys, including those with disabilities, complete early learning, primary and secondary education with grade-level learning outcomes”

3. Activities and Tasks:

The primary task of the consultant is to undertake a baseline survey of the inclusiveness of learning to earning programmes and initiatives in ESAR to identify good practices, innovative approaches, and gaps. The end goal of the assignment is to produce a report with identified challenges and opportunities as well as two case studies reflecting the inclusion of adolescents with disabilities in the learning to earning initiative and brief technical guidance on integrating youth with disabilities into programming.

The methodology should include the following steps:

Step 1. Desk review. The consultant will review relevant literature on learning to earning for youth with disabilities, data (where available) on the levels of participation in general learning to earning programmes and initiatives for youth with disabilities; and policy and programme documents provided by country offices.

Step 2. Data collection and analysis. The consultant will develop a tool to collect feedback from UNICEF country offices and organizations of persons with disabilities in the countries. The tool will be used to compile feedback from each country to document past and ongoing initiatives, approaches used, opportunities and challenges faced at the country level. The analysis should aim to identify the future learning to earning programming needs and areas where support is needed, including how to make them inclusive of and accessible to youth with disabilities.

Step 3. Good practices/case studies. The consultant will identify good practices as well as the use of innovative approaches and develop case studies to document them.

Step 4. Present the findings. After sharing the draft report with UNICEF and receiving feedback from the RO, the consultant will develop a PowerPoint presentation, which will be presented to relevant UNICEF colleagues and potential partners via webinars.

Step 5. Report. The consultant will prepare an ESAR report, with at least the following sections included:

• Executive summary (3-4 pages)
• Situation of learning to earning for youth with disabilities in the region and review of the level of progress of countries
• Recommendations to improve policies and frameworks to support learning to earning for youth with disabilities and to include an annex on integrating youth with disabilities into YOMA and other regional initiatives.
• Mapping of UNICEF programmes in learning to earning for adolescents and young persons and the inclusiveness of youth with disabilities in the region or lack thereof
• Successes, challenges and gaps in learning to earning programming at the country level in view of disability inclusion
• Recommendations on how to make UNICEF programmes in learning to earning inclusive of and accessible to youth with disabilities
• A brief technical note for country office and programme teams to integrate youth with disabilities into programming.
• Case studies and current good practices in learning to earning for youth with disabilities
• Annexes:
  • Bibliography
  • Methodology and approach
  • Tools used for data collection
  • List of respondents to the survey and interviewee

The following cross-cutting issues should be kept in mind:

• To what extent do initiatives address gender specific needs and barriers?
• To what extent do initiatives address the specific needs and barriers of adolescents and young persons with different disabilities?
• To what extent are initiatives specific to a particular country context (HIC, LMIC, LIC, humanitarian, emergency…), needs and available resources?
• To what extent are initiatives maximizing digital platforms and/or innovations?
• To what extent has COVID-19 accelerated/given new opportunity/impacted learning to earning for youth with disabilities?

4. Work relationships:

The consultant will report to the Disability Inclusion Specialist at ESARO with regular virtual meetings with relevant colleagues including colleagues from the Education Section at ESARO. The consultant will engage also directly with COs and OPDs when collecting country information.

5. Outputs/Deliverables:

• The Inception Report will describe the strategic directions of the work, the methodology to be followed, the different steps to deliver the expected results, potential limitations, the framework/tools for information collection and analysis, and the detailed timetable that the consultant will use to deliver the main results of the study.
• The main findings of the survey/interviews with Cos, countries stakeholders and governments on the level of progress of learning to earning programmes and initiatives at national levels according to the analysis grid used and the good practices identified.
• The report, the final deliverable, will consist of all the sections listed above. The consultant will present this work at a regional webinar to be scheduled.

Deliverables

Duration

(Estimated # of days)

Timeline/Deadline

Schedule of payment

Percentage payment

Inception report

10

1 December 2021

15 December 2021

20%

Key findings from the survey

35

28 February 2022

15 March 2022

20%

Draft report

25

20 March 2022

15 April 2022

30%

Final report

9

15 April 2022

1 May 2022

20%

Webinar presentation

1

15 May 2022

31 May 2022

10%

Desired competencies, technical background and experience

• Advanced degree in a relevant field with relevant work experience.
• Minimum 8 years relevant professional experience, experience working in issues relating to employment and livelihoods, disability, social inclusion and/or related fields in developing country contexts.
• Strong experience in research, program management, monitoring and reporting.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and previous experience communicating with partners at different levels.
• Demonstrated ability in work planning and report preparation.
• Demonstrated skills in professional high quality writing in English.
• Experience working in the Eastern and Southern Africa region highly desirable.
• Excellent communication skills in English.

• Experience working with UNICEF is an asset

  Administrative issues

The consultant will report to the Education Specialist in charge of adolescents’ learning to earning at ESARO with regular virtual meetings with relevant colleagues including the Disability Inclusion team at ESARO. The consultant will engage also directly with COs and OPDs when collecting country information.

Conditions

The consultant will be based remotely and so will work from home. They will be responsible for identifying a work-space and material.

Applications submitted without all-inclusive financial proposal will not be considered.

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 be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

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Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: unicef.org