Community of Practice Specialist Consultant at British Council

Role Purpose
Background and context about the project

• The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We build connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education, and the English language. Last year we reached over 80 million people directly and 791 million people overall including online, and through broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934 we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body. We receive a 15 per cent core funding grant from the UK government. We work on the ground in more than 100 countries.  
• The Skills for Inclusive Digital Participation in is a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) funded project that will contribute to Pillar 1, Models & Enablers of UK Government’s Digital Access Programme led by FCDO with the objective of building digital literacy and basic digital skills for underserved communities in order to make inclusive digital access locally relevant, meaningful and productive. 
• The Skills for Inclusive Digital Participation (SIDP) project builds capacity of digitally excluded individuals which are including young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, women, and Persons Living with Disabilities/PLWD to help them develop the digital competencies they need to take part in digital life and online activities safely. The project also contributes to enhancing the livelihoods through entrepreneurship that leverages online resources and markets. The project has been implemented since April 2021 in Indonesia, Kenya and Nigeria and will end in March 2024.

SIDP Project Phase 3

• SIDP Project has entered Phase 3 from April 2023 – March 2024. During this phase, SIDP will add to the benefits already realised – by embedding materials into institutional curricula and programmes and continuing to build the community of practice for trainers, strengthening implementing partners, women, youth and persons with disability on inclusive digital literacy in the targeted countries. Priority activities are:

Implementation and Embedding of SIDP: 

•  Invite partners to apply for grants to train more persons with disabilities, youth and women from lower socio-economic backgrounds using our materials and their additional materials where relevant. 
•  Sharing best practice from phase 1 with partners and stakeholders
•  More focussed monitoring and evaluation of the partner activities
•  Strengthening partners’ capacity towards inclusive digital skills delivery and EDI 

Building Communities of Practice and Policy Advocacy Events 

•  Continue to support regular exchange (local, national and international) and peer-learning among trainers, using online platform. 
•  Identify and engage with local, national and international stakeholders in positions of influence and authority in the area of inclusive digital literacy skills. 
•  Plan and deliver events to promote SIDP’s policy relevance – leading to government-level recognition in each of the countries covered.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning 

• As the basis for planning and implementing the proposed activities in the extension period between January 2023 and March 2024, learning-points from the reports on project implementation progress and learning shall be reviewed to inform M&E activities. 
• A Theory of Change and Logical Framework have been designed for the project, similarly, baseline and process monitoring assessments have been conducted for project activities implemented up to June 2022. Assessments will also be conducted to estimate the progress made with the activities implemented during the costed extension. Ahead of these assessments, the team is revising its Theory of Change to capture elements of the project to be delivered by December 2022. This revision of the Theory of Change has also informed the revision of the Logical Framework and additional data collection tools focused on assessing the implementation of activities around the Community of Practice and increased awareness among stakeholders. This revision of the ToC, Log Frame and data collection tools shall also capture the additional activities to be implemented up to March 2024.

Project Expected Outcomes: 

• Higher levels of digital literacy among project participants, giving access to economic and social benefits.
• Higher levels of professional competence and access to relevant professional networks (local, national and international - including the UK) among project trainers.
• Higher levels of capacity and access to international best practice in inclusive digital literacy among local implementing partners and stakeholders in positions of influence and authority regarding digital access.
• Access to opportunities for business and job leading to improved livelihoods of participants.

Background of the task. 

The Community of Practice (CoP) is intended to support ELTs (Expert Level Trainer) and Community Level Trainers (CLTs) (trained during the delivery of SIDP programme, and furthermore to support the ongoing development of skills, sharing of best practice, networks, economic and employment opportunities after the end of the SIDP training delivery. 

During SIDP phase 2 (June 2022 – March 2023), the project has piloted the CoP where each country (Indonesia, Kenya and Nigeria) organizes their own CoP including agenda, curricula/learning content, approach and platform. On this current phase, the project continues supporting regular exchange (local, national and international) and peer-learning among trainers, using online platform. 

The output of the CoP is:

• A framework of engagement in the CoP and an outline of monthly and quarterly activities that meet the needs and interest of digital skill trainers in Kenya and their implementation through the CoP.
•  A platform for hosting and coordinating meaningful online and physical engagement of digital skills trainers through the set of activities.
•  Provide access to local and international capacities and resources that contribute to professional development of the CoP audience.
• Offer mentorship and coaching on areas of interest for digital skills trainers. 
• Repository for CoP content to the online platform: (documents, materials, videos, recording, conversations etc)
• This recruitment exercise will allow for a consultant to be availed to deliver the SIDP programme objectives through the Community of Practice (CoP) and the CoP objectives and activities in Kenya between January to March 2024.
• The consultant will work closely with the SIDP programme team in Kenya to provide technical support and management oversight of the Community of Practice and the Country level community of practice consultants. He/she will promote audience engagement and developing opportunities to scale the CoP which will contribute to the SIDP programme objectives.

Main Accountabilities About the role of the specialist contractor 
 The consultant will be expected to:

•  Develop a framework of engagement in the CoP and an outline of monthly and quarterly activities that meet the needs and interest of digital skill trainers in Kenya and their implementation through the CoP.
•  Develop a country level CoP framework out of the intercountry framework, detailing guidelines for engagement (including dos and don’ts), providing and applying engagement methodologies and approaches that create and embed ownership of CoP activities by trainers to ensure continuity and sustainability in Kenya.
•  Develop a workplan outlining monthly and quarterly CoP activities for digital skills trainers in Kenya.
•  Coordinate implementation of the monthly and quarterly activities, this will entail but not limited to: developing event programs, identifying any external guest and managing their invitations, hosting the events together with the project team, coordinating attendance and active participation by the CoP audience, and submit reports detailing outcomes and recommendation from the activities.
•  Ensure that the CoP development aligns to SIDP’s theory of change and the project outcomes.
•  Create opportunities and facilitate active engagement of CLTs in an International Community of Practice sharing best practice in digital skills development.
• Host and coordinate meaningful online and physical engagement of digital skills trainers through set of activities in the workplan.
•  Host topical webinars and workshops bringing together local and international capacities and resources that contribute to professional development of the CoP audience.
•  Manage active engagement of digital skills trainers on topical issues on digital skills and providing access to opportunities for growth, learning, and sharing best practices, and challenges in digital skills development at intercountry level.
• Offer mentorship and coaching on areas of interest for digital skills trainers. 
•  Identify areas of interest of digital skills trainers in the CoP, together with the SIDP team recruit mentors and coaches relevant to the areas of interest.
•  Support the mentors and coaches to develop and execute a 1-month mentorship and coaching program.
•  Form the digital skills trainers into mentorship and coaching groups according to the areas of shared interest for coaching and mentorship sessions.
•  Collate feedback and submit reports on the coaching and mentorship sessions for continuous improvement.
• Repository for CoP content on the online platform: (documents, materials, videos, recording e.g. webinars, conversations etc)
•  Adopt and customize where necessary the repository guideline developed by the lead CoP consultant for all CoP content produced in Kenya.
•  Collate and upload all CoP content in Kenya and upload it to the CoP platform.
•  Support the CoP audience in Kenya to access the online platform and content with ease, while observing the necessary restrictions.
•  Work closely with the British Council team to maintain the content in the required standards.

Methodological aspects
This will entail:

•  Support and advice to British Council SIDP program teams, other country consultants, expert level trainers, community level trainers/digital skills trainers, SIDP implementing partners, experts/practitioners.
•  Capacity Building
•  Project Planning
•  Group facilitation
•  Physical and virtual events facilitation and hosting

The task will be done remotely, with of face to face working in fulfilment of their deliverables of the physical activities. Some travel may be required in fulfilment of the deliverables.

• Outcome and outputs
•  Inception report that includes an implementation approach and workplan. 
•  Communities of Practice Framework
•  Formation of Sustainable and Inclusive Groups 
•  Continuous feedback in progress review meetings.
•  Progress report at midway implementation.
•  Final report 

Timeline 
January 2024

•  Inception meeting 
•  Inception report that includes an implementation approach and workplan.
•  Community of Practice Framework 

January-February 2024

•  Implementation of CoP framework and activities in Kenya and coordination with global consultant and other country CoP coordinators.
•  Progress review meetings.
•  Overseeing CoP activities and providing feedback 
•  Progress report submission

March 2024

•  Overseeing CoP activities and providing feedback. 
•  Final report submission 

Minimum Requirements
Role-specific knowledge and experience 

Minimum/essential 

• Experience in designing, developing and managing the successful community of practice in Kenya
• Understanding of Inclusion of marginalised groups e.g. PWDs in Kenya.
• Experience in developing digital skills in underserved communities.
• A good track record of project implementation and successful stakeholder management. 
• Facilitation skills for diverse groups
• An innovative approach to the use of digital and social media to connect audiences

Desirable 

•  A greater understanding of digital economy development in Kenya.