United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in Burundi is looking for a Research Institution to develop an ECD Strategy
Terms of Reference
Type of contract: SSA Institution Period: 4 months Starting date: 15 August 2012 Location: Burundi (Country wide) Fee: To be negotiated after submission of financial proposal Supervisor: Deputy Representative
I. OBJECTIVES
Global Objectives
ECD is an integrated concept that goes across several sectors namely health and nutrition, education, and social protection. This has slightly evolved in Burundi and years of advocacy for children’s rights fail to bring full realization of children’s rights and a more promising environment for the young children in Burundi. Today, ECD interventions will not invert the situation which remains subject to the overall social, cultural, political, economic dynamics of the country if a relevant well defined intersectoral long-term strategy is not elaborated, costed, adopted and ultimately funded. Though an interministerial technical framework has been established in 2010, still a considerable institutional and intervention gap persists. An ECD strategy that can overturn this intertwined, complex situation of malnutrition, underinvestment in ECD, maltreatment together with hidden or open conflict that can jeopardize the future and put at risk peace building initiatives through early childhood care and development would be very timely. This strategy will help break not only the intergenerational cycle of poverty but also of violence in the country. Given the high returns of ECD in terms of the country’s economic and human growth through access to education, quality of learning, physical growth and health, and protection, the strategy will show how ECD programmes in Burundi are susceptible to build and consolidate peace in the long run. Moreover, this process of ECD strategy development in Burundi could be coupled by social protection interventions so that to improve the human development of children as shown by growing evidence. More concretely, by providing safety nets for poor families with young children, social protection could for instance contribute to increased access and investment in ECD. In turn, such actions will improve the future productivity of the society and ultimately economic growth.
The strategy will
present a long-term, intersectoral approach to ECD which is the appropriate instrument to respond to the young children’s needs and to help enhance peace and social cohesion ;
Outline appropriate interventions in the context of Burundi, the financial implications in the early years that have the potential to mitigate the negative impact of years of conflict, displacement and poverty experience by the households especially the poor segments of the population.
Provide various investment scenarios based on different high impact intervention packages, analyze their financial viability and the potential returns on investment they offer. Likewise explore possible investment scenarios in social protection mechanisms or strategies in order to ensure that poor families with young children could care for their young children and strengthen their ability to respond and cope with shocks.
Specific Objectives
The consultancy will have the following specific objectives: Explore the relationship between trends in violence in Burundi and difficulties to provide appropriate and adequate responses to young children’s need ; Demonstrate the potential of ECD programs as a peace-building tool in poverty-affected and violence-prone communities ; Define the key elements that make a strong cross-cutting ECD strategy and provide the way forward in expanding intersectoral ECD services for the promotion of peace in Burundi ; Identify the critical specific determinants of young children deprival in Burundi that affect the realization of child’s rights based on innovative tool recently developed to assess Young Child Development (the “Early Childhood Development Index”). Analyze the benefits (outcomes and impacts) and the costs of various investment scenarios of a progressive implementation of the ECD strategy over a period of 5-10 years; Provide the global and annual costing for a progressive implementation of the ECD strategy over a period of 5 -10 years; Provide a detailed budget proposal for the first year of implementation of the ECD strategy ; Link any suggested programmatic responses to required resources ; Analyze the financial feasibility and fiscal affordability of the proposed strategy ; Collect empirical baseline data on ECD ; Design a comprehensive logical framework of the peace-building oriented ECD strategy ; Design a communication and advocacy plan to promote ECD in Burundi ; Organize the orientation / planning workshop and on ECD programmes.
II. OUTCOMES
Outcome 1 – The relationship between violence, difficulties to provide appropriate and adequate responses to young children’s need and non-fulfilment of children’s rights in Burundi is evidenced ;
Outcome 2 – Empirical baseline data on ECD are available; Outcome 3 –A comprehensive logical framework of the ECD strategy is available ; Outcome 4 –A communication and advocacy plan to promote ECD in Burundi is available; Outcome 5 –Workshops on ECD and on the orientation and planning of ECD interventions are organized ; Outcome 6 – A global and annual costing of the implementation of the ECD strategy for a period of 5 – 10 years. Outcome 7 – A detailed annual budget proposal for the first year of implementation of the ECD strategy;
Outcome 8 – A complementary cost-benefit analysis to accompany the ECD strategy by linking suggested programmatic options to required resources for a progressive implementation over the 5-10 years period.
III. SCOPE OF CONSULTANCY
Under the close supervision of the Deputy Representative, the international consulting team will carry out the following tasks:
Undertake an assessment of current ECD (0-6 years) sub-sector institutional capacity within the different Ministries in charge of this age group ; Facilitate the development of a high level national ECD coordination that will oversee the interministerial technical ECD framework and which will provide the orientation and implementation strategy for the national ECD policy ; Support the national Early Childhood Interministerial technical Committee to strengthen its action plan within the strategy framework, to develop relevant partnership, an advocacy plan as well as a communication plan ; Provide technical guidance and contributions to an ECD baseline and current indicator analysis ; Support development of an Integrated ECD Information System, providing recommendations for the systematic monitoring of the sub-sector ; Design and facilitate workshop and meetings at different level to promote ECD. Provide the global and annual costing of the implementation of the ECD strategy for a first period of five years for further advocacy and leveraging. Provide a detailed annual budget proposal for the first year of implementation of the ECD strategy ;
IV. METHODOLOGY
Based on the above objectives, the consulting team will propose a methodology and plan for this assignment, which will be approved by UNICEF-Burundi Country Office. A methodology that will ensure adequate attention to all the consultancy objectives is desirable.
V. CONSULTANCY PRODUCTS / KEY DELIVERABLES
The Consulting team will submit the following:
• A strategy document with a conceptual background and appropriate methodology, the logical framework and action plan of a holistic, national quality ECD framework to ensure investment in the early years of a child ; An update of the existing draft of the national ECD policy; • Organization of workshops on ECD and on the orientation and planning of ECD interventions ; • Synthesis reports of the related activities ; • The global and annual costing of the implementation of the ECD strategy for a period of 5 - 10 years. • A detailed annual budget proposal for the first year of implementation of the ECD strategy ; • Dissemination of consultancy results in the workshop with ECD and government partner ; • PowerPoint files for presentation of final report ; • High level presentations of the cost-benefit analysis ; • A reader friendly briefing paper for wider dissemination within governments and partners ; • A policy brief outlining the key investment opportunities and costs/benefit ; • The Final Report according to the UNICEF standards for consultancy reports.
VI. PROFILE
The Consulting team will comprise of members with relevant international experience with demonstrated multi-disciplinary but complementary skills that meet the following requirements:
Team members should have advanced University Degree in Early Childhood Development with 10 + years of international consulting experience in developing ECD policy and tools. Two team members should be qualified and have proven experience in Cultural Anthropology and Economics respectively ;
The economist in the team must present the following skills: • Minimum of a Master degree in development economics or related field; • A minimum of 7 years of demonstrable experience in research, data analysis and reporting using surveys including DHS and MICS especially in developing countries; • A proven track record in costing interventions in the social area and of conducting cost/benefit analysis
Strong understanding of Burundian children's services and familiarity with related policies and legislation ;
Proven experience in elaborating ECD strategy based on various investment scenarios with focus on national level as well as community-based interventions and associated costs related to addressing development of ECD services, capacity development and human resource gaps;
Knowledge and experience with academic and other tertiary education institutions and training institutions ;
Strong writing, analytical and presentation skills ;
The team as a whole should have a balanced fluency in English and French.
VII. HOW TO APPLY
Interested and eligible academic institutions / NGOs are invited to send complete documentation by sending a technical with timeline as well as a financial proposal and email to the following address latest 10 August 2012: Mrs Jeanne d’Arc Kantengwa, jakantengwa@unicef.org copy to Mrs Honorine Niyomana, hniyomana@unicef.org and Mrs Patricia Joyce Bheeka jpbheeka@unicef.org
Interested and eligible academic institutions / NGOs are invited to send complete documentation by sending a technical with timeline as well as a financial proposal and email to the following address latest 10 August 2012: Mrs Jeanne d’Arc Kantengwa, jakantengwa@unicef.org copy to Mrs Honorine Niyomana, hniyomana@unicef.org and Mrs Patricia Joyce Bheeka jpbheeka@unicef.org
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