International Contractor - Learning recovery and digital/alternative learning, UNICEF ROSA, Kathmandu, Nepal - 11.5 months

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, learning

As schools remained shut down in South Asian countries for up to two full academic years, learning loss is significant, and evidence suggests, that it is also highly unequal. As a result of prolonged school closure, inefficient distance learning, and rising poverty levels, it is expected that many children and adolescents might have dropped out, and out-of-school-children numbers might have increased in South Asia.

Countries are recommended to follow the “RAPID” framework of action for learning recovery (UNESCO, UNICEF, and World Bank 2022), for which technical support is required at the country office level. The RAPID framework includes five recommended actions: Reaching every child and retaining them in school; Assessing current learning levels; Prioritizing fundamentals; Increasing catch-up learning; and, Developing psychosocial health and well-being.

Within the context of learning recovery, digital/alternative learning plays a key role. Most countries in South Asia are exploring innovative solutions to address learning loss and new channels to provide catch-up/extra learning opportunities for all children. Technical guidance will be necessary to support countries in introducing digital/alternative learning modalities that support all children, especially the most vulnerable. In addition, Governments and UNICEF country offices ill also need technical support to address the needs of out-of-school children and girls.

How can you make a difference?

Under the supervision of the UNICEF ROSA Education Specialist, the consultant will provide technical assistance, as well as coordination/evidence generation/data reporting support, in the areas of learning recovery and digital/alternative learning (with a special focus on OOSC and girls) within the context of the COVID-19 aftermath. The consultant will provide technical support to the ROSA Education Team, other ROSA sections and the wider regional education network, including all country offices, with the primary objective of prioritization of learning recovery in South Asia.

Key Assignments/Tasks:

As schools remained shut down in South Asian countries for up to two full academic years, learning loss is significant. Evidence suggests that it is also highly unequal. To respond to the COVID-19 pandemic aftermath, UNICEF ROSA will recruit a consultant to work on two main fronts to address the current learning crisis: learning recovery strategies and alternative/digital learning solutions.

Technical assistance for learning recovery: Most countries in the region have developed a learning recovery plan or have adjusted existing sector plans to reflect the new priorities related to learning recovery. Recommended actions are covered within the RAPID framework for education recovery and include:

• Reaching every child and retaining them in school: making sure to identify those not in school, understand the barriers they face, and address those to ensure all children access education.
• Assessing current learning levels: measuring the true learning level of each and every child as they return to school is crucial to determine an adapted remedial teaching strategy and in order to meet the children where they are in their learning journey.
• Prioritizing fundamentals: for each year and each subject, managing to catch up on lost learning AND cover the full existing curriculum for each grade, is simply impossible. Therefore, for each grade and subject, prioritizing the core competencies and acquiring the foundational learning objectives is also crucial to a successful and manageable recovery.
• Increasing catch-up learning: adapting the academic calendar, and finding locally appropriate solutions to maximize contact time between learners and teachers, is also a key aspect of catch-up on lost learning.
• Developing psychosocial health and well-being: addressing the mental health issues of students and teachers is an essential component of a holistic education recovery that aims at addressing health and well-being barriers.

Within this component of technical assistance, the consultant will support countries to operationalize RAPID. In addition, she/he also needs to participate in multiple calls, including with country offices and key stakeholders, UNICEF HQ experts, Global Technical Task teams, and dedicated units such as the “Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Academy” to link country offices with global support, partnerships, subject expertise, and information exchange. She/he will support M&E and evidence generation plans and data collection and analysis.

Technical assistance on digital/alternative learning: Most countries in South Asia are exploring innovative solutions to address learning loss and new channels to provide catch-up learning opportunities for all children. Technical guidance on alternative/digital learning modalities will include:

• Supporting countries to identify and implement appropriate digital/alternative solutions to address the learning recovery needs of all children, especially the most vulnerable
• Ensuring human-centered design, the principles for digital development, and best practices are considered when developing/implementing alternative/digital learning programs
• Supporting country offices to address specific needs of out-of-school children and girls
• Supporting the ROSA Digital Transformation Group to develop appropriate pathways for countries, establish new partnerships and LTAs, and work collaboratively with other ROSA sections
• Identify relevant resource mobilization opportunities and innovative financing models and contribute to the writing of proposals, concept notes, and investment cases
• Support M&E and evidence generation plans and data collection and analysis

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Education, Social Sciences, or related fields. Additional qualifications related to educational technology and gender are an asset.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in international development working on education-related programmes
• Experience implementing digital and alternative learning programs in developing countries
• Experience in learning recovery, and in particular assessments, remediation, curriculum prioritization, foundational literacy and numeracy, accelerated learning models
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Excellent analytical, facilitation, and presentation skills
• Experience in evidence generation
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergencies 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, and Accountability (CRITA).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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 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 afterward 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.

Consultants and Individual contractors are responsible for paying any taxes derived from the earnings received from UNICEF.

Application to include an all-inclusive financial proposal that will detail daily/monthly rate (in USD) to undertake the terms of reference.

The selected individual should be flexible and be able to start work in October 2022.

Payment of professional fees will be based on the submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

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.

ToR Learning Recovery and Digital-Alternative Learning signed 24082022.pdf