Afghanistan: NFE-MIS Development Expert

A.Background

The Deputy Ministry of Education for Literacy (DMoEL) is implementing a national adult literacy programme with technical support of UNESCO Office in Kabul through the Programme for Enhancement of Literacy in Afghanistan (ELA). Started in 2008 with financial support from the Government of Japan, ELA received additional financial support from the Governments of Japan, Sweden and Finland, and has been implemented in two phases, with the third and last phase that is going to end in May 2018. The ELA programme was designed for adult learners aged 15 years and above, in particular targeting 60% female learners with Basic General Literacy (BGL) training for a duration of nine months. In addition, learning materials for Skill Based Literacy (SBL) in 8 skill areas were developed in the third phase to complement basic literacy courses.

In 2014, with the support of UNESCO, DMoEL established the Non-Formal Education Management Information System (NFE-MIS) as part of DMoEL’s monitoring and Evaluation system to provide timely information and feedback on the qualitative and quantitative aspects of literacy programmes. NFE-MIS has been established in DMoEL with compatible systems now installed in field offices at the provincial level to provide timely and readily verifiable data to benefit M&E purposes. DMoEL introduced an NFE-MIS section and put under planning department. However, data collection from literacy courses and updating of NFE-MIS on time is very critical for DMoEL in establishing a smooth mechanism with adequate logistics and identifying skilled staff has been a challenge for DMoEL at all levels. An effort has been made in the third cycle of ELA III to decentralise NFE-MIS, therefore, provincial staff have been trained to gather and enter data into the NFE-MIS at the provincial education departments.

In 2018, the Government of the Republic of Korea granted financial support to the project titled “Support for Adult Literacy in Afghanistan (SALA)” to DMoEL through UNESCO. The project intends to further strengthen the NFEMIS to ensure efficient and transparent management. Therefore, UNESCO would like to hire an independent expert to assess the current status of NFE-MIS and support further development to ensure that the database is comprehensive and pools together all the resources and NFE programmes.

B.Objectives

The NFE-MIS currently being maintained by the DMoEL aims to achieve the following objectives:

1) Provide managers at all levels with timely and accurate data information for planning, decision making and policy formulation.

2) Establish a decentralized management control mechanism that will monitor and evaluate implementation of NFE programs at all levels.

3) Institutionalize systematic and unified data collection at each levels (national and sub national).

4) Serve as a databank for disseminating technology and for coordinating and pooling available resources of all NFE programs in Afghanistan.

C.Scope of Work

Under the overall authority of the Director General of UNESCO delegated to the Director and Representative of UNESCO Office in Kabul and the technical oversight of the Chief of Education unit and Program Manager of UNESCO Kabul Office Education Unit, the Consultant will be responsible for coordinating closely with UNESCO’s M&E team, MoE’s Planning & EMIS Departments and DMoEL’s NFE-MIS team, specifically to perform the following tasks:

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

· Conduct desk review of relevant documents (project document/proposal, NFE-MIS guideline and manual, monthly statistical and narrative reports from the fields, quarterly progress reports, annual donor reports, meeting minutes of technical meetings, especially DMoEL M&E team meeting) to understand issues and concerns of data collection, verification and management. Relevant national policy documents, especially ICT Policy for Afghanistan 2015-2024 should be considered to align the plan for ICT in education, etc.).

· Conduct desk rapid appraisal on the existing of NFEMIS development and capacity building in similar context to Afghanistan and try to provide a comparative analysis with the international best practices.

· Develop a conceptual framework of NFE-MIS and implementation plan.

· Establish a national and a sub- national NFE-MIS teams.

· Map out and identify the NFE partners at the sub national level (at least 5 Regional).

· Conduct national/sub- national consultation meetings.

· Assess the status of current decentralization approach of NFEMIS

· Design the operational action plan and budget for NFE-MIS development.

· Undertake a diagnostic study of the current NFE-MIS practices.

· Conduct a study of the policy context of NFE.

· Review on the functionality of the current NFEMIS and assess the capacity of the DMoEL/LD to undertake and implement decentralized NFE-MIS strategy at national and provincial levels.

· Assess on-going pilot project on telecommunication and GPS technology based monitoring system and recommend how it can best be integrated to NFE-MIS.

· Identify information needs.

· Develop/ refine NFEMIS indicators and tools for data collection.

· Adapt the NFE-MIS data collection tools through pilot for NFE-MIS.

· Conduct a 5-day workshop aimed at reviewing/developing data gathering forms for all levels of NFE-MIS framework developed by DMoEL.

· Review the current database application software/NFE-MIS and to come up with a comprehensive relational database systems designs.

· Develop an NFE-MIS development and capacity building action guide the capacity building of the relevant staff from MoE, DMoEL, NGOs and other NFE stakeholders. Trainings workshops will be conducted through dedicated weekly/bi weekly sessions agreed upon with MoE and partners. The consultant will prepare progress reports, detailing the nature of assistance provided during the reporting period, as well as highlighting the areas of weaknesses. Train at least 6 Statisticians from MoE and DMoEL national level and 34 field staff.

· Provide onsite technical support and advice to MoE/DMoEL NFE-MIS team to timely implement NFE-MIS work plan activities.

· Support in planning for data collection.

Deliverables

• An inception report and assignment work plan
• A conceptual framework for NFE-MIS
• NFE-MIS needs assessment report based on consultative meeting with key stakeholders
• The operational action plan and budget for NFE-MIS development
• Organise one-day workshop to induct the team members and to finalise the operational action plan and budget
• Diagnostic study report
• Reports of policy context for NFE in the country
• Adapted and validated context specific conceptual framework for NFE
• Tested and adapted NFE-MIS data collection tools
• Progress report on implementation of NFE-MIS and capacity building of MoE and other NFE stakeholders
• Data collection schedule
• A dissemination strategy between all NFE stakeholders

• A comprehensive NFE-MIS report to be published

• Qualifications:

Education:

· Advanced university degree in Education Management and Monitoring and Evaluation systems, Computer Science, Statistics, Education, Social Science, or any other relevant discipline with specialization in EMIS/NFEMIS and M&E for education development programs

Experience:

· At least 10 years of experience in data management/statistical systems/ M&E of which five years proven experience in developing or evaluating NFEMIS/EMIS in developing countries including user orientation in the use of educational and allied data for planning, management, monitoring

· Extensive experience of software used for NFE-MIS and GIS

· Knowledge and experience of decentralized NFE/EMIS and related capacity building needs

· Computer literacy, excellent report writing skills and has the ability to produce highly professional diagnostic documents

· Excellent communication skills and the ability to communicate fluently in English (written and spoken)

· Extensive consulting experience, with experience in Asian pacific region within the last five years

· Familiarity with Education and Adult Education in Central Asia or South Asian region

Competencies

· Ability to work in a post-conflict environment (consultant will be required to spend a significant amount of time in Afghanistan)

· Experience working with multiple stakeholders (governmental, non-governmental, international organizations)

· Work experience in Afghanistan and/or (post)conflict environment will be considered as a strong asset

· Knowledge of Dari and/or Pashtu languages will be considered as a strong asset but not a requirement

Interested candidates are required to send:

1. Up-to-date UNESCO curriculum vitae (https://en.unesco.org/careers/media/3705)
2. Cover letter explaining qualifications for the position
3. A technical proposal-an indication of the approach he/she would adopt to carry out the assignment

Application has to be sent by April 30, 2018 through email to ki.consultant@unesco.org

The successful candidate will be expected to start immediately. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Qualified female candidates are especially encouraged to apply.