Consultant (Evaluation), Education Outcomes Fund (EOF), Hosted Funds, Freetown, Sierra Leone, 55 working days in 2.2 Years, Req: 563940

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, EDUCATION

There are few greater challenges faced by the global community than the twin crises of learning poverty and youth unemployment. In response, the Education Commission (chaired by Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister and UN Special Envoy for Global Education) and the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen) came together to create EOF. We aim to improve the education and employment outcomes of 10 million children and youth by supporting governments to utilize a range of innovative finance instruments at scale, including outcomes funds and other results-based financing (RBF) instruments.

EOF is backed by a range of world leaders who support this objective, as well as leaders in education and impact investing.

EOF supports improvements in the quality of education and skills programs, with a special focus on underserved populations, including the hardest to reach; rural populations, girls, children with disabilities, and refugees. It measures (and pays for) what matters – both core skills like literacy and numeracy, but also critical 21st Century skills such as socio-emotional skills, ICT skills, and other broader fundamentals of a quality education. It helps close the persistent gap between the skills needed by employers and those attained by today’s youth by paying for employment and retention outcomes.

For all the above, EOF pays primarily on the basis of the results achieved, ensuring that taxpayer-funded domestic resources, aid, and philanthropic funds are only used to pay for what works. This is a game-changing way to finance results in education. It is more than just a fund – it is a powerful new set of partnerships and way of working.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose of the assignment

The Consultant (Evaluation) will support EOF by providing expert and strategic guidance on the design and implementation of the evaluation for several programmes.

For SLEIC, the assignment will focus on doing quality assurance of the independent evaluation of the programme. The evaluation consists of a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) conducted by Oxford Policy Management (OPM), that evaluates the extent to which treatment schools are achieving higher learning outcomes compared to the control group. Given the nature of the programme, in which donors and the GoSL pay for results, the evaluation has exceptionally high stakes as it determines the payments made to Grantees. In this sense, having a solid quality assurance of the evaluation is critical.

The Consultant (Evaluation) will work closely with EOF’s SLEIC team and OPM to review the inputs from OPM (i.e., results reports, work plans, evaluation protocols) and troubleshoot in case there any issues regarding the evaluation arise.

The broad objectives of this consultancy are:

• To aid EOF’s SLEIC team in reviewing all the evaluation inputs and ensuring high quality
• To provide technical advice on any issues or matters related to the programme evaluation.
• Support the management of the independent evaluator, OPM.

The Consultant (Evaluation) is expected to deliver the following:

• A detailed review providing relevant questions and comments to OPM on all inputs and outputs of the evaluation, including:
  • Fieldwork preparation materials (work plan, model, logistics, manuals, etc.).
  • Any changes made by OPM to the test and other instruments.
  • The yearly results reports.
• Support through calls and/or written concepts in troubleshooting any issues that may arise in the evaluation.
• Join and support evaluation workshops facilitated by OPM, and other meetings as needed.

Deliverable

Description

Estimated number of working days

Deadline /timeline

Deliverable 1: Detailed review of 24 evaluation inputs and outputs over three evaluation cycles.

OPM, as the independent evaluator, prepares inputs (i.e., fieldwork preparation materials and reviews of the tests and instruments) and outputs (results reports and fieldwork reports) every evaluation cycle. The evaluation expert will review all these inputs and outputs to ensure high quality and raise any comments or questions to be solved by OPM.

30 days

By December 2025

Deliverable 2: Attend monthly 1-hour meetings and share written concepts to troubleshoot any issues that may arise during the three evaluation cycles.

During data collection and analysis some issues may arise, which will require problem-solving and finding the best solutions that maintain the integrity of the evaluation and are aligned with the objectives of the programme. The evaluation expert will support and advise EOF’s team on the decision-making on how to manage the issues.

13 days

By December 2025

Deliverable 3: Join and support three 2-hour and three 2 days evaluation workshops facilitated by OPM, and other meetings as needed.

OPM facilitates a validation workshop after every data collection cycle. The evaluation expert will attend these workshops.

Additionally, the evaluation expert will join other relevant meetings with OPM, Grantees and/or outcomes funders as required.

12 days

By December 2025

Total estimated working days- 55 days

The consultant will report to the SLEIC programme manager.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• PhD in statistics, econometrics, education measurement, or relevant fields.
• A minimum of Five Years of relevant professional experience in quality assurance or a similar role in randomised control trials and educational research projects. Experience working in evaluation methodologies in the education sector, including measuring access and learning gains.
• Experience working on projects in Sierra Leone or similar contexts is desirable.
• Strong familiarity with data collection, management, and analysis techniques for randomised controlled trials in the context of education.
• Knowledge of educational measurement and psychometrics is a plus.
• Excellent attention to detail and strong analytical skills.
• Strong organisational and time management abilities to meet deadlines and manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

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.

Remarks:

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

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.