CONSULTANCY TO DELIVER THE BASELINE FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (ECD) AND FAMILY MODELING PROGRAMME

UNICEF RWANDA wishes to recruit a consultancy team support (one international consultant – level P4 and one national consultant – level NO-C) to collect data that will provide baseline information on ECD and family intervention services in 10 selected districts in Rwanda before beginning of the implementation. The households, children and parents in the survey sample comprise of both those intended to receive the new ECD and facilities and services as well as those who will not. Therefore it will be critical to design appropriate methodology that contains a ‘treatment’ and suitable ‘control’ group. The purpose of the baseline is to assess the situation and establish bench mark indicators to inform the monitoring and evaluation plan for an impact evaluation in the future.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT:

•Assess the current situation of ECD strategies and activities in the selected sites and identify the situation of child development (e.g. anthropometric, health and nutrition indicators, cognitive development, communication skills and language, motor development- gross and fine motor, social competence/development, emotional development) status and school readiness.
•Collect primary data on a number of indicators but not limited to (family care and household environment and community; socio-economic status parents service access, equity and quality).
•Identify parenting practices amongst the target population/site.
•Assess parents/caregiver and community knowledge beliefs and expectations of early childhood development programmes.
•Assess parent/caregiver (family) and community awareness on and engagement in early childhood development.
•Assess the management structure, technical assistance and staffing requirements of services.
•Identify factors (barriers and motivators that influence ECD provision towards the targeted outcomes.
•Assess ECD indicators that are linked to inputs, outputs and outcomes to serve as a way of rating achievement and identify gaps across the different sites.
•Assess parent/caregivers skills and community knowledge of children development and document existing child rearing beliefs and parent practices- child rights and understanding of ECD.
•Inform ECD+F programming and help prioritize the different needs in selected sites.
•Guide an evaluation study using a pre and post intervention design. The evaluation will assess the impact of ECD+F Programme on childhood development, family and community.
•Assess parent/caregivers and community awareness of ECD and the credible channels of information/communication on ECD.
•Generate ideas for designing a model ECD programme initiative that could be scale-up in the country.

To suggest policy recommendations on the improvement of ECD status in Rwanda and particularly in the selected sites and an evaluation execution study plan.

How to apply:

All applications: Motivation letter, P-11 and CVs to be sent to: rwajobs@unicef.org
Closing date: 31 May, 2013