International Consultant

OVERVIEW

Parent Sector : Education Sector (ED)

Duty Station: Yangon

Job Family: Education

Type of contract : Non Staff

Duration of contract : From 1 to 6 months

Recruitment open to : External candidates

Application Deadline (Midnight Paris Time) : 24-SEP-2024

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism

Background

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization Antenna Office (hereafter UNESCO Office) in Yangon is committed to a holistic and humanistic vision of equitable, inclusive and quality education in Myanmar, the realization of everyone’s right to education, and the belief that education plays a fundamental role in human, social and economic development. UNESCO is the only United Nations agency with a mandate to cover all aspects of education and is committed to supporting Myanmar towards the realization of the SDG-4 Education 2030 Framework for Action. 

In view of the twin crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and the socio-political instability which have contributed to an acute learning crisis in Myanmar, there was consensus among education partners in Myanmar to develop a joint education response framework to respond to the educational needs arising from this crisis in a coordinated, coherent and transparent way. 

The Joint Response Framework (JRF) 2022-2025 facilitates collective efforts among humanitarian and development organizations, including UN agencies, donors, INGOs, NGOs/CSOs, and local educational institutions to mitigate adverse impact on education access and quality in Myanmar’s education sector. Together, the partners play a crucial role in joint efforts to meet immediate needs and advance the humanitarian-development nexus in alignment with the JRF, enabling the partners to ensure equitable access to quality education for all children and youth in Myanmar. The JRF encompasses three overarching strategic objectives: 

Long Description

• Strategic objective 1: Ensure safe and equitable access to learning for all children and youth in Myanmar. 
• Strategic objective 2: Ensure quality teaching/learning for all children and youth in Myanmar by strengthening the capacities of education staff and fostering context-responsive, equity-focused learning resources and modalities adapted to the evolving situation. 
• Strategic objective 3: Ensure systems strengthening, management, coordination, and monitoring. 

Since its inception, the framework has served as a strategic guidance, aiming to enhance educational resilience amidst challenging socio-political conditions for all education levels, including basic education, technical and vocational education training (TVET), and higher education. Looking ahead, the necessity for a new JRF for the next cycle of 2025-2029 has become increasingly apparent amidst ongoing educational crises. A final review of JRF will serve as strategic insight for future framework development.   

Purpose, Objectives and Uses

The purposes of the final review of JRF are both learning, to draw insights and best practices from the implementation of the framework, and ensure its accountability, to assess the effectiveness and immediate impact of the humanitarian and development education programs/projects undertaken within the framework. This final review of JRF aims to provide insights into the extent to which JRF programs/projects have addressed urgent educational needs and contributed to advancing educational outcomes that will inform future strategies. The objectives of the final review are:

• Track the progress of initiatives and interventions in terms of reach of beneficiaries, expenditure and achievements under in the JRF’s three strategic objectives on basic education, TVET and higher education from its inception to date.
• To assess the relevance, effectiveness, and sustainability of educational interventions implemented to address the challenges posed by aftermaths of COVID-19 pandemic and evolving socio-political landscape in Myanmar.
• To draw best practices and lessons learned from experience of implementing JRF and generate actionable recommendations for the development of forthcoming JRF framework 2025-2029.

Assignment

The UNESCO Office is looking for a national or international expert to commence the final review. Under the overall authority of the Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok, the direct supervision of Head of UNESCO Antenna Office in Yangon, the contractor is responsible for carrying out the final review. In case, use of subcontractors for specific elements of this review is required to carry out the study, the contractor with UNESCO as the primary contract will be ultimately responsible for contracting and the quality of the work of any subcontractors.

Scope of final review of JRF

The final review of the Joint Response Framework (JRF) 2022-2025 is designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of the framework's performance and immediate impact over its implementation period. This review will assess the progress made towards the JRF's strategic objectives within basic education, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and higher education using its Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework.

Additionally, the final review assesses how effectively the JRF has addressed the urgent educational needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing socio-political instability in Myanmar. The following are a set of prompt questions to guide to scope of the final review JRF. Note that the questions will be further discussed and finalized in consultations with relevant stakeholders in the inception stage.

Long Description

• Track the progress: What progress of education financing and programming in Myanmar’s education sector been observed since JRF inception to up to date? This includes an update on the status and achievements of programs/projects and other initiatives implemented under the JRF in Myanmar, particularly in terms of reaching beneficiaries, utilization of allocated resources, and adherence to established timelines and milestones across basic education, TVET, and higher education sectors through the existing M&E framework.
• Relevance: To what extent did the framework’s programmatic priorities, strategies, and parameters of engagement effectively address the educational needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and socio-political instability? How effectively and realistically did the framework’s two phased approaches and scenarios planning align with evolving needs and priorities of the partners in responding to the crises in Myanmar’s education? As a living document, how agile did the framework demonstrate in adapting the evolving educational challenges and context in Myanmar? How well did the framework prove that it was pertinent to address the partners’ priorities, needs and capacity levels to rapidly response to and recover from crises?
• Effectiveness: To what extent did the JRF achieve its objectives? What intended and unintended, and positive and negative impact of the projects/programs on ensuring that children and youth in Myanmar re-engage in quality, meaningful, inclusive and gender responsive learning in safe, protective environments? Particularly, how effectively did the JRF address to improve access to quality education and advancing learning for girls, and children and youth with disabilities, and other vulnerable and marginalized groups’ right to quality of education?
• Sustainability: How likely is the capacity of the partners and local institutions to maintain the achievements made, as well as identifying any financial or resource mechanisms necessary to sustain the positive impacts in the absence of ongoing external support? How did the partners take ownership of the changes and improvements introduced by JRF? How adaptable are the systems, practices, or infrastructures introduced by the JRF to future changes or challenges in the Myanmar’s education sector?

Methodological Approach

Aligning with the objectives stated in the section 3, the final review integrates utilized focused, performance assessment, mixed methods, and gender, inclusiveness and equity approach to deliver a robust analysis of JRF’s achievements and provide actional recommendations for the forthcoming development of a new JRF scheduled in the fourth quarter of 2024.

• Utilization-Focused: The final review will engage key stakeholders from the outset in order to ensure the review addresses their specific needs and concerns, making the findings directly relevant and actionable for future decision-making.
• Performance Assessment: The final review will track the progress of JRF initiatives against set milestones and assess their effectiveness in meeting strategic objectives. The JRF M&E framework with progress measure completed in 2023 will be provided for the update. (The Joint Response Framework 2022-2025 has incorporated its Monitoring and Evaluation Framework since its inception. The framework was revised, and progress updated to 2023 during the last annual review of the JRF. The final review of the JRF aims to comprehensively track progress not only from 2023 to 2024 but also to update any missed data on programs/projects initiated since 2022).
• Mainstream Gender, inclusiveness and Equity: The final review mainstreams gender consideration, equity and inclusiveness approach to address challenges experienced by girls, and children and youth with disabilities, and other vulnerable and marginalized groups’ right to quality of education and advancing their academic progress. 
• Mixed-Methods: In addition to desk review, the final review will combine quantitative and qualitative data to provide a holistic view of the JRF’s performance. Quantitative data collated from the partners will measure reach, expenditures, and progress. Qualitative data from interviews and focus groups will offer deeper insights into stakeholder experiences and contextual factors. 

The contractor considers the following approaches while keeping in mind the contextual challenges, including political landscape, scarcity of relevant literature, and limited access to sites when designing the final review of JRF. Given these constraints, the contractor will propose most pertinent approaches and a robust methodology taking into account these limitations.

Tasks, Deliverables and Timeline

The work is expected to be carried out within the period of September – December 2024. Below table describes expected tasks together with deliverables, estimated share of day and timeline in phased processes. 

•    Submit draft/final inception report (25 pages exclusive annexes) by 15 September 2024.

Expected tasks in inception phase are to conduct preliminary desk review and consultations with UNESCO Office (and other relevant stakeholders if necessary) to refine objectives, questions, scope of the review, and develop overarching approaches, detailed methodology, assessment matrix, quality assurance, workplan and broad approach towards learning session.

•    Submit data collection tools by 18 October 2024.

Expected tasks in data collection phase are to design primary data collection tools, conduct data collection, and collate secondary data/information. This includes a debrief session on primary data collection with the UNESCO Office at the end of the primary data collection.

•    Submit presentation slides of emerging findings, draft and final report (30 pages exclusive annexes) by 20 November 2024.

Expected tasks in analysis and reporting phase are to analyze desk review and secondary and primary data collection. Additionally, there will be a validation of emerging findings and co-construct recommendations session with UNESCO Office (and relevant stakeholders if necessary). Draft report and revision of the report will be done in alignment with UNESCO and other relevant stakeholders’ insights to finalize the report.

•    Submit presentation slides for learning session by 31 December 2024.

Expected tasks in the learning and dissemination phase focus on sharing the findings, lessons learned and fostering recommendations with relevant stakeholders.  Considering political sensitivity, dissemination of results of the analysis will be limited to relevant stakeholders.

COMPETENCIES (Core / Managerial)

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REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

•    Master's in education, Education Policy, Educational Leadership, Economics, Public Policy, or a related field.
•    At least 5 years experience in education sector analysis or policy research, with a strong background working with organizations such as think tanks, research institutes, United Nations, or government agencies focusing on education systems in lower-middle-income countries. 
•    Proven experience in managing and evaluating education projects, particularly in international development contexts.
•    Strong analytical skills for evaluating educational data, identifying trends, and generating evidence-based recommendations.
•    Excellent ability to communicate findings clearly and effectively to various stakeholders, including education institutions, international and development actors.
•    Comprehensive understanding of various education systems, including primary, secondary, higher education, and vocational education.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS

•    Experience with or deep understanding of education systems in Myanmar or similar socio-political contexts.
•    Familiarity with mixed-methods evaluation approaches, including both quantitative and qualitative research techniques.
•    Experience in overseeing comprehensive analyses and evaluations of educational frameworks or programs.
•    Knowledge of sustainability practices and mechanisms in the context of educational interventions.
•    Demonstrated ability to identify best practices and lessons learned from previous educational frameworks or interventions.

APPLICATION PROCESS

SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS

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