Terms of Reference for developing and roll out of tracking system for marginalized out of school girls

Terms of Reference for developing and roll out of tracking system for marginalized out of school girls

Project Name:

Adolescent Girls Education in Somalia (AGES)

Location(s) of the action:

Banadir, Jubaland and South-West States of Somalia

Organization:

CARE International, Somalia

Duration

20 Days

Start date

July 2021

1. Project Background

The DFID-funded ‘Leave No Girls Behind (LNGB)-Adolescent Girls’ Education in Somalia (AGES)’ is an innovative project which aims to promote education access through tailored, sustainable solutions in order to develop literacy, numeracy, and key life skills for the most marginalized adolescent girls in South Central Somalia. It is a consortium comprising CARE (lead agency) ADRA, GREDO (National NGO), WARDI (National NGO), and UCES (education network), responsible for project implementation. LNGB-AGES targets the hardest to reach out of school girls, specifically girls engaged in child labour, married and divorced girls, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and girls from minority clans, excluded groups, and pastoralist families. The project aims to improve access to education, learning outcomes, and retention of 42,000 girls from some of the poorest, most vulnerable, and conflict-affected regions of Jubaland, Banadir/Mogadishu, and South West Administration, and to improve the overall quality of education by building local capacity of the 42,000 project target girls.

The project has five result areas that cumulatively help the project achieve its overall objective. Result four of the projects is geared towards supporting the MoEs at FGS and FMS levels to build institutional capacity for quality assurance in inclusive education. Some of the key activities under this result area include the development of inclusive approaches and processes to identify, increase access and retention for ultra-marginalized adolescent girls, and supporting the government MoEs to mainstream these approaches in the education system in the country.

2. Introduction

Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education with CARE international are willing to hold data collection for Out of Schoolgirls, at Banadir, Jubaland, and South-west states; the data collection will focus on how to capture the girls who don’t attend schools in the urban areas and later in rural. Quality data collection for marginalized and vulnerable out-of-school girls data is identified by MoECHE and Education development partners as key for enhancing education for Somali girls.

Strong disparities in rates of out-of-school children can indicate specific structural problems in certain geographical areas or educational tracks. It was also recognized by the MoECHE and Education development partners of inadequate information on methods and practices used in monitoring the scale and scope of out-of-school girls in Somalia. Therefore, there is a need to launch an exercise to map out and collect data and information using more systematic data collection methods and practices. This is seen as a step towards revitalizing a data collection system intended to collect, store, analysis and report out of school children’s data to inform decision making and support.

Thus, the Ministry of education, culture, and higher education with the support of CARE international seeks to recruit consultantss for the development of out-of-School –Children tracking system that would enable MoECHE and Education Partners to collect information on Out school children from different sub-groups. of pupils, schools, types of education and training institutions, Districts or regions, and – to combine data on Out of school children and contextual data such as socio-economic information in order to better target measures and policies The mapping exercise will show that most districts have different difficulties on data collection and the approaches that fulfill these requirements. The following analysis describes the current situation and aims to identify the main gaps and difficulties in collecting relevant information on early school leaving processes.

3. Rationale for the Assignment

The exclusion of marginalized and hard-to-reach children from accessing quality education remains prevalent. Across the globe, education equity has been a challenge and is continuously emphasized in all international commitments. However, many of the most marginalized groups remain invisible and are not captured in education data at national and global levels. This includes children and adults with disabilities, those displaced by conflict, child soldiers and laborers, as well as nomadic populations etc.

In the context of Somalia, a huge number of children are out of school and their data is not fully captured in the central Education Management Information System (EMIS). The AGES project targets 42,000 hardest to reach girls in 18 Districts across Jubaland, Banadir, and South-West states of Somalia. The project in consultation with the Regional MoEs, representatives of the communities, and school heads developed a set of criteria for the identification of the target beneficiaries from which over 37,000 out of school girls were identified and enrolled in the project’s three different learning pathways: Accelerated Basic Education (ABE) pathway, Formal Education Pathway, and the Non-Formal Education (NFE) pathway. The identified girls included girls with different forms of disability, girls from minority clans, and girls from pastoralist households, orphans, married and divorced girls.

4. Overall Objective of the assignment

The main objective of the assignment is:

(a) To identify approaches for the identification of marginalized girls, strategies for increasing access and retention across the three regions.

(b) To create online/offline data collection tools for the Ministry of Education at Federal and member state levels

(c) To train the data enumerators from the Ministry of Education at Federal and member state levels

5. Specific objectives of the workshops

· To develop a system for tracking marginalized schoolgirls

· Develop a training package on data collection and train select MOECHE and project staff

· To Pilot and roll-out of the tracking system across the three states

· To support the MOECHE in data collection for identification, increasing access and retention of marginalized girls/children

6. CARE’s Role and Responsibility

The role of CARE with regard to this assignment will include but not be limited to**.**

· Review proposed methodologies, tools, plans, and reports produced by the consultant and advise where necessary.

· Coordinate meetings, discussions, or consultations with MOECHE regarding the assignment including the selection of the workshop participants and other support as may be appropriate.

7. Scope of Work and methodology

i-Task 1: Development of relevant data collection tools

The consultant will develop relevant data collection tools which will include but not limited to the following respondents.

i). Headteacher

ii). Teachers

iii). Parents

iv). MOECHE staff (District Education Officers/departmental heads)

v). Other relevant respondents

ii- Task 2: Development of Electronic Tools

1. Software Design: the consultant will design, Data collection system potentially using Maggi, Kobo, & Excel format and other online data collection tools
2. Type of system: The system will enable Quantitative and qualitative data collection and statistical analysis, drawing findings from multiple sources and handling potential contradictions in data sets.
3. Information management: The system design must be able to handle large datasets and manage sex/disability-disaggregated data.

iii- Task 3: Training for Data collectors

The Consultant will design the training package and conduct training for

· The data collectors at Federal member states Education staff

· Train to the data analysts and other staff to use and manage the new system for data collection.

8. Deliverables

The system deliverables: the main deliverables for this data collection system are as follows:

· Inception report: setting out the design of the data collection system and associated planning,

· Development of data collection tools (Questionnaires etc)

· Development of an electronic system (Software) for data collection

· Training of select data collection system end-users

· Pilot of the data collection tools and use of the application software**

· Presentations of deliverables as an integral part of the submission process. (the consultant will be expected to provide for review a fully ‘cleaned-up dataset in SPSS, or Excel file format accompanied by the code used to carry out analysis and a variable codebook).**

· The final report on data collection system with recommended guidelines and monitoring plans**

9. Duration of the Consultancy

The consultancy shall be executed within a maximum of 20 days, commencing after signing the contract. The Proposal should include a detailed schedule. The following should be used as a guide.

S/n

Activities

No of Days

1

Development of data Collection Tools

4

2

Development of data collection software (online /Offline system)

4

3

Presentation to MOECHE -Review of the functionality of the tools/software applications

1

4

Training for Data collection end-users and data collection pilot including travel

8

5

Finalization of Report

2

6

Presentation to MOECHE and validation of tools/deliverables

1

Total number of days

20

Professional Skills and Qualifications:**:

1. The Minimum Educational Science /telecommunication engineering or IT and programmers must have at least Bachelor’s degree in IT. or equivalent: Education system knowledge at least Diploma of Education management or equivalent knowledge on Somalia Education Sector and software development and installation (Attach evidence documents).
2. Experience of successful design, development, commissioning, and support of electronic-based Online Data Collection and processing related Software in the last five years. (Provide evidence of past performance experience)
3. The consultant/Firm must have, at least one relevant successfully designed, developed, installed, and commissioned software application and submit evidence/prove of activity. (EMIS)
4. Proficiency in SPSS or Excel and qualitative data analysis techniques, including the use of Kobo or Maggi data collection software.

Language:**

The consultant has the appropriate Federal Member States knowledge /experience and language proficiency in Somali and English languages required for conducting the research.**

Report requirements: all reports should be submitted in electronic form and should be submitted in English.
Application Procedure

The interested qualified candidates are requested to submit the following:

§ Technical proposal showing how the consultant intends to carry out the assignment.

§ Financial proposal.

§ Qualifications

§ Relevant experience related to the assignment including samples and references of most recent similar work done.

Applications should be submitted to: som.consultant@care.org. not later than 15/07/2021,

In the subject line write tracking system for marginalized out of school girls