International Consultant-Technical Assistance to Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) in the Development of the 2022, Education Sector Performance Report (ESPR) and the Joint

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.

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UNICEF has been operating in Zimbabwe since 1982. We are a team of passionate professionals committed to the protection and fulfillment of children’s rights.

Supporting the Government’s vision of a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income society, the 2022 to 2026 UNICEF Zimbabwe country programme is aimed at contributing to sustainable socioeconomic development that provides all children, including adolescents, with opportunities to fulfil their potential, lead a healthy life, access quality learning and protection and meaningfully participate in society.

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How can you make a difference?

UNICEF Zimbabwe is seeking to hire an enthusiastic individual consultant to assist the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) in developing the 2022 Education Sector Performance Report (ESPR) and the Joint Sector Review Meeting and Report.

BACKGROUND

The 2016-2020 Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) was crafted to guide the planning, implementation and monitoring of the education sector as well as guiding the development of the subnational plans. Currently, the MoPSE has Provincial Operational Plan and the District Operational Plan to guide planning at those levels. Each year MoPSE develops a National Operational Plan (NOP) supported by 10 Provincial Operational Plans (POPs) and 72 District Operational Plans (DOPs), provide the basis for their specific actions annually at school, district, province and national levels respectively. The MoPSE also does annual Strategic Planning using the government’ Whole of Government Management System (WOGMAS) which is superintended by the Office of the President and Cabinet. There would be need for a synchronized reporting as almost the same KPIs are used.

Since 2014, MoPSE and partners have conducted annual Joint Sector Reviews (JSR) to assess progress made against the indicator targets set in ESSP and annual NOPs. Each JSR is preceded by an annual Education Sector Performance Report (ESPR) that consolidates, analyzes and presents progress made against ESSP’s key performance indicators (KPIs). The main sources of such data will be Education Management Information System (EMIS) and Teacher Development Information System (TDIS) data, information from any research studies, evaluation or assessments made, information generated by MoPSE and its partners through routine and special monitoring, supervision and inspection visits (including joint monitoring visits), meetings and workshops held on specific issues relating to the sector, District Operational Plan and Provincial Operational Plan reviews and other credible documentation generated by independent players in the sector.

At the same time, district and provincial education offices conduct annual review, which contribute to national level Joint Sector Review (JSR) where MoPSE and partners will discuss both ESPR report as well as review results from districts and provinces. The JSR will produce a JSR meeting report and concrete aide-memoir with key recommendations for actions to be taken in the subsequent year.

MoPSE therefore requires technical support in producing a 2022 Education Sector Performance Report (ESPR) and planning and organizing annual Joint Sector Review (JSR). The 2022 EMIS has been delayed but the data have now been collected, cleaned and are being analyzed, Therefore, data should be available to support the sector performance review. This consultancy will involve working with MoPSE Head Office and UNICEF, and engaging with key stakeholders, development partners, relevant sector ministries, departments and parastatals, selected Provincial Education Directors and District Education Officers (DSI’s) and their staff members who are a part of the implementation process of the ESSP

While the focus of this activity will be at the national level, it is linked to other review processes taking place at the district and provincial levels. The consultant will be expected to review a sample of the review reports produced by provinces and districts to gather information that might shed light on progress and experiences at these decentralized levels. The results of the district and provincial level reviews are expected to feed into the national ESPR report

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

To support MoPSE in 1) preparing the 2022 Education Sector Performance Report (ESPR) to be presented at the joint performance review meeting in the second quarter of 2023, and 2) supporting carrying out the Joint Sector Review and producing the JSR Report.

ASSIGNMENTS:

The following are the key tasks to be carried out in collaboration with MoPSE at all levels:

• Review and understand the ESSP 2021-2025 and the accompanying National Operational PlanNOP (and sample of Provincial Operatiional Plans POPs and District Operational PlansDOPs) and the strategic issues and priorities identified in it that require programmatic attention, with focus on access, quality, equity and management/coordination issues at national, provincial, district and school levels;
• Review a variety of documents and statistical reports on the sector, including legal documents, sector policies or policy guidelines, sector plans and strategic documents, programme planning documents, programme implementation reports, research studies, conducted by key stakeholders, evaluations and assessments, workshop reports, minutes of relevant meetings (Education Coordination Group [ECG], Education Development Fund EDF-TEACH Steering Committee), field monitoring, supervision and inspection reports, donor annual review reports, routine statistical reports such as EMIS, annual budgets (government and other) and statements of expenditure and others;
• Review programs by analysing national level data (both quantitative and qualitative), and to understand the status of the system at the subnational (provincial and district) levels which are responsible for monitoring and supervising policy implementation, and the school level where education programmes are implemented.
• Support the different MoPSE Departments to prepare inputs for the review against relevant aspects of the NOP’s and to draft the Education Sector Performance Report and the JSR report as well as prepare the key PowerPoint presentations.

• Consolidate evidence emerging from the reviews by different departments and different players (including development partners and CSOs) at different levels and draw links among them, considering success stories, best practices, challenges and bottlenecks.

• Refer to the ESSP and NOP targets and establish how far the MoPSE has gone towards meeting its targets, its core indicators, supplementary indicators, and in tracking the performance against key programme targets (e.g. EDF, GPE etc.) such as equity, efficiency and learning.

• Based on desk review and interviews, consolidate and prepare a 2022 Education Sector Performance Report (ESPR) to be shared with key stakeholders prior to annual Joint Sector Review (JSR)

• Support MoPSE in documenting and reporting the annual Joint Sector Review (JSR) meeting at the national level in the first quarter of 2023. This will include:

• Support the facilitator in developing the programme for a 2and half day JSR meeting;

• Sharing the Education Sector Performance Report (ESPR) with key stakeholders two weeks before the JSR;
• Organizing presentations against key performance indicators;
• Attend the JSR meeting and draft the JSR report to document the process, consolidate the substance of all presentations made, summarize discussions held at the JSR meeting, including any other written submissions made, and accurately capture the recommendations or proposals and decisions made at the JSR meeting; and

• Consolidating recommendations into an Aide-Memoire to guide future actions.

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline

Payable Amount

Produce an inception report and draft a table of contents for 2022 ESPR report by reviewing ESSP, previous ESPR reports, other documents focusing on key performance indicators (KPIs) and identifying relevant documents to review and stakeholders to interview

Inception Report with ESPR Table of contents.

7days

10%

Complete the ESPR report which sets out the progress against the key performance indicators in the ESSP and the main programmes (EDF and GPE)

Education Sector Performance Report

(ESPR)

7days

10%

Support MoPSE to prepare, organize and facilitate a national annual JSR meeting, ensuring (a) focused presentations by departments, provinces and selected districts, partners, and other stakeholders; (b) moderating theme-based panel discussions; (c) documenting meeting procedures and capturing essential content and keeping track of agreed points, decisions and recommendations.

Draft JSR report meeting report and

the Aide Memoire

30 days

40%

Finalize the JSR report and Aide Memoire by incorporating feedback from the ECG meeting

Final JSR Meeting report and Aide

Memoire that meets MoPSE standards.

25days

40%

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

• A Masters Degree in Education, Development, Studies, Social Sciences and/or any related science or technical field.

Experience:

A minimum of five (5) years’ experience working in a development context.

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

• Sound knowledge of the planning and policy making processes in the public sector or government
• Ability to engage and work with a variety of stakeholders (government, development partners, civil society)
• Good oral and written communication skills in English, with good report writing skills
• Analytical, with good computer and data analysis skills
• Proven experience of similar work done
• Good interpersonal skills and ability to support multi-disciplinary teams in a multi- cultural environment

Desirable

• Familiarity with the Zimbabwean education context
• Experience of Work in an UN organization an asset

Languages: English

If interested and available to undertake the individual consultancy, please submit your application online and attach the required documents including the technical proposal and an all-inclusive financial proposal incorporating the approximate 20 days travel.

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.