Uganda: TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR BASE LINE SURVEY UNDER THE COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT FOR EDUCATION PROJECT II (CEEPII)

1.1Background to Build Africa Uganda

Build Africa Uganda (BAU) was registered as a Ugandan NGO in 1996. BAU’s programs seek to combine earning and learning opportunities for children and their families. With 16 years’ experience working in rural areas of Uganda, BAU has strong working relationships with communities and local authorities. BAU is currently operational in the nine districts of Kumi, Ngora, Bukedea, Pallisa, Kibuku, Masindi, Kiryandongo, Oyam and Buliisa. Within these districts BAU is working with 154 primary schools and the surrounding communities.

Find Build Africa on http://www.build-africa.org for more information.

1.2Background to CEEPII

The project is called Community Empowerment for Education Project II (CEEPII). It is a follow up of CEEP I that was implemented in Masindi, Oyam and Buliisa districts (April 2014 to March 2016).

Education is a fundamental human right^[1], essential to reducing poverty and inequality^[2]. However, when children attend primary school in Uganda, their right to a good quality education is affected by a multiplicity of factors such as shortage of qualified teachers; low teacher motivation; inadequate school infrastructure, violence at school, shortage of teaching and learning materials; weak capacity of communities to demand quality education; inadequate provision for children with special learning needs; limited teacher time on task and weak supervision arrangements^[3]. These severely restrict the opportunity for children to develop the literacy, numeracy and life skills they need to grow into healthy adults and reach their full potential.

Build Africa will use the lessons learnt from CEEP1, expanding the work to an additional 28 schools in 2 districts of Kiryandongo and Nwoya. By focusing the social accountability engagements on relevant policies such as the Basic Requirements and Minimum Standards (BRMS) in education, BA will, in addition to community level engagements; collate evidence that shall be used to influence policy and practice both at the local and national government level. By its own account, the Government of Uganda acknowledges of the uptake of this 2001 piece of legislation (BRMS), noting that: ‘…awareness and compliance by schools are still inadequate. Poor and/or disastrous outcomes and occurrences such as strikes, school fires, internal strife, child abuse, grievances or unresolved conflicts (within schools) and other forms of poor school performance are a clear manifestation of this inadequacy’. Build Africa will liaise with Unicef on their work around the BRMS for sharing, learning and potentially joint influencing partnerships.

1.3Project Description

The project Goal is to contribute to improved quality of primary education and learning in order to improve the quality of life in the targeted districts by 2018. This will be through ensuring that government, school level duty bearers and parents are responsive and accountable to improve the quality of primary education, to be achieved through the following objectives:

Objective 1:Increased participation and commitment of parents and communities for quality education

Objective 2:Improved education practice in targeted schools through community and SMC engagement with schools

Objective 3: Improved education policy, practice and regulatory environment in targeted districts

2.Project activities

Objective 1:Increased participation and commitment of parents and communities for quality education

Activity 1.1: Identify and support 6 Education Monitoring Volunteers (EMVs) to lead community level advocacy and capacity building initiatives

Activity 1.2 Conduct a Training of Trainers of 6 EMVs in educational policy, communication at community level and in the community scorecard methodology.

Activity 1.3: Conduct 56 sensitization meetings with communities on their roles/responsibilities, value of education and key government policy provisions

Activity 1.4 Develop 28 Learning Improvement plans detailing actions of parents to meet children's immediate needs.

Activity 1.5: Train 560 school level duty bearers (SMCs, Head Teachers and Teachers) on the BRMS, mechanisms of social accountability and their role in monitoring and delivering against the service charter

Activity 1.6: Reproduce and distribute 40 copies of key educational policy documents like BRMS, Child Friendly Schools, and the UPE framework

Activity 1.7: Conduct bi-annual community scorecards events at school level to generate and review service charters that improve the quality of learning in regard to the BRMS

Objective 2:Improved education practice in targeted schools through community and SMC engagement with schools

Activity 2.1: Develop education advocacy plans in relation to BRMS

Activity 2.2: Lobby Local Councils/government on key education quality improvement issues by SMCs

Activity 2.3: Collect, document and disseminate evidence on community experiences and social accountability to provide data for influencing policy and practice in meeting the BRMS

Activity 2.4: Identify and build relations with 4 coalitions and networks for strategic engagements on policy weaknesses

Activity 2.5: Hold 3 national and district level education quality improvement advocacy and learning fora

Objective 3: Improved education policy, practice and regulatory environment in targeted districts

Activity 3.1: Lobby Local Councils/government on key education quality improvement issues by SMCs

Activity 3.2: Collect, document and disseminate evidence on community experiences and social accountability to provide data for influencing policy and practice in meeting the BRMS

Activity 3.3: Identify and build relations with 4 coalitions and networks for strategic engagements on policy weaknesses

Activity 3.4: Hold 3 national and district level education quality improvement advocacy and learning fora

Activity 3.5: Develop education advocacy plans in relation to BRMS

3.Objectives of the baseline

a) Set a baseline for the Project by gaining a contextualized and measurable understanding of the current social accountability efforts by the community and the responsiveness by the Duty Bearers (School authorities, School Management Committees, Sub county and District authorities)

b) Develop data collection tools and piloting project indicators

c) Establish baseline benchmark measures against the project’s logframe indicators and provide evidence-based recommendations on the way forward on the best way to collect evidence on each indicator.

4: Expected outputs from the Technical Support

A detailed report detailing the following:

a) Current situation of the project indicators in the districts

b) Recommendation on the best way to engage the different stakeholders

5.Tasks and deliverables

The required consultancy deliverables are:

• One detailed inception report in English, including a detailed work plan, detailed methodology for both data collection and analysis, sample size calculations (where appropriate), data collection tools, and outline of the structure of the final evaluation report.

A draft baseline report, including accurately analysed data against each of the project indicators and evidence-based findings regarding the usefulness of indicators

• One detailed baseline report in English, including data collection tools etc.

• All typed data sets in English from both quantitative and qualitative data collection.

The consultant will also be responsible for:

• Holding an inception meeting (remotely if required) with Build Africa staff and reviewing any relevant documentation to gather background information

• Drafting an inception report (as above)

• Incorporating feedback on inception report into planned approach and activities

• Organising the logistics for field travel

• Recruiting and training data collectors with the necessary skills and local langauges, who can work to a high standard

• Supervising and quality assuring field data collection and entry

• Providing the typed raw data to Build Africa staff

• Analysing and synthesizing both qualitative and quantitative data

• Submitting a draft report, with accompanying data analysis to Build Africa staff for feedback

• Incorporating feedback and submitting a final report that responds to the key objectives of the baseline study and provide clear measures against the indicators and evidence based findings, as well as robust recommendations which can be directly applied to Build Africa’s programming

Build Africa will be responsible for:

• Holding an introductory Skype call with the consultant to provide background information and to finalise timelines and expectations

• Reviewing the inception report and providing the consultant with specific and timely feedback

• Providing support to the recruitment and training of data collectors if necessary

• Reviewing the draft baseline report and providing the consultant with specific and timely feedback

6.Timeline for delivery

The final report and materials of this assignment must be delivered by the 25^th Feb 2017

Activity

Timeframe (to be completed by)

Briefing meeting

Review of TOR and project documents and other relevant external evidence

Development and submission of the inception report (including detailed methodology and revised data collection tools including detailed guidance)

Field work (training of data collectors, data collection and de-briefing)

Data entry, analysis and writing of draft report

Revision and finalisation of the report and delivery of all data sets

7.Skills and qualifications of consultancy team

The consultancy team should consist of one or more consultants who meet the following requirements:

§ Master’s degree in either Education, Social Sciences, Development Studies or any other related discipline coupled with advanced skills in research methodologies (preferred);

§ Excellent communication skills including report writing (essential);

§ Able to reliably access the Internet, as well as relevant national policy/planning documents and surveys (essential);

§ Fluent English in both writing and speaking (essential) but Runyoro , Acholi and Swahili will be an added advantage;

§ Willingness to familiarise self with, and sign up to abiding by, Build Africa’s Child Protection Policy (essential).

§ Prior experience of evaluating social accountability projects desirable/preferred

8.Child Safeguarding

It is essential that the successful applicant familiarise self with, and sign up to abiding by, Build Africa’s Child Protection Policy.

We reserve the right to conduct background checks for all shortlisted applicants in line with our child safeguarding policy. This may include collecting references from past employers or commissioning organisations.

^[1]http://www.unesco.org/new/en/right2education

^[2]http://www.globalpartnership.org/education

^[3] Unicef Uganda 2016-2020 Strategic Plan

Interested consultants must submit the following documents:

1) Technical proposal , using the attached template, which must include the following:

• Outline of methodology for conducting the baseline study

• A timeline of consultant work plan with number of days for desk research, primary research, material development and review , finalizing materials and final report

• Samples of previous report written for similar consultancy work, with contact details for commissioning client.

• profile of the consultants that will engage with the study – and confirm who will be on the ground conducting the study

2) Detailed budget submitted in Excel.

There is a fixed internal budget for the consultancy including professional fees, ancillary costs and support costs with the assumption that the consultant is based in Uganda or in the East Africa region (to minimise travel costs).

Consultants must have an existing legal right or hold the relevant visa to work in Uganda.

The selected consultant(s) will be chosen based on their relevant experience, robustness of their submission, availability as well as overall cost effectiveness.

All documents must be submitted no later than Friday 27^th Jan 2017 at 17:00 hrs East Africa time via email to Fred Semyalo, Head of Programs ; semyalo@build-africauganda.org