Terms of Reference (TORs)
Overview
Title / Peacebuilding and Education Final Report Writing ConsultancyLocation of Assignment / Remote Based
Language(s) required / English - Knowledge of French is desirable
Travel / No
Duration of Contract / 74 days (15 December 2015 through 15 June 2016)
The Learning for Peace Programme (also known as the Peacebuilding, Education and Advocacy Programme), a US $150 million initiative funded by the Government of the Netherlands (2012-16), aims to strengthen resilience, social cohesion and human security in conflict-affected contexts, including countries at risk of – or experiencing and recovering from – conflict. Towards this end, the programme works to strengthen policies and practices in education for peacebuilding.
The programme focuses on five key outcomes:
· Outcome one: increase inclusion of education into peacebuilding and conflict reduction policies, analyses and implementation.
· Outcome two: increase institutional capacities to supply conflict-sensitive education.
· Outcome three: increase the capacities of children, parents, teachers and other duty bearers to prevent, reduce and cope with conflict and promote peace.
· Outcome four: increase access to quality and relevant conflict-sensitive education that contributes to peace.
· Outcome five: contribute to the generation and use of evidence and knowledge in policies and programming related to education, conflict and peacebuilding.
14 countries across East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa, and West and Central Africa participate in Learning for Peace.
Learning for Peace, particularly through Outcome 5, has provided a unique opportunity to generate new insights and understanding of the complex relationship between education, conflict and peacebuilding at regional, national and local levels over the programme duration within a rich diversity of country contexts.
To capture institutional knowledge that can inform future programming for UNICEF, partners, and the wider development community, UNICEF Country Offices, Regional Offices, and headquarters sections utilized various monitoring and evaluative activities to record processes, implementation successes and challenges, and early impact of programme activities on target populations. For instance:
· 14 country annual reports, available for years 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, summarize conflict drivers, activities designed to address them, and key results, challenges and lessons learned from implementation.
· Global annual reports, available for 2012, 2013 and 2014, consolidate cumulatively results achieved, innovative practices, challenges and opportunities.
· Case studies (narrative, photo essays, and videos) undertaken in from the 14 countries have served as platforms for reflective discussions and collective learning. There is a total of about 40 case studies of various quality and degree of completion. Case studies compendium for field practitioners is under development, and will provide a thematic synthesis of learning emerging across regions and countries.
· Quantitative and qualitative measurement of social change through knowledge, attitude, and perception (KAP) surveys and focus group discussions results in Burundi, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda provide insight into initial results regarding citizens’ level of trust in government, sense of belonging and safety within their communities, and tolerance for diversity – particularly in relation to perceived quality of education, distribution of education services and relevance of curriculum
Complementary to programme documentation and monitoring and evaluation (M&E), Learning for Peace provided education and peacebuilding practitioners with cutting-edge research led by a range of international and national partners closely linked to programmatic and policy work. The research portfolio, which is based on the UNICEF research strategy commissioned in 2013, focuses on the following priority themes: 1) education policy and practice, 2) teachers, 3) youth, 4) educational inequality and violent conflict, 5) social cohesion, and 6) violence and gender (as cross-cutting issues).
Highlights from research efforts initiated in 2014 include:
· Relationship between educational inequality and violent conflict. UNICEF commissioned Family Health International 360 (FHI 360) to conduct a four-part research project to thoroughly investigate the relationship between horizontal educational inequality and violent conflict – specifically, whether the former, defined by ethnic and religious identities, influences the latter. The follow-up study exploring the reverse question – the impact of violent conflict on inequality in education - is underway.
· Education policy and practice for peacebuilding. A study commissioned by EAPRO expanded its Language, Education and Social Cohesion research to Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand.
· Transitional justice, education and social cohesion. ‘Responding to Past Human Rights Violations for Building Sustainable Peace’ is research conducted by the International Centre for Transitional Justice that consists of 18 background case studies highlighting education’s role in responding to a history of repressive government and characterized by violent conflict in order to sustain transitional justice measures.
· Research Consortium on Education and Peacebuilding. Established to build evidence, support country capacity development in research and analysis, and bring knowledge to the policy and academic communities for further inquiry and action, the Consortium is carrying out research in Myanmar, Pakistan, Uganda and South Africa on three thematic areas of 1) the integration of education into peacebuilding processes at global and country levels through policy and practice; 2) the role of teachers in peacebuilding; and 3) the role of formal and non-formal peacebuilding education programmes focusing on youth.
· Education governance. Drawing on evidence from Kenya and South Sudan, this UNICEF ESARO research that has focused on coordination and management of the education sector: policies and priorities, funding, implementation and effects on sustainable peacebuilding.
· Gender and peacebuilding. In Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda, the Learning for Peace programme is conducting rigorous research to generate knowledge on the linkages between gender, education and peacebuilding. A randomized control trial of the Communities Care initiative being piloted in Somalia and South Sudan is poised to contribute to the evidence base on the role of formal and non-formal education in preventing sexual violence and the overall contribution to peacebuilding through social norms change. A second randomized control trial in Uganda will ascertain the effectiveness of building the capacity of primary school teachers to promote gender-equitable school environments and the related contribution to social cohesion.
· Intergenerational transmission of violence: In Burundi, ongoing research to examine the transgenerational transmission of violence in households and schools includes a focus on perceptions of masculinity and gender-based violence, which is feeding directly into programming.
A full list of knowledge products at the CO, RO and HQ levels, including the ones cited above, will be made available upon the initiation of the consultancy.
Eligible applicants
UNICEF seeks an individual consultant for the position.
Purpose
The purpose of this consultancy is to produce a policy and programming-relevant consolidated report on Education and Peacebuilding, as the final Learning for Peace outcome document. The report should:
· present existing evidence to inform the development of effective interventions which deliver peacebuilding-relevant results in fragile and conflict affected countries
· present a clear overview of the theories of change, analytical frameworks and assumptions which underpin programming and policy in education for peacebuilding
· present a summary of the quality and extent of the evidence which supports those theories of change, analytical frameworks and assumptions
· present a summary of emerging practices in design and implementation of education for peacebuilding interventions, including key lessons learned, challenges, opportunities and recommendations across the humanitarian and development spectrum
· identify critical evidence gaps which will guide the development of future research and risk-informed programming
The annual report has traditionally served multiple purposes, including advocacy for education for peacebuilding and confirmation of UNICEF’s support for quality education, but it was mostly focused on meeting UNICEF’s accountability for the funds received and used. In light of programme closeout in June 2016, UNICEF will leverage annual reporting as an opportunity to synthesize key evidence generated over the past 4.5 years and use aggregate results from participating countries and regions, as well as meet its accountability requirements. This will help strengthen UNICEF’s positioning on issues around education for peacebuilding as a part of UNICEF’s strategy on education in conflict and crises situations. The below diagram illustrates the shift in reporting requirements between years 2012-2014 and years 2015/6.
2012-2014 / 2015/6Tentative table of contents
Part 1: EVIDENCE AND ISSUES. The role of education in promoting peaceful and inclusive societies: A synthesis report on evidence and practice through UNICEF’s Learning for Peace Programme, 2012-2016
· Acknowledgement
· Acronyms
· Executive Summary (5 pages)
· Background (5 pages)
o Context
o Role of social services in peacebuilding
o Case for education for peacebuilding: Learning for Peace programme
· Education’s contribution to peacebuilding: What practice and research tell us (30 pages):
Each thematic chapter should include: summary of conflict drivers that were tackled by interventions to contribute to change at this level (systems, community, individual); overarching theory of change or summary of theories of change employed by COs and emerging from research; overview of approaches/strategies/activities/partnerships, emerging results/substantiation of TOCs based on research and M&E, lessons learned and recommendations, remaining knowledge gaps.
o At the systems / policy level (10 pages)
§ What
§ How
o At the community level (10 pages)
§ What
§ How
o At the individual level (10 pages)
§ What
§ How
· Design and implementation: key lessons learned, challenges and opportunities and recommendations (10 pages)
o Planning (conflict analysis and programme design)
o Implementation across humanitarian and development contexts (policy, community and individual levels, partnerships, M&E)
o Scaling up (financing and addressing knowledge gaps)
Part 2: ACCOUNTABILITY. Consolidated Programme Report, 2012-2016 (largely same format as previous annual reports)
· Contribution summary (1 page)
· Executive summary (1 page)
· Strategic context (1 page)
· Conflict analysis and Application of conflict analysis on programming (2 pages)
· Programme results (10 pages; 2 pages per outcome)
o Outcome 1 – Integrating peacebuilding and education
o Outcome 2 – Building institutional capacities
o Outcome 3 – Developing community and individual capacities
o Outcome 4 – Increasing access to conflict-sensitive education
o Outcome 5 – Generating evidence and knowledge
· Gender (1 page)
· Partnerships (1 page)
· Challenges, lessons learned, and unintended consequences (2 pages)
· Financial accountability (1 page)
Audience: The Report should meet the needs of three main audiences: first, the international development community, particularly those active in the education and peacebuilding, who can uptake the global evidence base on the role of social services in peacebuilding; secondly, academia so they may build on the existing evidence in future research; and finally, policymakers and government partners who can use the emerging evidence to inform the policy dialogues and decisions.
Clarity in language: Given the anticipated range of audiences, it is important that plain and clear English is used throughout the final report. Utilization of graphics is encouraged.
Expected (measurable) results:
1. Proposal of analytical framework, table of content and workflow process with UNICEF, based on analysis of existing documentation and initiation meeting with the Learning for Peace Programme Management Team.
2. Final report Part 1: Evidence and issues. There will be a total of 3 drafts, with the third draft being the final deliverable from the Consultant, after incorporation of feedback from UNICEF on the first and second drafts.
3. Final report Part 2: Accountability. There will be a total of 3 drafts, with the third draft being the final deliverable from the Consultant, after incorporation of feedback from UNICEF on the first and second drafts
4. 4-page overview summarizing the report content for dissemination purposes that contains key messages emerging per theme and across levels of analysis.
5. PPT presentation of key findings and 2 webinar presentations to share the findings with UNICEF staff from various regions.
Duty Station
Remote-/home-based. The consultant will be available by email, telephone and Skype to facilitate inputs to and production of the document.
Timeframe
Start date: 15 December 2015 End date: 15 June 2016
Deliverables / Duration / Deadline(Estimated # of Days)
Preliminary meeting with UNICEF Staff, review of proposed analytical approach and framework / 1 / 8 Jan 2016
Review of documents, analytical framework and outline of the final report / 10 / 22 Jan 2016
2 Webinars / 1 / 13 May 2016
Detailed outline / 5 / 29 Jan 2016
Report Part 1 - Draft 1, review and incorporation of feedback / 15 / 19 Feb 2016
Report Part 1 - Draft 2, review and incorporation of feedback / 5 / 26 Feb 2016
Report Part 1 – Final draft / 5 / 4 Mar 2016
Report Part 2 - Draft 1, review and incorporation of feedback / 15 / 29 Mar 2016
Report Part 2 - Draft 2, review and incorporation of feedback / 5 / 5 Apr 2016
Report Part 2 – Final draft / 5 / 12 Apr 2016
Response to queries from editor/copyeditor / 5 / 26 April 2016
Summary brochure / 2 / 6 May 2016
TOTAL / 74
Key competences, technical background, and experience required Deadline
· Proven knowledge of the latest practice and research in the area of education and peacebuilding is required.
· 5 years of relevant mid- to senior level professional experience in education, protection, peacebuilding or related field. Familiarity with UNICEF processes and procedures is desirable.
· Knowledge of UNICEF Learning for Peace programme is highly desirable.
· Experience in inter-disciplinary research is highly desirable.
· Previous experience in undertaking and demonstrated use of techniques employed in systematic reviews, literature reviews, qualitative data analysis and the like is highly desirable.
· Advanced university degree in social science, education, peace studies, or a closely related field
· Proven experience of analyzing/evaluating education and/or peacebuilding interventions in fragile and conflict affected countries
· Excellent analytical and writing skills
· Proficiency in Publisher, Excel, Word, and Microsoft Suite
· Fluency in English (verbal and written). Proficiency in French is desirable.
How to Apply
Applicants are requested to send their submissions to with subject line:
“Peacebuilding and Education Report Writing Consultancy” by 4 December 2015, 5:00pm EST.
Applications must include: