Switzerland: Consultancy with UNESCO-IBE’S Education Systems’ Quality and Learning Programme (ECCE)

UNESCO-IBE seeks the services of a consultant to provide technical support to UNESCO Member Countries in the area of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE).

The consultant, under the overall guidance of the Director of UNESCO-IBE, will provide technical assistance to Ministries of Education and other agencies with responsibilities for child care and development (Depending on country institutional arrangements these may include agencies responsible for child welfare, for health care and nutrition and for child protection) in four countries. The consultant will in close cooperation and consultation with Ministry of Education officials and other actors and stakeholders as well as local experts:

1. undertake a comprehensive analysis of the situation of Early Childhood Care and Education with a focus on education, health and nutrition. The analysis should include, policies, strategies, roles and responsibilities of different actors and coordination mechanisms, plans and the extent of their implementation, major constraints and opportunities.
2. identify key priority areas for effective and sustainable ECCE provision
3. support the Ministry of Education and other responsible agencies to develop programmes and action plans to address the development needs of children up to eight years of age. This may include plans for the development and/or review of policies, institutional arrangements, development of a holistic ECCE programme and capacity building
   The assignment will require one or two missions to each of the four countries. For each mission, the consultant will be paid a lump sum by the IBE-UNESCO to cover all travel related expenses, including daily subsistence allowance, tickets for the authorized travel and other related expenses (e.g. visas, vaccinations and terminal expenses), in accordance with UNESCO’s usual travel provisions.

Expected Output and Deliverables

1. Inception report detailing the interpretation of the assignment, any suggestions for improvement and the plan for carrying out the assignment, budget and timeline
2. Four country situation analysis reports including recommended actions
3. A synthesis comparative report of the situations in the four countries to draw lessons which can be shared with other countries
4. Facilitation of a two-day national workshop to share the results of the situation analysis, to jointly identify country priorities and to get input for a project proposal for the implementation stage
5. Facilitation of a three-day workshop in Seychelles for knowledge sharing for representatives from all four countries as well as other countries which are implementing or planning to implement holistic ECCE programmes
6. For each country, detailed Project proposal including results framework (indicators, baselines, where available, and benchmarks), implementation plan including monitoring and evaluation arrangements for the identified priority actions with clearly assigned roles and responsibilities, budgets, time-line and expected technical assistance from UNESCO-IBE

Duration:

The consultancy will be undertaken during the period April-June 2016. Upon successful completion of the assignments the consultancy period may be extended to provide support during the implementation of the recommended actions.

Qualifications and experience

• An advanced university degree in children’ education and/or child welfare, preferably at PhD level or an advanced degree
• At least 10 years of experience working with ECCE both in developed and developing country contexts
• A good knowledge of Competency Based Approach in curriculum development for pre-primary and lower-primary education
• Excellent knowledge of English. A good knowledge of French would be an important asset.

UNESCO is inviting written proposals from Individual Consultants; for the work assignment described in attachment A. Your proposal and any supporting documents must be in English.
Your written should comprise:

(a) A Technical Proposal consisting of - an up to date curriculum vitae, and - an approach and methodology for the assignment, a work plan and comments on the Terms of Reference if any (in brief).

(b) The amount to be charged for the assignment (without all travel missions’ costs that we will be covered by the IBE-UNESCO), which should be quoted in US dollars or in euros only.

Your proposal, quoting reference number: 2016-16_consultant_ESQAF-ECCE, should be submitted by e-mail no later than close of business (18:00) on 15 April 2016. The e-mail address is: t.godana@unesco.org.

E-mail proposals should not exceed 5MB.