Bid Number 9182040 for School Assessment MIS
TERMS OF REFERENCE
SHORT TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT
Refugee community school and learning center assessment and enhanced coordination of Education Working Group members to serve the educational needs of refugee and migrant children in Egypt
BACKGROUND
Egypt hosts more than 86,000 school-aged refugee children registered with UNHCR. Approx. 90% of them are enrolled in basic education, however, secondary education varies between Syrian and Sub-Saharan African refugees, 87% of Syrians and 79% of Sub-Saharan Africans are enrolled in secondary education. The Ministry of Education and Technical Education (MoETE) grants access to the public schools for Syrian and Yemeni refugees on equal footing as Egyptians. Moreover, in 1959, Sudanese children specifically were granted legal access to public education, which now applies also to South Sundanese children. There are still access barriers to other refugee nationalities, mainly non-Arabic speaker refugee children coming from the Horn of Africa and Iraq. However, the MoETE allows on a case-by-case basis access of these children to public education through a specified process set by MoETE where a request is submitted to the minister’s office for approval. This process allows refugee children, from other nationalities, other than the ones listed above, to be admitted on equal footing as nationals and to be exempted from extra school fees. Nevertheless, those children can also apply to private schools that falls under the supervision of MoETE, but the fee is prohibiting. Hence, many of these children register in the refugee community schools that teach the Sudanese curriculum but are not recognized by MoETE.
Registration rates for refugees into the national education system are relatively low except for Syrian and Yemeni refugee population. Syrian refugees often register into the national education system to receive the Egyptian accredited certificate. Substantial number of the children do not attend public schools but rather Syrian community learning centers. Furthermore, many non-Syrian refugees register their children in refugee community schools as an alternative to the national education system due to several reasons including protection concerns and language barriers, the lack of documentation and preservation of cultural identity.
Since refugee community schools are not recognized by MoETE, there is a constant fear that these schools would face closure due to running a parallel education system to the formal education setting in Egypt. Being completely outside of MoETE regulation brings other challenges, such as difficult access to digital learning teaching tools and content that are available for free on MoETE digital platforms and cutting teachers in refugee community schools from training opportunities that MoETE and other partners invest in. Schools in Egypt should register under the MoETE, however, refugee community schools neither fulfill the government’s criteria of registry nor are they registered under the Sudanese Embassy, although schools utilize the Sudanese curriculum. Since some teachers in Sudanese community schools are asylum seekers, being regulated by the Sudanese Embassy brings about concerns for some of them. Moreover, in order to receive accredited certification, students need to sit the national/certified school leaving exams, which are administered by the Sudanese embassy at a considerable cost.
Over the past years, the sector has been seeing a large increase of new refugee community schools across Egypt, with varying quality, and protection concerns being reported due to the absence of a regulatory framework or institution that provide oversight, despite many trainings provided to ensure that children learn in safe and protective learning environments while in these schools. There are approximately 27,000, either Syrians or other nationalities, attending refugee community schools and/or learning centers in Egypt, majority from Sub-Saharan Africa (around 22,000).
The COVID-19 pandemic has once again highlighted the precarious situation of refugee community schools in Egypt. These schools have drastically suffered over the years and particularly during COVID-19 due to an apparent lack of funding and support; their irregular status in the country has resulted in a reduction of assistance to the schools out of fear that the schools might be shut down. Schools are finding it difficult to operate or meet the existing education need within the refugee community, particularly among the African refugee population. However, without a supervisory authority, there is a lack of standards that ensure consistent quality and funding within and across schools, including on aspects related to the necessary protection measures, guidelines, and integrity frameworks to migrant and refugee children.
Since the onset of the Syria crisis, the Education Working Group (EWG) was formed and members included UN agencies, national and international NGOs, CBOs, among others have been providing assistance to refugee children to access education and learning in Egypt. The EWG has recently implemented an overall needs assessment for the sector and has developed an overall humanitarian response strategy and an action plan with timelines and budgets for the purpose of mainstreaming of refugee children into the national education system. The developed joint strategy and advocacy strategy is addressing the inclusion of refugee children in the public education system as well as the need to improve quality and protection of children attending refugee community schools to ensure no child is left behind.
In line with these already ongoing efforts of the EWG, there is a need to get a better understanding and overview of currently existing refugee community schools and learning centers in Egypt including their varying quality and protection concerns, which will help inform future support and improve targeting and coordination among EWG members. Furthermore, in addition to the establishment of a comprehensive data system for supporting refugee community schools and learning centers in Egypt, there is a need to strengthen overall coordination among EWG members through an improved and user-friendly information and knowledge management system that provides visually appealing coordination tools, dashboards, and updates, which in turn will enhance overall coordination and support fundraising for the sector.
OBJECTIVE
The main objectives of this assignment are:
- Establish a refugee community school/learning center data system; and
- Establish an effective and improved information and knowledge management system for EWG to strengthen coordination, harmonize interventions and avoid duplication to achieve better results.
SCOPE
To achieve the objective of this consultancy, the consulting firm is asked to establish a comprehensive data system (including GIS/visual mapping) for the refugee community schools and learning centers. The mapping should not only be limited to refugee community schools and learning centers, but also include surrounding public schools, Learning Hubs, health centers and community/youth centers.
The data system should incorporate cleaned data from the data collection exercise performed by an NGO partner (around 240 refugee community schools and learning centers) and provide the option of regular updating and capturing of partners’ intervention in the various schools to improve coordination.
The consulting firm will develop relevant protocols (including a declaration form for the school managers to sign in expression of their commitment to the standards), standardized data collection tools, training materials for EWG members and build the capacities of EWG members and school managers on the use and maintenance of the data system.
Furthermore, the consultancy firm will establish an effective information and knowledge management system for the EWG including data visualisation, which is user-friendly, and which helps to better coordinate and harmonize interventions as well as avoid duplication to achieve better results.
METHODOLOGY
The assessment is a collaborative effort of UNICEF, UNHCR, as the chair/co-chair of the EWG, and its members. The objective of this assignment is to enhance coordination among EWG members, streamline support to refugee community schools and learning centers and improve the targeting approach.
As the refugee community schools are not under the authority of MoETE and therefore, not systematically monitored, Egypt has seen a substantial increase of refugee community schools over the past years with different quality, protection, and safety standards. To have a better overview of the quality of refugee community schools in the country, the consultancy firm, in collaboration with the EWG members as well as relevant school associations representing refugee community schools, is asked to establish a data system (including GIS/visual mapping) for the refugee community schools and learning centers, including surrounding public schools, Learning Hubs, health centers and community/youth centers. The data system should capture the relevant information collected during the assessment conducted by the NGO partner but also provide the option for regular updating and capturing partners’ intervention in the various schools to improve coordination and targeting.
The expectations of the refugee community school mapping/data system/application are: Web-based application and mobile application; multilingual; multiple users; very user friendly; fixable admin control panel; supporting the real time monitoring; adequate to be updated with new data entry forms and materials to be shared internally, which could also be a communication channel between the refugee community schools and the EWG members. If the data system is accessible from the Web, it is recommended to follow Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) The guidelines explain how to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities and more user friendly for everyone. In addition, the consulting firm will develop standard operating procedures for and train the EWG members/school managers to maintain and regularly update the data system in terms of data verification, cleaning/processing, updating, operation support etc.
Furthermore, building on already existing efforts in terms of established coordination mechanisms (mapping tools such as 4W), reporting channels (Activity-Info) and information management systems (online library) the consulting firm will identify key needs of the EWG in terms of information and knowledge management for the sector and establish a more effective and user-friendly information and knowledge management system for the EWG to strengthen coordination mechanisms including data visualizations (e.g. dashboards and the mapping exercises). The consulting firm will also develop relevant protocols, standardized data collection tools, training materials, etc. for EWG members to use and maintain the information and knowledge management system, conduct a workshop to build the capacities of the EWG members on the use of the information and knowledge management system.
For the refugee community school data system and the EWG information and knowledge management system, the company is expected to ensure that all necessary UNICEF’s information security requirements for systems classified as Class I are followed.
Ethical considerations
The assessment will follow UNICEF guidelines on the ethical participation of children. In addition, any participant will be fully informed about the nature and purpose of the assignment and their requested involvement. Only participants who have given their written or verbal consent (documented) will be included in the consultations. Ethical protocols per UNCIEF’s guidelines will be produced with the research protocol.
UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the UN, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.
The consultancy firm will thus adhere to all data protection and information sharing procedures/requirements indicated by UNICEF throughout all the phases of the consultancy period to assure the safety of the collected information of all the subjects of this assessment. Accordingly, by the end of the consultancy role, the firm will be accountable to hand over all the collected and relevant information as well as the ownership of the information and knowledge management system to UNICEF.
ACTIVITIES, DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINES, PLUS BUDGET PER DELIVERABLE
This assignment will start in May 2023 and will last 3 months. The consultancy firm is expected to conduct the following activities:
- Develop Inception Report
- Conduct initial meetings with UNICEF, UNHCR and members of the EWG group, as well as members of child protection working group operating in refugee community schools, to obtain relevant information for the development of the refugee community schools/learning centers data system and MIS
- Review of existing EWG governance framework to facilitate its inclusion in the data system design
- Review existing coordination as well as information and knowledge management tools of the EWG group
- Submit draft inception report
- Present inception report to the EWG members for feedback and comments
- Incorporate comments into the inception report and submit final inception report for approval
- Develop refugee community school and learning center data system
- Design an overarching specification for the data system, including clear structures for maintenance and ongoing operation.
- Develop refugee school/learning center mapping (including surrounding service providers) and data system including GIS/visual mapping, and web-based application.
- Develop admin, permissions and security systems in line with the UNICEF’s information security guidelines.
- Refine and update after comments and beta testing.
- Incorporate cleaned data from the data collection exercise, performed by a NGO partner.
- Develop relevant protocols, standardized data collection tools, training materials for EWG members
- Build the capacities of EWG members and school managers on the use and maintenance of the data system
- Develop effective and user-friendly information and knowledge management system
- Identify key needs of the EWG in terms of information and knowledge management for the sector to improve coordination and reporting in line with/in support of all the above
- Compile key documents and information sources
- Agree on curation and user experience with EWG members
- Develop effective and visually appealing platform, including permissions and user management.
- Develop relevant protocols, standardized data collection tools, training materials, etc. for EWG members to use and maintain the information and knowledge management system
- Conduct workshop to build the capacities of the EWG members on the use of the information and knowledge management system.
The EWG meeting is being held monthly. The consultancy firm is expected to provide monthly updates during these meetings on the progress of the work. In addition, ad-hoc meetings and workshops will be scheduled with EWG members whenever necessary.
DELIVERABLES
ESTIMATED DURATION TO COMPLETE
PAYMENT
- Inception Report submitted and approved
0.5 month
15%
- Refugee community schools/learning centers data system established and functional and EWG members and/or school managers trained on the use of the system
1.5 months
50%
- Effective information and knowledge management system established and EWG members trained on the use of the system
1 month
35%
3 months
100%
All relevant references collected and reviewed for the school assessments, data files, transcripts, presentations and training materials need to be submitted to UNICEF.
Child Safeguarding
Is this project/assignment considered as “Elevated Risk Role” From a child safeguarding perspective?
YES NO If YES, check all that apply:
Direct contact role YES NO
If yes, please indicate the number of hours/months of direct interpersonal contact with children, or work in their immediately physical proximity, with limited supervision by a more senior member of personnel:
Child data role YES NO
If yes, please indicate the number of hours/months of manipulating or transmitting personal-identifiable information of children (name, national ID, location data, photos):
More information is available in the Child Safeguarding SharePoint and Child Safeguarding FAQs and Updates
QUALIFICATIONS, SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE AND ADDITIONAL COMPETENCIES
The institution should consist of a team of full-time individuals who will be coordinating directly with the Education team at the UNICEF Egypt Country Office. The project manager will be responsible to ensure timely and effective implementation of the contract during the agreed period. All the proposed personnel should have qualifications and prior experience of undertaking a similar role and applicable to the position that they are being proposed for.
The composition of the team is expected to combine the following profiles and skills:
- Experience in developing comprehensive data systems including GIS mapping, use of real-time monitoring tools among others.
- Experience of setting-up information and knowledge management systems including data visualisation for sector coordination.
- Knowledge and experience in handling sensitive data/information and experience in the establishment of adequate security systems.
- Demonstrated experience in projects engaging multiple partners, i.e. UN agency, government partners, NGO partners and beneficiaries.
- Excellent analysis, writing and presentation skills required.
- Fluency in English and Arabic.
CONDITIONS OF WORK
The project manager will report to the Education Specialist, while working closely with the MIS officer and staff members from Education and Child Protection sections in the UNICEF Egypt Country Office. The proposed personnel will be working on a full-time basis and are expected to use their own office space and computers.
CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
TECHNICAL CRITERIA
POINTS TO CONSIDER
For institutions
- Profile of company
- Range and depth of relevant experience especially with similar projects including experience in developing education knowledge management systems, experience in developing school/needs assessment tools, experience in refugee situation in Egypt/MENA.
- Key personnel that will work on the assignment (should include their CV’s) and details or relevant experience and qualifications
- Previous UNICEF/UN contracts and duration
Score: 30
Overall Response
- Completeness of response
- Overall concord between TOR/needs and proposal
Score: 10
Proposed Methodology and Approach
- Technologies used - compatibility with UNICEF
- Project management, monitoring and quality assurance process
- Innovation approach
- Instructional strategies
Score: 30
TOTAL SCORE
70
Weighting
- Weighting of technical evaluation vs financial offer (70:30)