Extended deadline for applications: Home-based Individual Contractor (222 working days): Lead Early Childhood Education Consultant for Development of sector analysis and ECEC Quality Framewo

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, an education

Background and Scope of Work

Cyprus acknowledges the provision of affordable high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) as a condition for promoting children’s early development and their subsequent school performance. It recognizes ECEC as an area that needs improvement and therefore has high policy priority. This is highlighted in the national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) adopted in 2021.

With funding from the EU Commission, DG REFORM, under which UNICEF has been contracted to provide technical support, UNICEF will be working with the Cypriot Ministry of Social Welfare and the Cypriot Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth to support the raising the quality, affordability, accessibility and inclusiveness of early childhood education and care, by guiding investments and reforms in the sector as outlined in the national Recovery and Resilience Plan for 2022-2026. This includes the expansion of facilities and the development of a national ECEC Strategy by 2024.

This will be achieved through the following outcomes:

• Outcome 1: The Cypriot authorities have gained extensive knowledge of the current status of the ECEC sector through 1) a mapping of existing services including supply and demand, 2) a sub-sector analysis, and 3) analysis of good practice from other European countries, which enables them to conduct the relevant investments and reforms outlined in the national Recovery and Resilience Plan.
• Outcome 2: Cyprus adopts a National Quality Framework for early childhood education and care, together with a set of related indicators [and targets] reflecting the data collected and quality needs across the split system, which have been created jointly with all relevant authorities, and stakeholders, and have been validated for use by the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth.
• Outcome 3: The Cypriot authorities are in a position to adopt a comprehensive national strategy for early childhood education and care, based on recommendations developed with the help of the mapping, sub-sector analysis and European good practice and the quality framework development process.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities

1. Support to programme development and planning.

Working closely with the ECARO ECE specialist:

• Develop inception report and work plan for the programme.
• Coordinate the project steering committee and expert working groups of the programme.
• Coordinate with the ministries on the operational arrangements for the implementation of the programme.
• Develop and manage communication tools for use throughout the programme span
• Lead and oversee the impactful implementation of the programme, together with steering committee.

2. Lead the provide technical inputs to the assessment of the status of the ECEC system in Cyprus.

Working closely with a local research team:

• Conduct Mapping of supply of and demand for ECEC services for 0-6 (divided into 0-2 years, 2-4 years, 4-6 years) and the after-school services
  • The supply of services to identify current status of service usage:
  • Through analysis of national, municipal and centre level data identify current enrolment, attendance, waiting lists and class sizes and;
  • Identify the gaps in the provision of ECEC.
  • The demand for services includes:
  • Conducting surveys and qualitative data collection from parent associations, ECEC centre leadership, and teachers’ groups to identify the factors affecting the decision of parents to place children in focusing on accessibility, affordability, quality, availability and;
  • Attitudes towards ECEC services.
• Develop a set of recommendations for covering unmet needs.

Under the leadership of the UNICEF ECE specialist and working closely with research team and expert working group:

• Conduct a comprehensive analytical diagnosis of the ECEC sector covering all the domains of the European Quality Framework for ECEC, and based on the ECE Sub-sector Analysis Tool https://www.ece-accelerator.org/toolkit/section-2/tool-2-2.
  • Collect initial desk review of status of ECEC sector, building from the data and results of the mapping activities, and identify key documents and resources.
  • Hold a set of working sessions with ECEC steering committee for deeper-dive analysis of components of the sector (Enabling environment, curriculum implementation, workforce development, quality assurance, planning and budgeting, and parental and community engagement).
  • Develop and validate report detailing current status of the ECEC sector, with key recommendations for reforms.
• Gather and analyse relevant good practice from other European countries on the creation of a quality framework, to inform options for subsequent project phases.
  • Gather relevant examples of good practice from other European countries and summarise them in a concise report
  • Organise online peer exchange of 2 half days with experts from 2-3 countries
  • Organise study visit for a Cypriot delegation (7-8 persons/2 days on site) to another European country with relevant examples of good practice

3. Develop ECEC Quality Framework including overseeing of field testing/ validation phase.

• Develop draft quality framework reflecting the split system for ECEC with:
  • Quality statements at national, local and pedagogical practice level based on existing policy, legislative and normative frameworks and;
  • Quality indicators at national, local and pedagogical practice level based on existing data collection and M&E processes where possible.
• Develop a draft guidance document on indicator definitions, data collection processes, data sources and data gaps across of three levels.
• Ensure co-creation in framework development through hosting series of working group meetings, with minimum of 7 working group sessions.

Working closely with research group and expert working group:

• Develop methodology and project plan for testing in municipalities, including training plans and training materials for data collection team
• Validate the ECEC quality framework through:
  • Testing of the data collection mechanisms, tools and indicators through a local level piloting in 3 municipalities with diverse contexts with development of light report on the outcomes of the testing.
  • Conducting a validation workshop with wider stakeholders, at least 2 validation sessions.
• Integrate finding from the testing and validation workshop into final ECEC quality framework.
• Finalise guidance document on use of the ECEC Quality Framework including indicator definitions, data collection processes and data sources.
• Based on Quality Framework testing, identify additional data collection tools needed/ tool adaptation needed to support quality assurance at the pedagogical practice level with recommendation for implementation as well as data gaps across the three levels to be addressed

4. Consolidate recommendations and support knowledge management to prepare national stakeholders for ECD Strategy development.

Working closely with the steering committee and expert working group:

• Integrate all recommendations into one comprehensive ECEC Recommendations for Reforms Report, designed to inform the development of an ECEC Strategy and proposed next steps for the reform agenda including recommendations for split system and for potential changes/ adaptations needed to accommodate the framework.
• Together with the expert working group present these recommendations and next steps to the high-level management of the ministries of Labour, Welfare and Social Insurance and Education, Culture, Sport and Youth.
• Summarise project activities and lessons learned in a project summary report and accompanying deck of PowerPoint slides.

5. Programme management, monitoring and delivery of results.

• Manage and follow-up on the implementation of all program components related to the ECEC programme ensure their progress in accordance with the established goals, plans and strategies.
• Ensure roles and responsibilities are clearly defined across the programme and ensure all components are being implemented in sequence with concrete linkage between programme activities and streams of work.
• Work closely and collaboratively with colleagues and partners to discuss operational and implementation issues, provide solutions, recommendations and/or alert appropriate officials and stakeholders for higher-level intervention and/or decisions.

6. Networking and partnership building.

• Build and sustain effective close working partnerships with government counterparts and national stakeholders across relevant sectors through active sharing of information and knowledge to facilitate programme implementation and build capacity of stakeholders to achieve and sustain results on ECD programmes.

7. Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building.

• Identify, capture, synthesize and share lessons learned for knowledge development and to build the capacity of stakeholders.
• Apply innovative approaches and promote good practice to support the implementation and delivery of concrete and sustainable programme results.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks / Milestone******Deliverables / Outputs******Timeline / DeadlineSupport to programme development and planning1. Inception report including detailed project workplan and develop communication toolkit12 working days2. Mapping of supply and demand of services30 working daysLead and provide technical inputs to status assessment of ECEC system in Cyprus3. Completion of desk review of status of ECEC sector35 working days4. Organization and hosting of working sessions with ECEC steering committee, online peer exchange and study visit for Cypriot delegation15 working days5. Sub-Sector Diagnosis Report35 working daysDevelop ECEC Quality framework6. Draft ECEC quality framework and guidance20 working days7. Organization and hosting of minimum 7 working group sessions40 working days8. Final, validated quality framework20 working daysProgramme and knowledge management, monitoring and results delivery9. Consolidated recommendation report and associate communication documents, PPTs.15 working daysEstimated Duration of the Contract

222 working days (between May 2022 and April 2023)

Individual Contractor's Work Place and Official Travel

The assignment will be home-based in Cyprus or home-based in Europe with extensive travel to Cyprus.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Payment will be made on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned deliverables. Please indicate a daily fee based on 222 working days to undertake this assignment.

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

• Master’s degree or higher in Education, Social Studies and Development, Public Health and/or Medicine, Nutrition, Psychology, Human Development, Child Development, Families' Studies or another relevant technical field.
• 5 years minimum of relevant professional experience in social development planning and management in early childhood development related areas is required.
• Experience managing national programme implementation essential.
• Experience working with EU funded grants, and Ministry reform programmes.
• Experience working on ECEC reforms across a split system.
• Understanding of ECEC curricula development, teacher training and mentorship and tools/processes for measuring ECEC quality.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Fluency in English and Greek is essential. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

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.

Remarks:

Please include a full CV and Financial Proposal in your application. Additionally, indicate your availability and daily rate (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a daily rate will not be considered. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

It should be noted that selected candidate will be responsible for arranging for their own health and medical insurance. This consultancy does not provide any other benefits other than the consultancy fee and 1.5 days leave entitlement per month and the UN official holidays. Selected consultant will be responsible for complying with local tax requirements and any tax liabilities that may arise as a result of the consultancy with UNICEF.

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.