UNICEF recrute un consultant de projet Hub d’échange de connaissances et d’innovation (KIX), Kenya

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                                                                         TERMS OF REFERENCE

Background and Justification :

The UNICEF Eastern and Southern African Regional Office’s (ESARO) Education section provide support to the 21 countries in the region in the development of evidence-based policy guidance to strengthen capability to generate evidence, enhance knowledge generation and exchange to inform policies and services for children and adolescents. The section is guided by the vision in the UNICEF Strategic Plan (2018-2030), Goal 2 “Every child learns”, and UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Priorities (2018-2021) “Quality education and Learning” to support the 21 Country Offices (COs) to promote basic education including early childhood education (ECE), education quality, adolescent learning and education in emergencies, as well as the inclusion of children with disabilities in education. UNICEF provides these supports through quality assurance and oversight, data management and analysis, direct technical support, as well as partnership building.

As part of these efforts, UNICEF ESARO, jointly with UNESCO’s International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (UNESCO – IICBA) and the Africa Union Commission (AUC), responded to a call for expressions of interest launched by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in 2019 to select regional learning partners for its Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) initiative. The proposal submitted was approved with a total budget of 2.5 million US dollars for the implementation of the Hub activities.

A total of 19 countries (Developing Country Partners – DCPs) are covered in Anglophone Africa, including:

• For Eastern and Southern Africa Region (ESAR): Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique ;
• For Middle East and North Africa Region (MENAR): Sudan ;
• For Western and Central Africa Region (WCAR): Ghana, The Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone.

The hub aims at collecting, generating, exchanging and facilitating effective use of evidence-based data, knowledge and innovation for education policy formulation and implementation among the 19 Anglophone African countries in the six following thematic areas (including three key thematic areas that UNICEF is leading):

Following the launch of the hub, the roles and responsibilities sharing between the consortium partners (UNICEF-ESARO, UNESCO-IICBA and AUC), and the number of preliminary works engaged, UNICEF ESARO education section developed multi years’ work plan under the KIX project to support the co-implementation of the activities. To move ahead with the implementation of the work plan, UNICEF ESARO education section would like to hire a contractor to support the management and the implementation of the activities, with a focus on the key thematic areas that fall into the scope of UNICEF.

Scope of Work :

1) Purpose of assignment :

The purpose of this contractor is to support the management and the implementation of the multi years’ work plan developed for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX) Hub for Anglophone Africa region, with a focus on the key thematic areas that fall into the scope of UNICEF, including :

1. Strengthening early childhood education (ECCE) ;
2. Achieving gender equality in and through education ;
3. Inclusivity and Leaving no one behind

Under the overall guidance and direction of the Regional Education Adviser (REA) and the direct supervision of ESARO Education Specialist in charge of RBM & Data, the contractor will work closely with the KIX project team in the consortium partners (UNICEF-ESARO, UNESCO-IICBA and AUC) and other relevant partners and counterpart to provide operational leadership and relevant technical expertise and assistance to manage and implement the activities.

2) TA details/reference to AWP areas covered : Support to GPE KIX Grant: 1/- Develop and maintain KIX 19 Africa knowledge hub for education, aiming to collect, generate, exchange and facilitate effective use of evidence-based data, knowledge and innovation for education policy formulation and implementation

3) Major assignments/responsibilities: The contractor will be responsible for the following key functions, accountabilities and duties :

1. Support generating and sharing knowledge, evidence and innovation according to countries priority needs in the thematic areas led by UNICEF :

• Conduct gap analysis of existing innovations, trends, country, regional and global evidence in relation to countries priorities in the UNICEF key thematic areas ;
• Develop, compile and share relevant knowledge, research, evaluations and innovations according to countries priorities in the UNICEF key thematic areas ;
• Provide relevant technical advice and expertise on Policy design, analysis and implementation around thematic areas led by UNICEF, including (but not limited to) ECCE, inclusive education, Gender mainstreaming and auditing including school-based gender violence, implementation of Gender-responsive pedagogy (GRP) in schools and advancing equity and inclusivity in education.

2. Engaging countries to strengthen national education systems through participation in the hub :

• Conduct virtual or face to face meetings with all the UNICEF COs of the 19 DCPs to support countries engagement and implementation of KIX Hub thematic areas ;
• Conceptualize, plan and co-lead workshops and other technical and/or capacity building activities (as relevant) in selected countries ;
• Engage country partners to strengthen national education systems through participation in the KIX hub ;
• Conduct virtual or face to face meetings with UNICEF COs, DCPs and the national LEG members to create awareness on KIX hub activities to inform national policy dialogues according to DCPs priorities in the key thematic areas ;
• Coordinate and facilitate technical support to the countries

3 Strengthening the capacity of country partners to generate information and research, translate policies into practice, and develop innovative strategies to accelerate education progress :

• Set a regionally specific knowledge and innovation agenda that informs knowledge generation and sharing activities, analysis, and use of data and evidence in policy dialogue and formulation ;
• Support, coordinate and actively participate in knowledge exchange and peer learning among countries involved in the KIX project (19 GPE countries) and with other countries and partners ;
• Develop training contents as per the identified DCPs priorities and support capacity needs identification for the key thematic areas that fall into the scope of UNICEF ;
• Institutional capacity development of DCPs according to their priorities and capacity strengthening needs in the key thematic areas that fall into the scope of UNICEF as per the agreement (relying on the training providers and training contents) ;
• Support country teams with the development of analytical and results reports and case studies, focusing on progress of activities, key achievements and lessons learned

4 Generate ad-hoc reports as per the Education section need and donor reports adhering to the KIX project report requirements ;

5 Provide any other relevant support in line the management and the implement of the KIX Hub project that may be required from the ESARO Education section ;

4) Work relationships/Reporting to : The supervisor of this contractor will be Beifith KOUAK TIYAB and the contractor will work with all members of the ESARO Education section and KIX hub teams

5) Output and Payment schedule : The Individual Contractor is expected to produce the outputs and be paid according to the table below :