Partner Organisation/Consultancy Firm - Life Skills Holiday Camps at World University Service of Canada

Summary

This project brief outlines the key terms of reference for the design and launch of the life skills component of WUSC’s Kenya Equity in Education Project (KEEP), including designing and delivering extra-curricular life skills camps for in-school and out-of-school girls and the development of resources to support in-school Guidance and Counselling sessions.

Background

WUSC

WUSC – World University Service of Canada – is a leading Canadian non-profit organization in international development, committed to providing education, employment and empowerment opportunities that improve the lives of millions of disadvantaged youth around the world. WUSC is working in partnership with Windle International Kenya (WIK) to implement the Kenya Equity in Education Project (KEEP), which began in 2013 and will run until 2022 (KEEP Phase I: 2013-2017; KEEP Phase II: 2017-2022).

Kenya Equity in Education Project (KEEP)

KEEP II will create conditions for learning that will allow approximately 25,000 marginalized girls from Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps and the surrounding host communities in Turkana and Garissa counties to stay in school as long as possible, attain at least functional literacy and numeracy, be safe and supported at school and at home, and make successful transitions at critical life stages. KEEP II will deliver significant results in terms of improved learning outcomes (literacy and numeracy); increased numbers of girls remaining in school and transitioning to the next grade (attendance and transition rates); and a positive supportive environment that values and promotes girls’ learning (sustainable changes in community behaviour). KEEP II includes a range of project activities, including life skills, remedial classes, school upgrades, cash transfers, community engagement, school management training and teacher training.

Life Skills in KEEP

Under KEEP, the life skills component aims to improve girls’ ability to make informed education, career and life choices by equipping girls with the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions and choices. Life skills will be delivered under KEEP in 2 ways:

Extra-curricular Life Skills Camps: Extra-curricular camps will be held for selected girls in Kakuma and Dadaab during school holidays (April and August, annually). The camps will target upper primary and lower secondary girls and will focus on a range of age-appropriate and culturally sensitive themes to support girls to develop knowledge and skills in relation to key issues in the areas where they live. As an extra-curricular component, the camps will be participatory, learner-centred and activity/play-based. The camps are a new component for KEEP and have not been run before.

Guidance and Counselling: Every KEEP-supported school has a Guidance and Counselling service available. A network of Guidance Teachers operate and support clusters of between 2-3 schools each, providing targeted support to girls on a needs basis. The focus of Guidance and Counselling sessions is to support girls with key issues that are not traditionally covered in the national curriculum and focuses on a range of life skills topics, ranging from career guidance to sexual health to relationships to personal hygiene.

Project Overview, Objectives and Deliverables

Project Overview

WUSC is seeking a partner organisation/Consultancy Firm to support the life skills component of KEEP. The partner will be responsible for designing and delivering life skills holiday camps for selected girls in Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps and surrounding host communities in Turkana and Garissa counties, as well as creating corresponding support materials to provide reference information for Guidance Teachers.

Project Objectives

To design and support extra-curricular life skills camps for targeted in-school and out-of-school girls to improve girls’ ability to make informed education, career and life choices.

To create support materials for KEEP Guidance Teachers to deliver Guidance and Counselling sessions to girls on a range on life skills topics.

Deliverables and Expected Timeframes

• Literature Review
  • Written evidence basis for the KEEP life skills programme, in the form of an initial, short literature review that embeds the project in the relevant literature.
  • This should also outline the proposed approach for the life skills camp and provide a rationale for this. Early March 2018
• Field Research
  • Consultations with relevant stakeholders, including Guidance Teachers, Education Counsellors, Community Mobilizers and marginalised girls, in order to ascertain topic areas to be covered in the life skills camps.
  • The content of the camps will also need to align with guidance on life skills by the Department of International Development (DfID) (this guidance can be provided by WUSC). March 2018
• Small Scale Pilot
  • Sample content and materials will be developed and tested to pilot the approach and content of the life skills camps and corresponding resources for Guidance Teachers.
  • Pilot holiday camps will be held in both Kakuma and Dadaab to draw nuanced learnings from each location. April 2018
• Content Development
  • Drawing on learnings from the pilot, content will be developed for full scale life skills camps. First, a scope a sequence outlining the themes and topics to be covered, sessions to be developed and resources to create will be shared.
  • From there, relevant resources will be developed to support the delivery of the life skills camps and Guidance and Counselling sessions (e.g. manual, session notes, etc.).
  • The format of these resources will be jointly agreed with the KEEP team, and must draw on pre-existing materials that have demonstrated success in emergency context settings.
  • The consultant will also work with the WUSC M&E team to support the development of tools to monitor and evaluate the impact of the program. May-July 2018
• Delivery of Life Skills camps

Life skills camps to be delivered in Kakuma and Dadaab. Each camp will be run for 5 days. August 2018

Design Brief

Target Beneficiaries

The life skills camps will be delivered to two target groups: Standard 6 to Standard 8 girls, and Form 1 to Form 3 girls. The content of the camps will need to be carefully designed so that each target group is getting age-appropriate content. Content will therefore need to be designed for camps that will be delivered to primary and secondary cohorts.

Topics

There is flexibility in the topics to be included, and field research (deliverable 2) will support the finalization of content to be included, but it is expected that the following themes will be included (NB: this list is not exhaustive):

• Career guidance
• Sexual and reproductive health
• Relationships
• Healthy living
• Managing emotions
• Financial literacy

Resources

The resources for life skills camps and materials for Guidance and counselling should be complementary, whereby they present the same concepts and information. We recommend the following resources are developed to support this programme:

Life skills camps: Facilitator Guide

Guidance and Counselling: Teaching Manual, containing session notes and key information for Guidance Teachers

The format of the resources will be jointly agreed between the consultant/partner and the KEEP team.

Methodologies

The methodologies proposed by the partner organisation should be culturally and contextually appropriate and relevant, and should also incorporate child-centred, play-based and gender-responsive pedagogy.

Assessments/Monitoring and Evaluation

The programme should incorporate assessment/monitoring approaches and tools to measure impact and track progress over time. The approach and tools will be decided in collaboration with the KEEP Monitoring and Evaluation team.

Contextual Considerations

• The design of the programme approach and content should consider the following:
• English is not the first language of the majority of the KEEP teachers and students.
• Teachers delivering life skills content will not be experts in content or approach.
• KEEP operates in low-resource settings and all programme content should be able to be delivered with minimum, basic resources.
• Programme content and methodologies should consider the cultural differences within the areas the project operates.
• Programme content and approach should consider child protection and ‘Do No Harm’ principles.

Expected Qualifications of Project Team

The project team is required to have:

• Expertise in the fields of education, curriculum development and life skills programming.
• Previous experience of delivering life skills programming via a play-based curriculum using age-appropriate strategies to engage primary and high school girls.
• Solid understanding of the concepts and principles of child-friendly, child-centred and gender-responsive pedagogy.
• Experience working in refugee/emergency contexts, and understanding of the specific contexts where KEEP operates.
• Willingness to travel to Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps and surrounding host communities.