Consultancy - Advancing Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in SADC Member States in Africa, ESARO at UNICEF

Scope of Work

The overall purpose of this engagement is to trigger a sense of urgency amongst political leaders, policy makers, development partners, influencers, and communities to lead and ensure effective implementation of transformative actions to end learning poverty amongst school going children in SADC member states Africa. This partnership is in the spirit of Learning coalition (BMGF, FCDO, The World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, USAID) which was formed in 2022 with a shared commitment to improving foundational learning for all and a desire to work together towards reducing the alarmingly high rate of learning poverty globally. Further, UNICEF, SADC, PAL Network and BMGF have come together to support SADC member states to fast-track impactful actions to reverse learning poverty in the region. This critical partnership will:  The critical partnership will:

• elevate public awareness on foundational literacy – importance, status and actions needed for change
• expand the opportunities for sharing knowledge products, technical know-how and south -south cooperation
• convene partners to accelerate system wide scale up of functional FLN approaches and establish synergies in learning assessments
• provide monitoring and oversight support in implementation SADC commitments on foundational learning and SDG4

Major tasks

• The consultant is expected to coordinate and provide oversight and technical leadership in strengthening advocacy effort to improve learning outcomes at foundational stages and provide oversights and technical assistance in documentation, dissemination and systemic integration of impactful FLN practices into member countries education system, organize webinar and podcast to sensitize countries and partners for increasing investment on FLN. 

Outputs/Deliverables and payment schedule:
The consultant will be required to produce the outputs as specified below.

Outputs

Main Activity

Deliverables

Deadline

# of working days (tentative)

Workable FLN approaches scaled up in all six SADC Member States

• 1.1- Provide technical leadership, oversight, and monitoring support to countries in systemwide demonstration of structured pedagogy, teaching at the right level and formative assessments
• Mapping report of impactful FLN practices of 15 member countries    available

15th January 2024

25

• Documentation on the impactful FLN practices (TaRL, Structural pedagogy, Assessment for learning; play way pedagogies) available

20th March 2024

23

• Education sector plan of SADC member countries reviewed, and review report shared with member states
• Dissemination workshop for the impactful FLN practices organized – Workshop report available

05th May 2024

28

• 1.2 Advocate with SADC Member States to translate commitment to action to promote FLN
• Eight SADC member countries developed national strategy and roadmap for FLN through cocreation workshop
• Additional four SADC member countries developed national strategy and roadmap for FLN through cocreation workshop

 10th July 2024

40

• Additional four SADC member countries developed national strategy and roadmap for FLN through cocreation workshop
• SADC Education ministerial convening organized. Convening meeting report available

7th Sept 2024

27

• 1.3- Support Member States in exchange of knowledge and good practices on impactful foundational learning approaches
• At least 10 countries commit tangible country specific action to elevate FLN. FLN Endorsement available

30th Oct 2024

25

Systemic capacity developed for data driven decision making to improve learning  

Final report consolidated and shared

• Strengthen systemic capacity on data driven decision making for 15 SADC member states
• Oversight, monitoring and reporting the progress of partnership.
• Two virtual capacity development sessions organized for 15 SADC member states on data driven decision making to improve FLN learning outcomes
• Final consolidated report submitted  

30th Nov 2024

35

Payment Schedule

• Professional Fee: Payment will be made based on the evidence of progress of deliverables or completed deliverables, which should be reflected in a short report accompanied by an invoice and a work plan for the next month. The estimated number of working days for each deliverable is indicative, actual time worked for each deliverable may vary.
• Travel fee: Travel costs funded by UNICEF are considered as part of the overall contract cost. This includes travel from SADC HQ to SADC member states (at least 5 travels). SADC may support the consultant if additional travel required)
• Please note that the final remuneration will be negotiated by HR.
• Nationality: Consultant must be a national of SADC member state.

Required qualification and experiences:

• Advanced university degree or equivalent experience in Education, Psychology, Sociology or related field of social science. *A first-level university degree in a relevant field combined with seven years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.
• At least 8 years of proven experience in the field of education, teacher training, pedagogical practices and designing scale up and implementation of foundational literacy and numeracy programmes.
• Solid experience in the design and implementation of education progarmme at scale.
• Excellent writing skills, planning and coordination skills, with proven ability to work independently. 
• Previous work with UNICEF, and Foundations and implementing partners, AU, SADC, IGADis an added advantage.
• Competencies: The consultant must have skill and competencies to adapt ESP and tailor-made the FLN approaches for countries in African continents, high quality documentation and presentation skills and coordination and negotiation skills with government and partners.
• Please indicate the languages needed: Fluency in English (verbal and written). Knowledge of French and Portuguese is an added advantage

Administrative issues

• The Consultant will be office-based at SADC HQ (Botswana) and coordinate with SADC HQ and SADC member states in a day-to-day basis with missions to supporting countries (at least five during the tenure). SADC will provide office space for day-to-day official function and travel will be in economy class.
• As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary.
• The candidate selected will be governed by and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.
• Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.
• The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract.