Consultancy - Technical Support for Finalizing Programming of Education Profiles in Excel VBA at UNICEF

Education
In collaboration with UNICEF Angola, UNICEF ESARO is supporting the Angolan Ministry of Education (MoE) to strengthen its use of education data under the umbrella of the Data Must Speak (DMS) initiative. Established in 2014, the goals of DMS are to improve equity and learning in education through:

• Improved management of education system through strengthening the use of data to inform planning and policy,
• Enhanced social accountability in education through greater citizen involvement, transparency and accountability to communities, and
• Improved global knowledge about what works (or doesn't) for community engagement, in what context, and how to use data to improve equity and learning outcomes.

Scope of Work

• Goal and objective: Under the supervision of the Education Specialist – Data and Research / Education Section, the consultant will build on the existing partly-completed Excel profile builder to finalize a Profile Builder Template that automates production of school, community, municipality, province, and national profiles. The consultant will also develop materials and deliver training to build the capacity of UNICEF ESARO and Angola to support the MoE in Angola in effectively utilizing the Profile Builder.
• Provide details/reference to AWP areas covered: This assignment contributes to the advancement of ongoing DMS technical support to countries, an activity identified under Key Intervention 5.4 in the ESARO Education 2023 workplan, which is to “support strengthening education information systems development (including EMIS and learning assessment systems) and utilization in the region (DMS, Positive Deviant component).”
• Activities and Tasks: The consultant will be responsible for the following activities:
• Finalise programming of primary school profile and primary community profile based on MoE clarifications and requests
• Program the secondary school profile, secondary community profile, municipality, provincial, and national profiles
• Complete testing of profile builder and profile outputs
• Draft high-level user manual and prepare and deliver an initial training session on file use
• Adjust the profile builder (Excel and VBA) for new data shapes from 2024 EMIS data collection onwards
• Update and draft the full content of the user manual, documenting the programming completed, how it works, and how to update it when making future changes to the profiles
• Prepare and deliver a remote training on use of the updated file to UNICEF and MoE staff to build their capacity on the advanced Excel programming utilized for the profiles
• Ongoing: time to be allocated to meetings for updates, brainstorming, trouble-shooting etc
• Work relationships: The Education Specialist - Research & Data will oversee the assignment and provide guidance. Some consultation with colleagues from UNICEF Angola and the Angolan MoE may also occur.

Desired Competencies, Technical Background And Experience

• Education: An advanced university degree in Social Sciences with a major focus on statistics or economics, or equivalent. A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree
• Advanced expertise in Microsoft Excel and VBA programming required; previous experience developing automated monitoring tools for Data Must Speak or a related education initiative is highly preferred
• A minimum of three to five years of relevant professional experience in fields relevant to education economics, data systems, research, and/or monitoring and evaluation
• Familiarity and experience working with education indicators and Education Management Information Systems is highly preferred
• Must exhibit the UNICEF Core Values of:
• Care
• Respect
• Integrity
• Trust
• Accountability
• Sustainability
• Competencies: list the competencies that the consultant should have for the assignment: Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness, drive to achieve results for impact, Works collaboratively with others
• Developing country work experience is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of Portuguese is an asset.

Administrative Issues

• The consultant/contractor is expected to be based remotely with no anticipated travel. Ideal working hours would include availability between 10 am to 4 pm Nairobi time.
• Progress meetings will take place throughout the contract duration as needed.
• 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.