TERMSOF REFERENCE
CONSULTANCY: Case Studyon Education in Emergencies (Access to safe and protective environments) inthe Nigeria + response.
DURATION OF THE CONSULTANCY:12 weeks - starting 9 November 2015
Closing Date: 28 October 2015
SUBMITTED BY: Education Section
1. BACKGROUND/CONTEXT OF THE CONSULTANCY REQUIREMENTThe WCA region suffers from recurrent emergencies and massive population displacement. The crises in Mali and CAR have left hundreds of thousands of IDPs and refugees in Mali,Chad, Cameroon, Niger, CAR, DRC, and Congo. Additionally since 2011, the population of the North East of Nigeria States have been affected by the insurgency between Jama’atuAhlis Sunna (JAS) Lidda’awatiwal-Jihad, commonly known as ‘Boko Haram’, and governmental forces. The government declared a State of Emergency (SoE) on 14 May 2013 in the three North Eastern states of Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa.
Boko Haram, continues to pose a threat for civilians, children and women in North-East Nigeria and since 2014, also poses a sub-regional threat to neighbouring countries (Cameroon, Chad and Niger). JAS is considered a perpetrator of grave violations of children’s rights by the UN Security Council and is listed in Annex II of the Secretary General’s Report to the Security Council on CAAC in relation to Nigeria for recruiting, using, killing and maiming children, as well as attacking schools and hospitals.
Increased pressure is also put on already scarce resources in host communities and host countries, where the education sector struggles to integrate new refugee and/or IDP students. While UNICEF and partners respond to the emergency to ensure that all displaced children have access to quality and relevant education opportunities, there is evidence of attacks on education facilities. The worsening of the situation in North Nigeria and the multiple fights and battles between armed groups and armed forces, is putting children in affected areas at high risk of abuse, exploitation, separation and recruitment.
Education in Emergency interventions can potentially provide physical, cognitive, and psychosocial protection to children in crisis. Across the region different contexts require specific approaches: the response to the CAR crisis in 2014/15 included the establishment of ETAPEs (Temporary Learning spaces for the education and protection of children), a model that has been replicated in the Nigeria + response (Cameroon). The provision of psychosocial support to students and teachers is a key element of this learning space.
The INEE Minimum Standards in Education (2010)provide clear guidance for the creation of protective environments, for example education actors, organizations, and stakeholders are called to engage communities:
To define the ways to protect education venues, education personnel and students from possible attacks and from gender-and school-based violence
To identify safe locations where students and education personnel could be evacuated in case of attacks, as a clear disaster risk reduction and resilience mechanism
To integrate life-saving messages and conflict sensitive education messages into school teaching
To guarantee that schools, including preschools, are safe spaces for all children, accessible to the most vulnerable, including children with disabilities
To contribute so that issues of harassment in school, and sex and gender based violence against children and among teachers, are eliminated from all schools
Additionally, since all education programming interacts with existing conflicts,INEE guides the education actors through the conflict sensitive allocation of financial and human resources and program planning.
Education in emergencies interventions should be based on findings of ‘risk analysis’ and ‘conflict analysis’:
Risk analysis considers all aspects that may affect the health, safety and security of all learners (such as insecurity, bad governance, corruption; issues of public health and risks of epidemics; economical, physical, social, and environmental factors that could put in danger the lives of students and teachers; specific risks linked to sex, ethnical origins, or disability)
Existing conflict analyses in the countries, particularly the conflict affected countries, should include a look at education, how education is affected by conflict and how education contributes to fuel conflict.
Based on the comprehensive analysis of risks, including conflict, EIE interventions should establish learning spaces (temporary or more permanent) that are prepared to help mitigate the identified risks and hazards (schools should have emergency response plans in place to prevent and mitigate the identified risks).
2. JUSTIFICATIONOne of the primary goals of Education in Emergencies interventions in the region is to provide physical, psychological and cognitive protection to crisis affected boys and girls through access to safe, protective learning environments.
Standard 2 of INEE concerning Accessto Learning Environments addresses ‘Protection and Wellbeing’: LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS ARE FREE OF HARM AND SECURE AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROTECTION AND THE WELLBEING OF STUDENTS, TEACHERS AND OTHER EDUCATION PERSONNEL.
It is critical that when providing education services to crisis affected children, particularly in conflict/Boko Haram affected contexts, UNICEF and partners create protective learning environments, where all the above issues are taken into consideration.
National authorities, humanitarian organizations and communities are responsible and accountable for ensuring that all individuals access a relevant quality education in safe learning environments. This allows for and it is conducive to the physical protection and the psychosocial wellbeing of students, teachers and other education personnel. Too often these groups face physical and psychosocial risks on the way to school, or even within the school premises.
The EIE programs, until the recovery phase, can potentially provide physical and psychosocial protection. Host schools and temporary learning spaces should be built or established in a way that they will be resistant to any possible hazard and dangers, and they should also be accessible to all users, including those with special needs. Safe school building can contribute to the continuity of education because safe buildings decrease the disruption of education in case of hazards. Safe school infrastructures can also serve other purposes beyond education, i.e. they can become centers for community education, or mobilization to fight an epidemic, or to reduce poverty.
In the education sector, among others, emergencies are often an opportunity tobuild back better, and to potentially address inequalities that were pre-existent to the crisis. In conflict affected contexts, where inequalities contributed to sparking or worsening conflicts, the provision of an education more safe and equitable could constitute an important contribution to conflict sensitive programming and, ultimately, to peacebuilding (INEE 2010).
3. GOALS AND OBJECTIVESThe purpose of the proposed consultancyis to investigate if and how education in emergencies (EIE) services provided in the Nigeria + crisis (including in host community schools) can be considered as ‘protective environments’ for crisis affected children, as per INEE Minimum Standards. Additionally it is expected that the recommendations from this case study will contribute to learning in the region, and inform future strategic approaches in Education in the Boko Haram and similar affected contexts.
The main frames of reference for the analysis include:
- INEE Minimum Standards: Analysis, community participation, coordination, access and learning environment,teaching and learning, teachers and other education personnel, education policies.
- INEE Guidance on Conflict Sensitive Education:
- GCPEA Lessons in War 2015, Questions and Answers on the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict, Protecting Education Personnel from Targeted Attack in Conflict-Affected Countries (2014), The Role of Communities in Protecting Education from Attack: Lessons Learned, Education Under Attack (2014)
- Watchlist on children and armed conflicts “Vulnerable Students, Unsafe Schools: Attacks and Military Use of Schools in CAR”
- INEE Guidance on Inclusive Education
- INEE guidance on Teacher Training
- UNICEF HAC (Humanitarian Appeal for Children) 2014 and 2015 (Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon)
- Strategic Response Plans(Senegal, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Gambia, DRC, Chad, CAR, Cameroon, Burkina Faso)
- WCARO Teacher Training Manual on Psychosocial Support in the classroom
- Donor proposals
Key domains of enquiry will include:
1.Were risk/conflict sensitivity issues integrated in needs assessments, and in planning, implementation and monitoring ofresponse in Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon (access and teaching/learning/ Nigeria + response)?
Were Conflict/context analyses developed in countries with an accent or focus on education issues?
Were MOE specific conflict/context analysis conducted in country?
What are the main recommendations for the education sector from the above conflict analysis?
Where the above mentioned recommendations taken into consideration from actors who planned the EIE response to the Boko Haram crisis?
What recommendations were made to better improve the use of conflict/analysis results into the response?
What knowledge is lacking on the interdependent relationship between education in emergency programming and the conflict/situation?
2.Are the schools/TLS/ETAPEs accessible for all, including for all categories of children?
Are TLS/ host schools located in a location close to the population (e.g. within 1km of children’s homes?
Are TLS/host community schools equipped with separate latrines for boys and girls and for disabled students and teachers, male and female?
Are TLS/host community schools equipped with safe drinking water?
Are TLS/host community schools linked with health, child protection, and nutrition and health services in the community?
3.Are schools/TLS free from danger, for students, teachers, and other education personnel?
Are schools and TLS free from military occupation?
Are schools and TLS immune to attacks?
Did affected communities participate in the decision making of locating TLS and to the education policies relating to the security of schools?
Are DRR activities part of the curriculum in TLS/host schools to keep students and teachers safe?
Do TLS and Host schools have contingency plans?
Do TLS and host schools have emergency response plans?
Does national policy provide for codes of conduct for teachers and education personnel?
Do the national school policies for protecting children apply to the schools/TLS established for IDPs/Refugees?
4.Do teachers and other education personnel have the capacity and the knowledge necessary to create a safe learning environment?
Are teachers capacitated to promote the psychosocial wellbeing of learners?
Are teachers capacitated to take care of other teachers in distress (through psychological first aid?)
Are teachers trained in Conflict/Disaster Risk Reduction (C/DRR) pre-service, or in-service training)?
Are teachers trained in Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR)?
Do teachers, students, and parents participate in (evacuation) drills?
Do teachers sign and abide to a code of conduct?
5.Does the curriculum used in the TLS/schools targeted promote the wellbeing of children?
Is psychosocial support promoted through the curriculum? How?
Are (concept of) peace education and social cohesion included in the lessons received by students in TLS and host communities? In all grades?
Are hygiene education messages integrated into the curriculum?
The issues investigated upon will also consider context-specific protection issues, such as evidence on attacks against children/teachers in school; recruitment of children and adolescents into armed groups; violence amongst children and youth due to violent context, etc. A specific zoom will be made on the ETAPE (EspaceTemporaire pour l’ apprentissageet la Protection des Enfants) model, which originally was conceived as a model for concrete integration of protection in the education environment.
This study shall target the following countries: Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad specifically for the response to the Boko Haram crisis.
4. ACTIVITIES/TASKSSpecifically,this study intends to provide “checklist review” of the current education structures that welcome children affected by crisis. This review has a double purpose: (1) monitoring the current response for children affected by crisis, and specifically whether there is adherence to the INEE Minimum Standards on protective learning environments; (2) secondly, this study, and the information collected in the 4 contexts, will contribute to learning in the region for use by UNICEF and partners. This consultancy will provide a clear knowledge and learning round the subject through the following tasks and deliverables:
- Analytical framework developed, and validated by WCARO
- Survey of 4 countries (including all aspect below)- Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad
- Review conflict analyses and existing risk/vulnerability assessments in 4 countries
- Review of curricula utilized in TLS and host community schools in the 4 countries
- Key informant interviews in the 4 target countries and with regional & global experts
- Three to four short (1-2 pages) country monographs
- Lessons learned and Recommendations
5. DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINE
- 30 page report (excluding annexes)
- Presentation to WCARO education in emergencies team on the findings and recommendations to get inputs for the finalization of the report
- A 4 page Key Findings summary:
- The issues
- Mapping of current practices
- In-depth analysis for a selected number of (4) countries
- Lessons learned and recommendations
- Prepare a PowerPoint presentation and present findings in one webinar or other on-line platform with key UNICEF staff.
- Presentation on progress and findingsin relevant global/regional meetings
- Presentation on behalf of WCARO of the key findings in relevant fora)
Time Frame & Tasks
The consultancy will take place between 20October 2015and 12January2016 (12 weeks):
Time / Tasks / DeliverablesWeek 1-2 / -Develop and agree on overall methodology
-Review background documents suggested by UNICEF / Deliverable 1: consultancy methodology and workplan
Week 3-6 / -Document/literature review
-Survey 4 countries and analyze responses (in-depth analysis and comparative review) / Deliverable 2: survey report and monographs
Deliverable 3: document review report
Week 7-10 / -Data analysis and report writing
-Key informant interviews
-First draft of report to UNICEF
-Presentation at Refugee Education Workshop
-Presentation at Global Education Cluster meeting / Deliverable 3: first draft report
Deliverable 4: PPT presentation
Week 11-12 / -Feedback on draft report from UNICEF
-Final Report
-Key findings document
-Powerpoint presentation & Webinar on study / Deliverable 5: Final report, including 4 page key findings
6. MANAGEMENT, ORGANISATION AND TIMELINE
The consultant will work in collaboration with the UNICEF EIE WCARO team.
The consultant will work remotely with regular consultation with the supervisor through Skype, internet, telephone calls and emails.
The assignment will start on 20 October and end after 12 weeks. . Each deliverable will be assessed (including timeliness, achievement of goals, and quality of work) and monthly reviews will be organized.
7. QUALIFICATIONS-Advanced University degree in social sciences, education, political science
-At least 6 years professional experience in education in emergencies
-Experience at the national and international level with experience in humanitarian contexts would be an asset
-Knowledge and experience of the applications of INEE Minimum Standards and guidance would be an asset
-Understanding of psychosocial support principles and practices would be an asset
-Strong research and analytical skills
-Excellent speaking and writing skills inEnglish, knowledge of French desirable.
8. WORKING CONDITIONSThe position will be under the supervision of the Education Specialist (Emergencies) and work in close collaboration with country-level Chiefs of Education, and EIE staff, who will directly liaise with Ministries of Education, and implementing partners.
As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment is made against approved deliverables. No advance payment is allowed unless in exceptional circumstances against bank guarantee, subject to a maximum of 30 per cent of the total contract value in cases where advance purchases, for example for supplies or travel, may be necessary. Payment will be made upon receipt of duly reviewed and approved deliverables.
The candidate selected will be governed by and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for individual contracts.
9. UNICEF RECOURSE IN CASE OF UNSATISFACTORY PERFORMANCEPayment will be only made for work satisfactorily completed and accepted by UNICEF.
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If you are qualified and interested in this opportunity and meet the requirements, please forward your application with updated curriculum vitae and UN Personal History Form (available at) as well as a cover letter with the subject‘Case Study on Education in Emergencies (Access to safe and protective environments) in the Nigeria + response’. Applications shall be submitted via email to: nd y October 28th, 2015.
Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.
Prepared by: Francesca Bonomo, Education Specialist (Emergencies)
Signature: ______Date: ______
Approved by: Nicolas Reuge (Regional Education Adviser, OIC)
Signature: ______
Chief of Section Date
Signature: ______
HR Specialist Date
Signature: ______Deputy Regional Director Date
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