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Application deadline: 26 March 2019.

An individual consultant is required to carry out work necessary for planning, managing and producing detailed documentation of what has been achieved in Georgia since 2011 in relation to early childhood intervention (ECI), as a result of the efforts of the Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia (MILHSA), Ministry of Education and Science (MoES), the Georgian Coalition of ECI Organizations, UNICEF, various universities, and other partners with technical support from ECP. This documentation will result in a series of reports aimed at different target groups.

This consultancy is primarily focused on carrying out objective, external, and participatory documentation of the OSF-ECP funded initiative in Georgia which has focused on improving the quality of ECI for young children at risk for and with developmental delays, disabilities, behavioural and mental health needs, and with special educational needs. Documentation will identify processes, practices and approaches that may be replicated and/or adapted for use in other post-Soviet countries. The consultant is expected to work closely with OSF Georgia, the Georgian Coalition of ECI Organizations, and the ECP team to document ECI development from 2011 to the present.

Read the full details in the Terms of Reference (PDF).

Application deadline: 28 March 2019.

Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and the OSF Early Childhood Programme (ECP) supports 8 organisations in Southern Africa working towards inclusion of children with special educational needs in early childhood development and education.

An evaluation is now planned:

• To provide a full-scale evaluation of whether or not the funded civil society organizations attained the objectives of this body of work;
• To assess key lessons, successes, challenges and impact of the work in each of the countries covered;
• To determine the sustainability of the project work supported with the view of understanding whether or not it should be continued;
• To assess and document best practices and effective models of inclusion that have emerged from this body of work in the target countries based on the interviews and the Learning Stories publications;
• To delineate the extent of strategic partnerships, community participation and state involvement in this portfolio of work;
• To assess to what extend the eight organisations implemented or integrated into their organisational development 1) recommendations of organisational assessment exercise, 2) knowledge and skills gained as a result of capacity building workshops provided by OSF-ECP and OSISA on resource mobilisation, financial management, measuring progress.

The evaluation will focus on the work undertaken in the target countries of Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The evaluation will be conducted through document review and remote interviews; no field work or travel is involved.

Read the full details in the Terms of Reference (PDF).

Application deadline: 20 March 2019.

Location: London. 

Read the full details on UNICEF’s website. 

Purpose of Post

• Lead the development of robust and compelling policy analysis and public policy asks on specific education and youth issues, in both the domestic and international contexts.
• Play a vital role in one of our priority campaigns – Education for All – providing policy insight and analysis to inform activities across fundraising, communications and advocacy. In particular, contribute to the priority outcomes around increasing access to education, quality education and the development of life skills.
• Engage with Unicef’s work to promote young people and the issues that matter to them, such as education, life skills and empowerment, including through its contribution to the ‘Generation Unlimited’ partnership. Develop Unicef UK’s policy contribution to this agenda.
• Manage projects in other, related campaigns, e.g. ending violence in schools, access to education for migrant children, and other cross-cutting projects focused on young people.
• On a case-by-case basis, lead work (research, policy, advocacy) on other specific strands of work to give us capacity to respond to changing organisational priorities
• Working with the Youth Strategy Lead, support the development and delivery of participation activities to increase opportunities for children and young people in the UK to shape Unicef UK’s work, particularly to inform our emerging policy and advocacy priorities in relation to education and young people.
• Keep a watching brief on the full range of education and youth issues, reacting as appropriate, and provide policy expertise to contribute to Unicef UK influencing and media work. Work collaboratively with other policy and programmes advisors working on issues related to education.
• Act as a policy expert representing Unicef UK at senior level meetings, managing and influencing significant relationships with the policy community;
• Represent Unicef UK externally as a senior expert and, working with colleagues in Unicef UK, help build financial and non-financial partnerships with donors, supporters and other key senior stakeholders.  

Expression of interest for Action Research Team.

Action-Based Research Programme: Design and implementation services for the Unlocking Talent through Technology project in Malawi.

Full details on VSO’s website.

VSO is an International development organisation that contributes towards addressing poverty and disadvantage through the placement of International and National skilled professional volunteers with national partners who work in its thematic areas of Inclusive Education, Health and Secure Livelihoods.

We will be running a tender process with the intention of awarding a contract for the provision of action research and are seeking expressions of interest from suitably experienced and qualified organisations.

Background

Since 2014, VSO Malawi has been implementing the Unlocking Talent through Technology (UT) to address Malawi’s chronic poor learning outcomes and increase the quality of education. Through its UT programme, VSO Malawi, in partnership with onebillion and with funding from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Malawi, is ensuring access to proven tablet based learning apps by children across Malawi. The goal of the programme is the attainment of literacy and numeracy core competencies in primary school age children in Malawi, or in simpler words, for children to have achieved significant learning outcomes by accessing curriculum aligned digital education technology (DET) at school based learning centres (LC). It targets early grade learners, in-service and pre-service teachers, Teacher Training College (TTC) lecturers, Primary Education Advisors (PEA), out-of-school youth and children with special learning needs. To date, the UT programme has been implemented within purpose built learning centres, with learners accessing the intervention on an individual basis through a hand-held tablet connected to a set of headphones.

Three evaluation trials of the UT approach have been conducted to date and results showed children receiving the UT intervention made significantly greater learning gains than children receiving standard classroom practice.  

Action research objectives

Aiming to improve the implementation and reach of the Unlocking Talent programme in Malawi, VSO Malawi would like to engage an experienced action research service provider to conduct a series of action-based research studies within the programme.

The action research team will design, plan and conduct a participatory, gender-sensitive and inclusive action research over the next 2 years focusing on three components:

1. How do different modes of implementation affect learning within UT;
2. What is the impact of using UT across different modes of implementation on teaching practice; and
3. Can UT be used effectively with different user groups to enhance reach.

The role of the researchers will focus on training practitioners; including teachers, inspectors and advisors to become researchers. The research will be carried out by practitioners under the supervision of the professional action research team. The professional action research team will train and mentor practitioners in this process.

Required skills and experience

Prospective service providers must have experience of conducting action-based research in education settings, similar to UT projects to UT including.  Bidders should have:

• Post graduate degree in Education, Social Science or other development related field for the team leader           
• Experience in training practitioners including teachers, inspectors, advisors to investigate their own practices to improve children’s learning outcomes.
• Expertise and experience in conducting action research in an education setting.
• Skills in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, drawing findings from multiple sources and handling potential contradictions between data sets.
• Knowledge and experience required on conducting action research with children, the education sector, disability and gender to ensure that the action research design and research methods are as relevant and meaningful as possible given the aims and objectives of the project and the context in which it is being delivered.
• Manage a potentially large-scale and complex multi-site research process from end-to-end, including conducting training, monitoring, evaluating and reporting on each action research component
• It is particularly important that the team has the appropriate country knowledge /experience and language proficiency required to conduct the research required

Expressions of interest: all expressions of interest must be received by VSO by 28^th March 2019 12 noon Malawian Time and must be submitted electronically (emailed) to the following email address:  

LeviGwede.Banda@vsoint.org.

The EOI must include a contact name, company name, company address, phone and email address.

Tender documents: tender documents will be sent to those who expressed an interest shortly after the close of the EOI period.

Anticipated contract start date: May, 2019

VSO reserves the right not to award a contract.

Application deadline: 11 March 2019.

Send applications to: procurement.timor-leste@unwomen.org

Email enquiries to: lhelin@unicef.org.

The consultant will support the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and UNICEF to undertake an assessment of current interventions and capacity needs of MoEYS, service providers and key development partners to meet the learning needs of children and adolescents with disabilities. Recommendations and an action plan will be developed based on the assessment. The assessment is aimed at supporting the implementation of the Inclusive Education Policy and to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.

Read the full details (PDF).