Terms of Reference for a Prefeasibility Study Mission

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR A PREFEASIBILITY STUDY MISSION

TVET SECTOR IN JORDAN

1. Background information

1.1.Beneficiary country

HashemiteKingdom of Jordan

1.2.Contracting Authority

European Commission- Europeaid

1.3.Relevant country background

EC and Jordan jointly agreed an ENP action plan which sets out a strategy and a national indicative programme (NIP) for the period 2006-2013. The NIP includes a HRD programme with a particular attention given to support TVET sector reform. The text of the NIP is part of these Terms of Reference.

With a strong commitment of His Majesty King Abdullah to address key issues in Jordanian development, new set of reforms for the three years 2004 – 2006 was launched through the National Social and Economic Plan (NSEP) to contribute to poverty alleviation and achieve sustainable socioeconomic progress to address regional and governorate disparities. It focuses on development strategies for 25 sectors or sub-sectors of the economy, including education and training, water, tourism and health. Efforts are concentrated on strengthening public sector capacity to deliver adequate services to the population, encouraging private investment and completing the privatisation process, particularly in the water, transport, energy, electricity and media sectors. This plan is currently translated through the National Agenda for Jordan (2005), which has given priority to socioeconomic development and its citizens’ basic needs. The major objectives of the agenda for the period 2007-2012 are:

• To promote labour-intensive and export-oriented industries;
• To eradicate structural unemployment;
• To expand significantly vocational training and employment support’.

Jordan is well advanced in terms of the Millennium Development Goals relating to the universal completion of primary schooling and the elimination of gender disparities (in 2000 the primary completion rate was 99% for both boys and girls). Furthermore, investment in education in the private and public sectors by both the state and families is increasing, particularly in basic and higher education.

As concerns Labour market and employment, little has been done to develop coherent policies. Leadership and institutional weaknesses of the Ministry of Labour need to be addressed. While separate projects have been launched by the Ministry of Labour to respond to specific needs, Jordan lacks a comprehensive employment policy. Labour market is segmented between formal jobs in public and private sector and jobs in informal economy, with very low mobility between the two. The size of informal sector is increasing as the majority of new jobs is created in that sector. Another issue is woman employment. In fact, the impressive progress achieved in the improvement of female education, has not been translated into women’s economic participation.

The Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC) and the European commission decided in (date to be inserted) to carry out a prefeasibility study of the proposed project.

1.4.Current state of affairs in the relevant sector

Human resource development (HRD) being considered as a priority in Jordan, where the population is seen as the country’s main resource. Several programmes have been set-up to face this challenge. The MoE has formulated a ‘Vocational Education Framework: Recommended Action for Reform’ (June 2005) provided through the Educational Reform for a Knowledge Economy (ERfKE) project. The objectives of the frameworkare to build and maintain a knowledge economy and learning culture develop a skilled and flexible workforce and increase students’ options and opportunities for choice. ERfKE (2003–2008) is a major project costing USD380 million that is supported by ten development partners[1]. The programme has four main components:

• governance and administrative reform to reorient education policy objectives and strategies;
• development of education programmes for the knowledge economy;
• provision of computers and other aspects of the learning environment;
• promotion of early childhood education.

The programme covers vocational secondary education (but not Technical and Vocational Training), including assistance for strategy development and provision of computer facilities. Of particular interest are its experiments with devolution of authority from the central to regional level.

Although considered one of the tools for facilitating Jordan’s HRD in a lifelong learning context, technical vocational education and training (TVET) has a low status in Jordanian society and continues to be perceived as the ‘last resort’ educational option and lacks effective support to enable it to adapt to rapid changes in the economy. Developed from a model designed in the 1970s, with a high level of centralisation and a supply orientation,the current TVET system is fragmented and programmes are designed and implemented in the absence of an overall national strategy.

The National Agenda exercise launched by the Government in 2005 identifies proposals for Employment and TVET. They go a long way towards establishing a sector policy for TVET, mainly in terms of governance and management. It recommends the establishment of an umbrella Higher Council on Human Resource Development, an Employment and TVET Council (E/TVET), an Employment and Training Fund, an independent Quality Assurance Agency, and the remodelling of the Vocational Training Corporation as an autonomous body. These reforms are far-reaching and provide an excellent basis for the reform of TVET, but they do not constitute a comprehensive sector policy embracing all training providers. The National Agenda moves in the right direction and provides many elements of a comprehensive national strategy, but more needs to be done to pull the various elements into a coherent national plan.

Each of the three public elements of the TVET system has developed its own individual strategy, but while an HRD strategy was approved by the cabinet in 1999, until end of 2005 no comprehensive national strategy exists for TVET. Implementation of each strategy has suffered from under funding

Early 2006 the Ministry of Labour took the leadership with facilitation of the European Training Foundation to initiate a process leading to organize the sector reform process to follow-up on the recommendations of the National Agenda.

Several important Donors (EC, WB, USAID, CIDA, etc) are committed to support the reform process in agreement with the action plan under the coordination of the Ministry of Labour

Through a participatory process involving a wide range of public, private and non-governmental stakeholders and Donors a number of activities were initiated. This ranges from the finalization of a strategy for the E-TVET sector and its subsequent action plan, the setting-up of a donor coordination process, the development of a Mid Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in line with Ministry of Finance requirements and the drafting of series of laws and bi-laws to support the reform process (presently with the Cabinet of Ministers for approval). In parallel to these actions the Ministry is monitoring the reform process of some agencies such as the VTC and the Training and Employment Fund and has initiated several projects to answer the main labour market mismatches (NTEP, construction project). Several projects have been initiated with Donor and private sector support to put the TVET reform plan into action such as the reform of the Hospitality, Logistic and Construction training schemes at VTC, the elaboration of a pilot national qualification framework in Tourism and Maintenance sectors and the development of a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) managed by Al-Manar including a Labour Market information system and a set of Key Indicators for decision-making.

Nevertheless a wide number of actions need to be taken to further strengthen the sector reform process. They will require a contribution from all public, private and non governmental HRD providers, social Partners and enterprises themselves. The Ministry of labour MoL should be given the strategic role to coordinate all policies linked with employment and TVET with adequate additional financial and human resources provided by the Government. Donor's role will be crucial to transform concepts in actions and to contribute to the reform process in a coordinated way. The role of Social Partners and particularly enterprises in this process is crucial at all levels, from policy design to curricula developments and from development of a National Qualification Framework to the contribution in management of vocational training provision. At the same time attracting more students and workers in initial and continuing training implies to develop active Labour Market information and guidance and counselling systems.

1. Contract objectives

The pre-feasibility study will provide the decision makers in the Government and the European commission with sufficient information to make strategic choices in the design of the project “Support to TVET sector in Jordan” and to prepare further analysis leading to acceptance, modification or rejection of the proposed project for further financing and implementation. Particular attention will be paid to the previous and current preparatory work that may have been achieved, to ensure broad stakeholders participation to the different phases of the process and to explore prospects of increased donor coordination under the leadership of the Government of Jordan.

1. Risks

The main risk lies in the political changes at the government level during the process, which might undermine the Ministry of Labour’s capacity (or indeed of any ministry) to assert its leadership over a fragmented sector.

1. Scope of work

The preparation of the TVET support project will consist in a two-stage process:

-a pre-feasibility mission which should result in a studypresenting themain scenarios about the strategic choices to be made. This mission will end with a first stakeholders stocktaking workshop where the main findings will be shared and discussed.

-A feasibility mission which should result in a study presenting the specific design and planning document for the implementation of the actual programme. This mission will end with a second stakeholder workshop where the proposal will be presented and discussed.

The current terms of reference refer to the first stage only. The European Training Foundation will carry out the mission, supported by external technical expertise to be contracted by the EC Delegation through the relevant framework contract. The experts profiles are part of these Terms of reference.

4.1.General

A complete TVET sector review describing the main problems of the sector as well as achievements and time trends over the last decade should be carried out. Based on this analysis which should take into account and update previous similar analysis, crucial needs and the potential of development assistance to contribute to sector development are to be described.

The objective of the prefeasibility study is to provide decision makers in the Jordanian Government and the European commission with sufficient information to reach a joint relevant decision on the strategic choice concerning the design of the TVET programme and to identify the means by which the programme objective as stipulated in the NIP 2007-2010 can be achieved ( NIP to be quoted).

English will be the working language of the mission.

To do so, the following results are to be achieved and documented:

-Assess the proposed programme’s coherence with the EC’s Country Strategy Paper and NIP.

-Assess the proposed programme coherence with the Partner Government development policy (specially the National Agenda and Jordan 1st programme) and sector policies and expenditure plans; specially provide an analysis of the state of implementation of the E-TVET strategy and action plan.

-Analyse and as appropriate re-formulate preliminary programme objectives

-Identify key stakeholders and target groups (including gender analysis and analysis of other vulnerable groups), and assess institutional capacity issues and degree of local ownership. In view of the work previously done on the preparation of a sector strategy, assess the involvement and participation of the main stakeholders to the preparatory process ensuring that the outcome of pre-feasibility mission is shared among the main stakeholders or clear identification of diverging views and their background

-Identify the key problem to be addressed and development opportunities

-Identify lessons learnt from past experience and analyse the proposed project’s coherence with ongoing initiatives

-Analyse and as appropriate re-formulate preliminary proposed management/ coordination arrangements

-Analyse and documents sustainability issues –including the likely financial and economic sustainability of the proposed measure

-Analyse and document cross-cutting issues –including gender, environment and human right implications (including the human rights of disabled people)

-Analyse and documents likely resources/cost implications.

-Identification of critical conditions of success, which are beyond the immediate scope of the intended project (e.g. public spending on TVET)

-Highlight areas requiring further analysis and provide clear recommendations on next steps.

When considering the alternative strategies and the necessary inputs, a thorough judgment should be made as to whether the mechanism of a conventional separate project should be chosen or whether the prospect of a sector wide approach should be further investigated. This should be part of an analysis stating the existing strategic options and alternative scenarios for the design of the EC support.

The recommendations on which option to follow for future EC support should be documented based on further specific activities linked to the sector analysis.

4.2.Specific activities

From the methodological point of view, the following steps should be followed:

-Desk research based on the abundant existing literature. The available information should be appraised and critically reviewed and updated when appropriate.

-Analysis of the following sectoral key questions:

(i) National strategy and policy: as the existence of country-owned national policy will drive reform process, the extent of commitment, leadership and ownership of these reforms is critical for their successful implementation. An assessment of the E-TVET strategy as presented in its logframe matrix: relevance, feasibility and quality, especially with regards to the time trends and year by year priorities.

(ii)Macro-economic framework: the mission should ensure that a stability-oriented macro-economic policy is in place or under implementation as such a stable framework will greatly contribute to ensuring the conformity of actual expenditure forecasts with budget allocations.

(iii)As success or failure of implementation of national policies and strategies is strongly affected by the quality of the public management system, the PFM system should be critically assessed. What matters is the existence of a credible commitment by the country to implement policies providing pertinent answers to the identified weaknesses.

(iv)Preliminary approach of performance monitoring capacity of the Beneficiary

(v)The existence of real or potential coordination of donors under the leadership of the Beneficiary should be assessed and recommendation on how to further develop it should be included.

-Drafting of a study considered as the output of the mission. This study should include

(i)A preliminary description of objectives, purpose and results of the EC support and any complementary support. Attention should be drawn to any issues relating to the consistency of the proposed programme with the Paris Declaration and EU commitments on the aid effectiveness agenda.

(ii)Demonstrate the willingness of the country to use performance criteria and indicators and to take the lead on donor coordination

(iii)Make preliminary proposals on implementation issues: project or budget support and its type

(iv)Set out the next steps for formulating the EC support programme

The consultants will submit a preliminary report before the start of the stocktaking workshop which will single out various key problems and a first set of alternative strategies should be developed. This report shall be submitted to a stakeholder consultation where the logframe methodology will be used (analysis of problems, objectives, expected results, choice of strategy). The planning horizon should transcend the limit of a potential future EC-supported programme.

The logframe methodology should be used in a flexible way, so as (i) to allow for improved donor co-ordination on sector development and sectoral targets, (ii) to present a view of the way the EC support is expected to be able to support national development and policy objectives, by helping improve the functioning of a public sector “causality chain”: the EC input lead to changes in the way donors and partner country work together, which in turn lead to a better performing government and public sector, and onward through the causality chain to higher level impact on key areas related to growth, stability and good neighbourliness.

Participants for this workshop should target key policymakers in the sector. The EC delegation and the relevant sectoral unit of EuropAid will participate in the workshop, which should be moderated by a neutral logframe facilitator (who should therefore have no role in the mission). This facilitator will also produce a workshop report that will be sent to all the participants, the MOPI, Ministry of Labour and the EC Delegation immediately after the workshop.

4.3.Actors’ tasks & responsibilities

The European Training Foundation will

a)provide the TVET expertise in numbers and qualifications as required and as described below for experts 1 and 2

b)carry out the requested analysis, help develop the requested strategies and project approaches,

c)produce the requested reports and communicate results to the main stakeholders in such a way that maximum ownership is achieved.

The contracting Authorities (EC) will

a)provide the expertise in numbers and qualifications as required and as described below for experts 3, 4 and 5

b)provide the relevant reports and documents to the extent of their availability. make the necessary provisions for financing transport, translation, office and meeting facilities.

c)take all necessary steps to organise the final workshop in cooperation with the Programme beneficiary.

The Beneficiary (MoL) will

(i)take a leading role in the entire planning exercise, also ensuring staff availability, co-ordination and strategic decision-making

(ii)appoint a contact person who will direct and coordinate the Jordanian contribution to the study.

(iii)facilitate access to all stakeholders in the country, specially the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning and international Cooperation and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education