Consultant at UN Children's Fund

Background and Justification

Factors of exclusion, such as poverty, gender, residence in rural areas, and speaking a minority language, compound to create greater degrees of vulnerability. Some children must add to these factors individual disabilities that schools, communities and their families very likely included in their reckoning when deciding on providing them with access to education, particularly when family resources are constrained. These factors, in conjunction, make children with disabilities a particularly vulnerable group. Research on school attendance has found that children with disabilities are on average 30% less likely to go to school. Almost 50% of children with disabilities are out of school and within this group, 85% have never been to school.[1] While this is an improvement from the estimates of 10 years ago[2], as rates improve of enrolment and attendance increase, new strategies to reduce the gaps that persist must become more refined and better targeted. UNICEF is responding to this need by developing better information sources and more sensible indicators.

UNICEF has made children with disabilities one of its priorities. The 2013 “The State of the World’s Children” is dedicated to disabilities and the 2018-2021 Strategic Plan includes 16 disability related indicators in 4 goal areas. Goal area 5 states: “Girls and boys with disabilities are reached by accessible and inclusive programmes and services to participate in society”. Emergent work on data issues, specifically related to the Education Management Information Systems, seek to improve the information available on disabilities. The Inclusive Education Framework[3] and the Guide for Including Disability in Education Management Information Systems[4] adds data and evidence as part of the enabling environment required to improve the conditions of children with disabilities. According to the framework, data should be collected through an Education Management Information System that identifies children with disabilities, human resources and services, school accessibility and disaggregates indicators by disability. To do this, information collected from household surveys (e.g., DHS and MICS), NGO data bases, information from health centers conducting clinical assessments, surveys, census and research should also be considered. However, these sources do not necessarily make part of the EMIS and they are intended to complement overall information rather than an annual source of data.

As stated above, one of the obstacles children with disabilities might face to access the school system is the prioritization made by schools, communities and families. There is little information on these variables. There are some successful attempts to mitigate them somewhat through alternative mechanisms of delivery and curriculum adaptations[5]. However, the question of long-term adaptation of these in a generalized manner continues. This makes it particularly relevant to understand how the actors surrounding the child make the decisions on the schooling of children with disabilities and what factors play a role in deciding the resources that will be allocated to those children. A core set of conditions that influence these decisions, beyond contextual and resource constraints, is the social norms that have been established within the society within which the child lives.

Although there is still a debate regarding what constitutes social norms and their assessment, UNICEF MENA’s C4D section has developed guidelines on a way to measure them[6]. Most of the current work has concentrated on child protection issues, but conceptually the same framework applies to the analysis of social norms underlying the decision processes of educational communities on prioritizing the access of children with disabilities to the education system.

Relying on the work UNICEF MENA has conducted on C4D, the work NY Programme Division has conducted on EMIS for disabilities and inclusion and current advancements in the psychometric and statistical analysis of multi-level data, UNICEF ESARO wishes to develop a set of tools that will allow measuring different actors of the education community, including parents, school administrators and teachers, in the decisions around providing access to education for children with disabilities. In this context, access is understood not merely as the presence of the children in the school setting, but rather the access of the child to exposure to learning activities that will lead to the acquisition of competencies. For example, ICT-related mechanisms might be devised to provide access and learning outside school settings, but these options would still require an intent to provide the child with education, creating a favorable context and ensuring the availability of the necessary resources. The intention of this consultancy is to develop these tools, conduct content validation and check the “understanding” of the items by targeted populations in at least two different locations of ESAR, so that those same tools may be employed for psychometric validation afterwards.

Scope of Work

 

Purpose of assignment:

 

Develop these tools, conduct content validation and check the “understanding” of the items by targeted populations in at least two different locations of ESAR, so that those same tools may be employed for psychometric validation afterwards.

 

• TA details/reference to AWP areas covered:

 

This consultancy will be funded by grant SC149905 under Output 2 of the Education Section’s 2018 Rolling Work Plan Outcome 2: Enhanced capacity of COs to design, implement, monitor and evaluate risk informed education programmes that ensure that girls and boys, including those with disabilities, complete early learning, primary and secondary education with grade level learning outcomes (WBS: 240R/A0/10/801/006/007). This task is aligned to Activity 5: Activity 5: Provide technical assistance to COs to improve valid, inclusive, representative and reliable systems that build evidence, information and data.

 

• Major assignments/Responsibilities:

 

The consultant will:

 

• Conduct a thorough review of UNICEF’s position on children with disabilities by reviewing its internal documentation and documents, conventions and other agreement instruments to which UNICEF has been a signatory that related to children with disabilities and their education.
• Conduct a thorough review of MENA’s framework on measurement of social norms and other documents produced by UNICEF on the issue.
• Based on the previous reviews, establish the relevant populations from which information should be obtained to tap into the social norms that play a role in the decision process of schools and families of providing education services to children with disabilities, with an emphasis on rural and low SES groups.
• Draft a set of tools to survey the aforementioned social norms relying on information provided by these populations. The instruments should be accompanied by administration protocols and manuals.
• Check the “usability” of these tools and protocols, including whether the questions and methods provide the necessary information, in populations in two different setting where UNICEF works in ESAR. This initial pilot will be conducted in a reduced group of individual to provide mainly qualitative information on their use. (Note: The consultanc
• Review tools, protocols and manuals based on the pilot described in the point above.
• Provide a set of recommendations for the psychometric testing of the tools and protocols. These recommendations should address validity and reliability, including content validity, potential of bias and sources of differential functioning.

Work relationships/Reporting to:

 

The consultant will work under the supervision of ESARO Education Specialist for Results Based Management and under the overall general guidelines provided the Regional Education Advisor.

 

• Expected Deliverables and timeline, which will be linked to the payment schedule:

 

 

No.

(by deliverable)

Activity

Expected Deliverable

Expected Delivery

1

Prepare, in consultation with ESARO Education, a work plan

12 November of 2018.

Workplan containing major milestones, proposed dates and work methodology.

2

Desk review of UNICEF’s position on children and disabilities, social norms, MENA’s measurement of social norms and alternative frameworks.

21 December of 2018.

Report on the desk review, the target populations and detail of suggested steps forward.

 

Select relevant populations to be targeted by the tools and protocols.

3

Draft 1 of tools and protocols for desk review by ESARO Education.

8 January of 2019.

Draft of tools, protocols and manuals (ESARO Education will review and return within 10 work-days).

4

Amend tools, protocols and manuals (if required).

1 February of 2019.

Revised tools, protocols and manuals based on ESAR comments.

5

Conduct visit to two sites in communities where UNICEF currently conducts programming on children and disabilities (tentatively, these will be Kenya and eSwatini, formerly Swaziland), and test the protocols, manuals and tools.

5 April of 2019.

Mission report.

6

Finalized protocols, tools and manuals and draft a report containing recommendations for its psychometric validation, including issues on validity (including content validity), reliability, potential for bias and differential functioning.

30 August of 2019.

Finalized protocols, manuals and tools and document containing recommendations for psychometric validation.

Payment Schedule

No.

Expected Delivery

Expected Deliverable

Payment

1

Workplan containing major milestones, proposed dates and work methodology.

12 November of 2018.

10%

2

Report on the desk review, the target populations and detail of suggested steps forward.

21 December of 2018.

10%

3

Draft of tools, protocols and manuals (ESARO Education will review and return within 10 work-days).

8 January of 2019.

15%

4

Revised tools, protocols and manuals based on ESAR comments.

1 February of 2019.

35%

5

Mission report

5 April of 2019.

10%

Finalized protocols, manuals and tools and document containing recommendations for psychometric validation.

30 August of 2019.

20%

Desired competencies, technical background and experience

 

• Education: Advanced degree in Social Sciences, Education, Development or related field.
• Proven experience in survey development with an emphasis on social constructs, preferably with cross-cultural perspectives.
• At least 5 years of relevant professional work experience in research, surveying, evaluation or assessment of social constructs.
• Competencies: Excellent communication skills; excellent analysis skills; good team work; good drive for results.
• Fluent written and spoken English required. French and/or Portuguese would be an asset.

 

All applications must include an all-inclusive financial proposal to carry out the work listed above.

Applications without a finical proposal will not be considered.

• UNICEF (2016) Towards Inclusive Education: The impact of disability on school attendance in developing countries, Office of Research- Innocenti Working Paper [https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/845/]
• Only 10% of all children with disabilities are in school (UNESCO, 2007: EFA Global Monitoring report)
• Working document created by UNICEF and IIEP-UNESCO for reference during the Technical Round Table on Disability-Inclusive Education Sector Planning (2018).
• Technical Guidance: Guide for Including Disability in Education management Information Systems; UNICEF Education Section, Programme Division; February 2016.
• UNICEF (2017). The State of the World’s Children: Children in a Digital World.
• UNICEF MENA (2018). Measuring Social and Behavioural Drivers of Child Protection Issues (Guidance Tool).
• UNICEF (2018). Everybody Wants to Belong: Practical Guide for Social Norms Programming.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.