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Job Position National Individual Consultant-Education Data Must Speak Research at UNICEF March 2022
Job no: 549029
Contract type: Consultancy
Duty Station: Dar-es-Salaam
Level: Consultancy
Location: United Republic of Tanzania
Categories: Education, Planning, Programme Management
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 fulfill 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.
For every child, [Education]
The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, through everything the organization does — in programs, in advocacy and in operations. Through the “promise renewed” commitment, and as part of efforts to strengthen organizational capacity to support quality education for all children, UNICEF has re-emphasized its focus on equity which is at the core of the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan and of the draft 2022-2025 Strategic Plan. Guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child and SDG4, UNICEF works to ensure the right of all children to education. One of the key outputs under Goal Area 2 “Every child learns” in the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan is “Countries have strengthened their education systems for gender-equitable learning outcomes”.
To support progress towards the achievement of this output, UNICEF designed the “Data Must Speak” (DMS) initiative, which;
i) Provides direct field support and capacity building of Ministries of Education for the design and use of monitoring tools enhancing social accountability/community empowerment and equitable education systems/management.
ii) Supports research, analysis, dissemination and use of data. Started in 2014, the initiative is, in 2020, jointly implemented by Headquarters’ (HQ), Regional Offices’ (RO), Country Offices’ (CO) and Office of Research’s education teams including in 17 countries across Africa and Asia. Since 2019, the DMS initiative has a new research component. The DMS research (coordinated by the UNICEF Office of Research – OoR), by leveraging existing administrative datasets and working hand-in-hand with Ministries of Education, aims at identifying “positive deviant” schools (i.e. schools outperforming in terms of learning, retention and equity other schools in similar contexts and with equivalent resources), investigating their positive deviant behaviors and practices (incl. community engagement), as well as exploring the system, school, and community levers to optimally scale those good practices and behaviors to less performing schools. This research, co-funded by GPE/IDRC KIX initiative, Hewlett Foundation, Schools2030, Jacobs Foundation, and Norad, is adopting innovative methodologies such as scaling science and behavioral research.
How can you make a difference?
Objectives
The research aims at generating robust evidence to improve school quality in Tanzania by
• Identifying, through existing administrative datasets (e.g. EMIS, student learning assessments, positive deviant schools i.e., schools that are outperforming others even though they operate in similar context and with equivalent resources
• Understanding what are the positive deviant local behaviors and practices implemented in those schools – “What Works”
• Investigating actionable system, school, and community levers to optimally scale those low-cost behaviors and practices to less-performing schools in a given context.
Scope of work
Support the UNICEF Tanzania Country Office (CO), MoEST in Tanzania Mainland, and MoEVT in Zanzibar to co-create the DMS positive deviance research to increase government ownership and maximize research findings take-up, focusing on the achievement of the following results:
• Support the country-level gathering, merging, and analyses of available education data, such as EMIS, learning assessments/examinations, and household surveys, to identify and classify positive deviant schools in each context.
• Support the Tanzania CO to design, organize and lead primary data collection in schools to investigate positive deviance practices/behaviors, including closely exploring prevailing gender dynamics and levels of community engagement.
• Support the Tanzania CO, MoEST in Tanzania Mainland, and MoEVT in Zanzibar in operationalizing implementation and scaling science research to identify the concrete levers for scaling up identified positive deviant practices and behaviors
• Under the guidance of the research team at UNICEF Office of Research, coordinate, hand-in-hand with country partners, all four stages of the DMS research in Tanzania, including using various research methodologies (quantitative/qualitative research, behavioral science, implementation research and scaling science).
• Support the dissemination and widespread take—up of evidence produced by this research.
Contribute to all stages of the DMS research through direct field support and capacity building activities with in-country partners, including activities such as:
• Coordinating with different education stakeholders (including government partners) to organize and execute the research in Tanzania.
• Handling the coordination and logistics for organizing all co-creation workshops and technical sessions.
• Identifying and acquiring relevant local permissions for data collection; and ensuring that the research adheres to all prevailing local laws.
• Handling all in-country logistics related to the research including but not limited to hiring and supervising data collection firm or staff, organizing translations for data collection instruments, piloting data collection instruments, procuring any material for data collection, printing relevant materials for data collection.
• Providing technical support in collaboration with the READ unit at UNICEF Office of Research section and ESARO for an effective plan for the dissemination and use of the research findings.
Serve as the DMS in-country coordinator in Tanzania and monitor the research, focusing on the achievement of the following results
• Effective and timely implementation of DMS research in Tanzania.
• Support to alignment with UNICEF’s global and regional strategic priorities.
• Lessons learned and best practices from the DMS activities Tanzania are reported and used for knowledge exchange within UNICEF and more globally.
Description of the Assignment
The consultant will produce a comprehensive positive deviance research be used for evidence based decision making.
Under guidance of UNICEF education team and MoEST, a consultant is expected to carry out the following tasks:
a. Attend pre-briefing meeting with UNICEF and MoEST .
b. Work in close coordination with UNICEF and MoEST during the research process .
c. Deliver a solid research report.
Deliverables
Specifications for each will be agreed in discussion with the MoEST, MoEVT, UNICEF and DMS.
Deliverable 1 – Preliminalry analysis, typology of schools and merging of data sets for mainland and Zanzibar (40% of contract value) [15 July 2022]
Deliverable 2 – Instruments finalized,IRB approval received & survey firm hired and trained for data collection, preliminary findings finalized, 2 workshops and 2 implementation plans finalized, and interviews with relevant stakeholders finished(40% of contract value) [15 September 2022]
Deliverable 3- Final report finalized and shared (20% of contract value) [15 February 2023]
Reporting Requirements
| Deliverable | Timeline | |
| Dataset merged and preliminary quantitative analysis finished for mainland (Stage 1) | 15th March 2022 | |
| Typology of school finished for mainland (Stage 2) | 15th April 2022 | |
| 1 quantitative and typology report finalized for Mainland | 15th May 2022 | |
| Dataset merged and preliminary quantitative analysis finished (Stage 1) for Zanzibar | 15th June 2022 | |
| Typology of school finished for Zanzibar (Stage 2) | 15th July 2022 | |
| Quantitative and typology report finalized for Zanzibar | 15th August 2022 | |
| Quantitative and typology report finalized | 15th September 2022 | |
| Instruments finalized
IRB approval received & survey firm hired and trained for data collection |
15th October 2022 | |
| Preliminary finding report finalized | 15th November 2022 | |
| 2 workshops led and 2 implementation plans finalized | 15th December 2022 | |
| Interviews with all relevant stakeholders finished | 15th January 2023 | |
| Final report finalized and shared | 15th February 2023 | |
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
- An advanced degree with at least five years of work experience at national or international levels in fields relevant to education economics and/or education research.
- Demonstrated knowledge of the Education sector in Tanzania (Mainland and/or Zanzibar)
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, including for relationship-building purposes
- Demonstrated ability to work well as part of a team and to forge and manage partnerships with internal and external stakeholders
- Experience designing and conducting gender-focused research preferable
- Good knowledge of statistical analysis software packages (e.g., Stata, SPSS, R…) and database management (e.g., SQL, Access) preferable
- Commitment to UNICEF’s core values of care, respect, integrity, transparency, and accountability
- Ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment. Experience working in the UN or other international development organizations is an asset
Evaluation Process and Methods
The applicant should submit both technical and financial proposal which clearly stipulate how the work will be conducted, time required, and budget for the whole work.
Note that the following will be the selection criteria based on the score:
• Technical proposal (75%) with the following breakdown: Overall response (10), methodology (30), proposed consultant and experience (20) and sample of similar evaluation reports undertake by the consultant.
• Financial proposal with clear stipulation of each activity and costs– 25%.
The Financial Proposal should include all costs of this assignment including fee, travel costs, accommodation as UNICEF will not pay any of these costs .
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Administrative Issues
The consultant will work directly with the MoEST, MoEVT, PO – regional administration and local government (PO-RALG) and education colleagues from UNICEF TCO.
Project Management
The incumbent will work in close collaboration with the OoR’s Research on Education And Development (READ) unit as well as other colleagues from UNICEF East and South Africa Regional Office (ESARO) and other country offices. She/he will have close collaboration with the DMS unit in ESARO, staff of other UN Agencies, and Government officials, multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors ensuring successful implementation of the DMS research in Tanzania.
Medivac
Consultant will be required to sign the Health statement for consultants/Individual contractor prior to taking up the assignment, and to document that they have appropriate health insurance, including Medical Evacuation.
Application Deadline is E. Africa Standard Time
HOW TO APPLY: CLICK TO APPLY ONLINE VIA OFFICIAL WEBSITE
