Re-advertisement-International Consultant (Education-Strengthening Alternative Learning Programme (ALP) for most disadvantaged adolescent girls and young women); Dhaka; Bangladesh (Not for B

Contract

This is a Consultancy contract. More about Consultancy contracts.

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 fulfil 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.

How can you make a difference?

Background:

Equitable access to education for all children and adolescents in Bangladesh is a persistent challenge. Certain marginalized groups of children continue to experience a higher degree of educational exclusion. Those children most likely to remain out of school or who are at risk of dropping out are from the lowest wealth quintile, are adolescent girls, children with disabilities, children from ethnic minority communities and children living in hard-to-reach areas or special pockets of disadvantage such as urban slums, tea gardens, Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) regions, coastal belts, low-lying areas and wetlands. Children with functional difficulties/disabilities are seven times more likely to drop out of school. (MICS 2019)

According to the Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2019, about 13.1 per cent of lower secondary school-age children are out-of-school (18.1 per cent boys, 8.1 per cent girls), while 31.5 percent of upper secondary school-age children are out-of-school (36.5 percent boys and 26.1 percent girls). Geographically, the out-of-school children are spread across the country, with a higher concentration in areas with a prevalence of high intra-division and intra-district disparities including Mymensingh, Chattogram, Sylhet and Dhaka. Apart from participation in education, access to skills training for adolescents and young people is also a concern. Girls’ participation in skills training is extremely low (at 25 per cent) and alignment with the rapidly changing market demand is weak.[1] The proportion of youth (15-24 years) who are not in education, employment or training is 32 per cent with girls significantly less involved (male at 9.8 per cent, female at 44.6 per cent).[2]

Considering these facts, educational rights is seriously deprived. Currently, there are very limited options to bring them back into education ladders because the formal education system isn’t flexible for adolescents and youth. Moreover, adolescents and youth don’t find formal education too relevant to them. According to a report by the Just Jobs Network, 85 per cent of workers are using skills they did not learn in schools and 60 per cent of students indicated that schools are not providing enough inputs for scientific education, information, and communication technology (ICT) and communication skills. Less than 10 per cent of students indicated that their schools, formally or informally, provide the skills they think are useful in finding a good job and performing tasks in a workplace. More than 70 per cent said schools are not providing career counselling and 80 per cent said they are not addressing entrepreneurship.[3] Annually, more than 2 million young people are entering the workforce in the country where the informal economy is covering more than 80% of the national economy. But this huge proportion of the most vulnerable out-of-school adolescent group, especially girls and young women have very limited opportunities to access or participate in income-generating activities because of inadequate competencies and skills. It makes the situation worse.

With this big number of adolescents and youth who are either out of education or at risk of out of formal education, we need to create an alternative learning pathway (ALP) to fully utilize the opportunity from the demographic dividend. Since 2012, UNICEF with support from different national and international NGOs are working to develop an innovative and alternate ALP to bring them back to learning ladders and link them with further education or employment. An alternative Learning Programme (ALP) is an alternative pathway for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable out-of-school adolescents that links them with further education and employment opportunity. Since 2012, UNICEF through multiple approaches and projects is trying to sharpen an alternative learning model to make it more diversified, for different profiles of young people, to make it more effective by reviewing the curriculum, skills and training and making it scalable by working with the ecosystem. UNICEF is now trying to take this model further with an eco-system-based approach to explore the innovative alternative learning pathway for the most disadvantaged group which has a strong linkage to create further opportunities for education or employment, which will be supported by the enabling ecosystem for skilling and employment.

The project requires strategic and technical guidance for this new ‘Eco-System Based’ approach to assure robust, relevant, and effective interventions, a market scan survey for appropriate targeting, exploring available support systems; technical assistance for monitoring and reporting mechanisms, evidence generation and knowledge management.

Considering the diversity and innovation under the ‘Eco-System Based ALP’ approach; all the programmatic areas are interlinked and require coherent and focused coordination, monitoring and reporting, for which the education section proposes to recruit a dedicated consultant, to provide technical support, and play a critical role in coordination and collaboration for the education programme.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

In line with the above, UNICEF seeks a consultant to:

• Provide strategic support for surveys, market scan research and right targeting.
• Technical assistance for robust, relevant, and effective intervention.
• Support partners to understand the ‘Eco-System Based’ approach
• Develop a strategy for job placement and market linkage with industries.
• Technical assistance for strengthening the monitoring and reporting mechanism.
• Coordinate documentation and knowledge management of the project.
• Capacity building of implementing partners.

For major tasks and deliverables, pls see the attached TOR:

Brief TOR_Education.pdf

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Social sciences, International Relations, Economics, international development, Education, or related fields. *A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted instead of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of [2 years] of relevant professional experience in
• Extensive knowledge and skills in research and monitoring and evaluation in education and skills programme.
• Knowledge and skills of education and social sectors in a developing country context.
• High analytical skills using diverse and complex quantitative and qualitative data from a wide range of sources, especially for adolescent and youth population.
• Demonstrates, applies, and shares technical knowledge.
• Extensive experience in multi-sectoral collaboration and stakeholder coordination in education
• Proven experience in drafting and developing multi-stakeholder planning documents
• Fluent in English (spoken and written)

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:

* Korean nationals are encouraged to apply.

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.