Consultancy to conduct review of UNICEF programming in the ESA region regarding inclusive quality education for children with disabilities and development of a roadmap for the regional offic

Consultant Teaching & Training Programme & Policy

Contract

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TERMS OF REFERENCE

Title of Assignment

Review of UNICEF programming in the ESA region regarding inclusive quality education for children with disabilities and development of a roadmap for the regional office.

Section

Education

Location

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

Duration

90 days

Start date

From: 01/10/2021

To: 30/06/2022

Background and Justification

In line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), General Comment No. 4 of the CRPD Committee , and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UNICEF supports Ministries of Education around the world to make their education systems more inclusive. Inclusive education entails a transformation in culture, policy and practice, a commitment to removing barriers, and strengthening the capacity of the education system to reach out to all learners. It focuses on the full and effective participation, accessibility, attendance and achievement of all students without discrimination. It is a process of systemic reform embodying changes and modifications in content, teaching methods, approaches, structures and strategies.

Eastern and Southern Africa regional study on the fulfilment of the right to education of children with disabilities found that there is very little data on the numbers of children with disabilities and it is therefore not possible to understand the extent to which disability is a barrier to educational access. An inclusive education approach is reported to be the dominant strategy for providing education to children with disabilities. However, there appears to be a rhetoric–reality gap, as no evidence was found to document the commitment to implement such an approach – such as the provision of teacher training for inclusive education as a mainstream activity. Schools are not always willing to enroll pupils with disabilities and there are no incentives or penalties, specialist provision is not always available locally, there is no system for placement of children with disabilities in appropriate schools, transport to school is problematic; assessment systems do not take into account the different needs of children with disabilities and there is inadequate specialist teacher support. Also, poverty poses financial challenges to poor households and affects those with children with disabilities more acutely, as they cannot afford to pay the costs that are related to schooling even when the tuition is free.

A 2019 study on The Role of Social Norms in Decisions to Provide Schooling to Children with Disabilities in East and Southern Africa , showed that there is a practice of actively hiding children with disabilities. The practice is related to social norms of overprotection, a mind-your-own-business demeanour, and avoidance of quick decisions by fathers. The findings underscore a need for attention to intersectionality in addressing disability, rather than single-issue organizing, particularly when it comes to the combination of disability, culture, gender violence, and poverty.

UNICEF’s work at the country and regional level is to support the inclusion of all children in quality learning from pre-school through basic education. UNICEF programmes aim to advance inclusive quality education by: improving laws and policies, improving the quality of the learning environment, developing teaching and learning materials, building capacity of human resources and institutions, changing negative attitudes toward inclusive quality education and improving data and monitoring systems on inclusive quality education.

This consultation will take stock of the work done in recent years in countries on inclusive education for children with disabilities in order to build and guide the Inclusive Education agenda for the region in the coming years. The assignment requires dedication of time which is beyond the time available for the Education Specialist supporting these priority areas of work.

Scope of Work

1) Goal and Objective:

Under the supervision of the Education Specialist (Equity), the consultant will map the progress of countries, building on the existing study and survey mentioned above, and UNICEF programmes in the region of Eastern and Southern Africa in advancing inclusive quality education for children, with a particular focus on children with disabilities, of pre-primary, primary and lower secondary school age, and to develop a roadmap for UNICEF’s regional work on inclusive quality education, focusing on the rights and needs of children with disabilities based on the experiences in the countries.

UNICEF ROSA and EAPRO have recently completed their regional roadmaps for inclusive education and commenced implementation at country level. Though the ESAR regional study and survey mentioned above provided valuable insights on the challenges of implementing inclusive education, there is a need for an updated overview of existing policies and frameworks and UNICEF programming in inclusive education in the region. The regional strategy and actionable roadmap will go beyond a desk review of existing policies and frameworks and gaps, and identify priority interventions and countries to advance the inclusive education agenda. A regional roadmap for ESAR will be a practical tool to ensure the right of children with disabilities to inclusive quality education.

2) Provide details/reference to AWP areas covered: It 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 review of Inclusive quality education policies and practices in ESAR to identify successful practices, innovative approaches, and gaps. The end goal of the assignment is to produce a roadmap with key actions to advance the IE agenda.

It is expected that the methodology will employ both a theory-based and a mixed-methods approach drawing on key background documents, monitoring frameworks at country and regional levels and interviews with key informants. Key documents, data and a contact list of relevant informants will be provided once a contractual agreement has been made.

The review and analysis should be structured around the following general categories of UNICEF interventions:

• Improving laws and policies, • Improving financing modalities for the education system, • Improving the quality of the learning environment, • Developing teaching and learning materials, • Building capacity of human resources and institutions, • Changing negative attitudes of parents, professional and children toward inclusive quality education, and, • Improving data and monitoring systems on inclusive quality education.

The methodology should include the following steps:

Step 1. Desk review. The consultant will review: prominent global literature on Inclusive quality education, UNICEF strategy documents from global, regional and country levels, data (where available) on the levels of education enrolment, participation and learning (against M&E indicators) regarding children 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 country offices and a tool for compiling 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 Inclusive quality education programming needs and areas where support is needed.

Step 3. Discussions with key stakeholders. Based on the data and analysis in Step 2, the consultant will identify key questions and issues to be discussed with each country in the region to compliment the analysis above.

Step 4. 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 5. Regional roadmap. The consultant will use the analyses above to identify the priorities for the regional office to advance Inclusive quality education Agenda in the next 3-5 years and in particular support countries in scaling up interventions and accelerating results for inclusive quality education for children with disabilities. The could suggest priority countries and priority interventions.

Step 6. Partnerships. The consultant will map existing initiatives and position supported by partners as well as propose effective partnerships to advance the Inclusive Education agenda.

Step 7. Two country roadmaps. The consultant will facilitate with the CO an inclusive policy dialogue around the diagnosis of inclusive quality education for children with disabilities and the priorities to implement for the next 4 years, leading to the development of a roadmap in 2 ESAR countries (countries to be determined at a later stage).

Step 8. Present the findings. After sharing the draft report with UNICEF and receiving feedback from the RO, the consultant will develop a PowerPoint and webinar presentation, which will be presented to relevant UNICEF colleagues and potential partners. The webinar presentation will serve to gather final inputs into the regional roadmap to facilitate the finalization of the report.

Step 9. Report. The consultant will prepare an ESAR report, with at least the following sections:

• Executive summary (3-4 pages) • Situation of education for children with disabilities in the region and review of the level of progress of countries on inclusive quality education • Mapping of UNICEF initiatives in Inclusive quality education for children with disabilities in the region • Successes, challenges and gaps in Inclusive quality education programming at the country level; • Case studies and current good practices in Inclusive quality education for children with disabilities; • Regional roadmap for Inclusive quality education including key strategic actions for advancing Inclusive quality education for children with disabilities in ESA. • The 2 country roadmaps in Inclusive quality education. • Annexes: o Biography o Methodology and approach o Tools used for data collection o List of respondents to the survey and interviewees

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 children with disabilities? • To what extend do initiatives address the specific needs and barriers of children with different disabilities, e.g. children who are deaf, blind, children with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities and children with physical disabilities? • To what extent do initiatives address the specific needs and barriers of children of different age groups, including young children and adolescents? • To what extent are initiatives specific to a particular country context (HIC, LMIC, LIC, humanitarian, emergency…), needs and available resources? • To what extent has COVID-19 accelerated/frozen/given new opportunity to inclusive education for children with disabilities?

4) Work relationships:

The consultant will report to the Education Specialist (Equity) at ESARO with regular virtual meetings with relevant colleagues including the Disability Inclusion Team of ESARO. The consultant will engage also directly with COs when collecting country information.

5) Outputs/Deliverables:

• The Inception Report It 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 consultation.

• The main findings of the survey/interviews with COs and countries stakeholders’ governments on the level of progress of quality inclusive education at national levels according to the analysis grid used and the good practices identified.

• The regional roadmap, assorted with an action plan, will outline ESARO's key priorities (and potentially priority countries) for the next four years to advance the agenda of inclusive quality education for children with disabilities, focusing on partnership building, internal and governmental capacity building, resource mobilization, evidence generation and advocacy.

• 2 country roadmaps developed with the COs and countries stakeholders highlighting the priority actions to be implemented to move toward sustainable education programming and result for children with disabilities at scale.

• The report, the final deliverable, will consist of all the sections listed above in Part 3/step 8. 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

30 October 2021

1st November 2021

20%

Key findings from the survey

53

31 January 2022

Regional Roadmap

8

28 February 2022

28 February 2021

40%

2 country roadmaps

8

30 April 2022

Draft report

8

31 May 2022

31 May 2021

Webinar presentation

1

Final report

2

15 June 2022

15 June 2022

40%

Desired competencies, technical background and experience

• Advanced degree in Education, and/or Social Sciences with relevant work experience. • Minimum 10 years relevant professional experience, Experience working in issues relating to education, 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 an asset.

Administrative Issues

The consultant will report to the Education Specialist (Equity) at ESARO with regular virtual meetings with relevant colleagues including the Disability Inclusion Team of ESARO. The consultant will engage also directly with COs when collecting country information

Conditions

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

Core Values • Care • Respect • Integrity • Transparency • Accountability

Competencies • Builds and maintains partnerships • Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness • Drive to achieve results for impact • Innovates and embraces change • Manages ambiguity and complexity • Thinks and acts strategically • Works collaboratively with others

Risks

As the Covid-19 pandemic is not over, the risk of schedule slippage due to other priorities may arise. It will be necessary to follow up closely with the consultant to adjust the methodology and schedule.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should apply online using the button below. As part of their application, candidates should provide:

1. A cover letter that specifies how you meet the desired competencies, technical background and experience (no more than 2 pages)
2. A short CV (no more than 4 pages)
3. A fee structure that should include: daily/monthly rate in USD and total fee

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 the organization.

Apply now

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