Education and Adolescent Development Consultant job at Unicef

Education and Adolescent Development Consultant job at Unicef

JOB DETAILS:

Kampala, Uganda, (6 Months)

Background and Purpose
Children, including adolescents, and young people in Uganda compose about 70% of its population. However, this group of population is one of the most vulnerable due to weak systems for the provision of education and social services. Uganda is also the biggest refugee-hosting country in the continent with a refugee population of 1,5 million. spread across 12 refugee-hosting districts and towns. Moreover, from January to mid-August 2022, Uganda has received over 89,000 new refugee arrivals fleeing war and persecution in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 66% of them were children. Refugee hosting districts have limited capacity to provide adequate social services, including but not limited to education & skills training, child protection and social protection services, water, sanitation, and hygiene services. The government system at large in its current form remains overwhelmed to provide adequate services and livelihood opportunities to facilitate access to such services. Human, financial, and technical resources on the side of government at the national, district, sub-county, and community levels remain inadequate to respond to the needs of host communities and refugee children. As a result, refugee and host community children face several challenges with access to essential services, including education, health services, protection from violence, limited access to water, and limited livelihood opportunities.

Quality of education remains a challenge not only for children, including adolescents, and young people of refugee-hosting communities but also across the country. Drop-out rates at the primary level remain high, while the transition rate to secondary education remains extremely low. The available data indicates that out of 100 enrolled children, only 13 of them reach S6 (the last year of secondary education). Education for girls is a bigger challenge in most parts of the country. Every fourth girl in Uganda remains out of school or has been a child’s mother. Moreover, the issue of skills mismatch remains pertinent for both in-school and out-of-school adolescents, including in refugee-hosting communities, where adolescents lack essential 21st-century and transferable skills to allow their successful transition to life and work. Nationally 41 percent of adolescents and youth are not in employment, education, and training (NEET) with the absolute majority being adolescent girls. NEET and many out-of-school adolescents in refugee-hosting districts, especially those who cannot return to school due to circumstantial reasons lack alternative skilling pathways.
As a response to the above challenges of children and young people in refugee-hosting districts as well as the significant challenge of girls’ education across the country, UNICEF has kicked-off important partnerships to implement two multi-year programmes focused on the empowerment of adolescents and young people in refugee-hosting districts (PROSPECTS partnership 2024-2027) as well as girls’ education (G4DU 2024-2027) in selected districts in Uganda.
For this purpose, it requires the support of an international consultant in planning and the operational coordination of the interventions related to the above outlined programmes.
Under the guidance and general supervision of the Adolescent Development Manager, the Education Consultant will support the development and preparation of the Education and skilling programmes for the second decade and is responsible for coordinating the implementation, monitoring, evaluating and reporting the progress of education programmes/projects, particularly the EU-Funded programme (G4DU) and the multi-sectoral PROSPECT programme funded by the government of Netherlands and implemented in partnership with the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, ILO and UNHCR.
The Consultant will provide technical guidance throughout the programming processes to facilitate the administration and achievement of results on education programmes/projects to facilitate the management and delivery of results on strengthening education outcomes for refugees and other marginalized adolescents through formal and non-formal pathways.
The Consultant will ensure quality implementation of the UNICEF interventions on education as well as skilling adolescents from foundation to transferable skills under a joint programme “PROSPECTS” with UNHCR, ILO, IFC and the World Bank in refugee hosting districts in Uganda, and expansion of this work in other districts of Uganda.
Justification

UNICEF remains committed to supporting the Government of Uganda to ensure the learning, skilling, and empowerment of children, including adolescents, and young people. The scope of technical support captured in the proposed consultancy is linked to the commitments of UNICEF under the G4DU and the PROSPECTS partnerships which ultimately aim at
• improving access to quality learning opportunities to acquire foundational learning skills;
• institutionalization and rolling out transferable skilling programs that prepare children and adolescents for the school to-work transition; and
• supporting transition of adolescent girls to quality secondary education.
The Basic Education and Adolescent Development Team at UNICEF Uganda requires specialized technical support from a consultant with a background in designing, implementing and quality assuring integrated programming serving young people in Uganda. The consultant will design and oversee data management to ensure effective and efficient programme delivery and quality reporting.

Objectives
To achieve the main goal of the assignment, the contracted individual will closely work with partners and line ministries in alignment with the following areas:
1) Development of costed action plans and programme monitoring plans for the inception phase of the PROSPECTS and G4DU programmes, in line with results stipulated in programme agreements.
2) Technical support for the establishment of quality assurance mechanisms including the design/maintenance of education and adolescent development database, development of monitoring and assessment instruments for learning/skilling interventions, under the PROSPECTs partnership and G4DU programmes, with a focus on the transition of adolescents and young people from learning to earning and from school to work; and,
3) Development of quality documentation products to communicate results of UNICEF interventions under the PROSPECTS and G4DU programmes in coordination with all relevant UNICEF sections and other stakeholders.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
• Education:
Advanced University degree in social sciences, education, ICT, economics, development studies, and other relevant areas;

• Work Experience:
At least 5 years of experience in education and adolescent development programming. Proven experience in similar work at the international level, including multiannual multi-agency partnerships such as PROSPECTS partnership, EU-funded programmes and experience of working with refugee children and young people. Knowledge of the local context in Uganda needs is an asset but not required.

• Competencies:
Excellent analytical thinking and strategic planning skills, good writing skills, oral communication skills, teamwork and working with people skills as well as the ability to work under commitment and tight timeframe. Proven experience to work with multidisciplinary and multi-cultural teams of experts

• Technical Knowledge:
Solid understanding of children and adolescent vulnerability issues, including the education system, data management and analysis, skills gaps in Uganda, and the global UNICEF learning-to-earning agenda

• Language:
English

For every Child, you demonstrate…
UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).
To view our competency framework, please visit here.
UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.
UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.
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. 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.

Job application procedure

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