Senior Consultant (Evaluation), Education Outcomes Fund (EOF), Hosted Fund, 6 Months, Remote, Req:577483

The Learning & Engagement team at the Education Outcomes Fund is looking to work with a technical expert on the topic of evaluation approaches for OBF in ECCE to produce a technical brief that will provide an analytic frame to examine and analyze EOF’s experiences and learnings around designing evaluation and verification processes for the three ECCE outcomes funds while drawing generalizable challenges and recommendations on the topic of evaluation.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential. 

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone. 

And we never give up. 

For every child, EDUCATION 

There are few greater challenges faced by the global community than the twin crises of learning poverty and youth unemployment. In response, the Education Commission (chaired by Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister and UN Special Envoy for Global Education) and the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen) came together with our founding CEO (Her Excellency Dr.) Amel Karboul to create EOF. We aim to improve the education and employment outcomes of 10 million children and youth, by supporting governments to utilize a range of innovative finance instruments at scale, including outcomes funds and other results-based financing (RBF) instruments.

EOF is backed by a range of world leaders who support us to shape our approach and achieve our ambitious aims, as well as leaders in education and impact investing.

EOF supports improvements in the quality of education and skills programs, with a special focus on girls and underserved populations, including those in the hardest to reach rural areas. It measures (and pays for) what matters – both core skills like literacy and numeracy, but also critical 21st Century skills such as socio-emotional skills, ICT skills, and other broader fundamentals of a quality education. It helps close the persistent gap between the skills needed by employers and those attained by today's youth.

For all the above, EOF pays primarily on the basis of the results achieved, ensuring that taxpayer-funded domestic resources, aid, and philanthropic funds are only used to pay for what works. This is a game-changing way to finance results in education, focusing attention and realigning systems on the most challenging but most important measure of a program's performance: whether it is improving lives.

Together with our supporters, we believe this is the early stages of a much larger movement, with huge potential to increase learning outcomes for children and youth around the world, though improved aid effectiveness and government spending.

Since our inception in 2018, EOF has:

• Partnered with governments in Ghana and Sierra Leone to establish the two largest outcomes funds to date in developing countries, mobilising ~$50M for these programs.
• Established itself as a leading global player in RBF, and the only dedicated center of expertise for RBF in education and skills.
• Become the first outcomes fund hosted by the United Nations within UNICEF, as a scalable platform to partner with governments around the world.
• Established a major partnership with the LEGO Foundation, to develop a scale portfolio of RBF programs in early childhood across a diverse range of countries, as well as to amplify the movement and ecosystem of partners around this approach.
• Had our innovative approach featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, FT, Economist, Brookings, and more.
• Built our institutional capacity to contract and implement large-scale outcomes funds more efficiently and effectively than historic impact bonds.
• Established a strong culture of performance and an active focus on ongoing professional development for all our team.

How can you make a difference?

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The Learning & Engagement team at the Education Outcomes Fund is looking to work with a technical expert on the topic of evaluation approaches for OBF in ECCE to produce a technical brief that will provide an analytic frame to examine and analyze EOF’s experiences and learnings around designing evaluation and verification processes for the three ECCE outcomes funds while drawing generalizable challenges and recommendations on the topic of evaluation.

A key aspect of designing and implementing OBF is the rigorous verification of outcomes, which includes measuring and attributing the impact of interventions on pre-defined outcomes. While some challenges, lessons learned, and trade-offs related to developing evaluation frameworks for OBF programs have been documented, there is limited publicly available knowledge that explores how these challenges specifically manifest within ECCE programs. This consultancy will address this knowledge gap by producing a technical brief that focuses on the unique evaluation challenges and opportunities within the ECCE sector.

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

• A PhD degree in statistics, econometrics, economics, education or relevant fields., or a related field, is required.
• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience in design, quality assurance or a similar role in experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation studies, preferably in early childhood education programs.
• Experience in designing impact evaluation studies for outcomes-based contracts and particularly outcomes funds, and a solid understanding about its challenges is strongly preferred.
• Experience working on projects in Rwanda, Sierra Leone and/or South Africa, or in similar contexts is strongly desirable.
• Proven track record of research excellence in impact evaluation approaches and methods evidenced by publications and/or conference presentations.
• Excellent written communication abilities in English evidenced by academic or policy publications.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is an asset.

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. 

Interested candidates are required to fully complete their application profile, upload a cover letter and their financial proposal (daily fee rate in USD).

Applications with incomplete profile and without a financial proposal will not be considered.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy 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. Consultants 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.