Job Description

Girls’ Education Accelerator (GEA) program

                                                               TERMS OF REFERENCE

Development of Gender and Inclusion Monitoring Guidelines in School Supervision                                                             

1. Background Information 

1.1.        About Girls’ Education Accelerator (GEA) Program 

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is a multi-stakeholder partnership and funding platform that galvanizes global and national support for education in developing countries, focusing on the poorest and most vulnerable children and youth. The partnership aims to accelerate access, learning outcomes and gender equality through equitable, inclusive, and resilient education systems fit for the 21st century. 

The Girls’ Education Accelerator (GEA) is a three-year partnership (2024-2207) between the Federal Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education (MOECHE) and GPE, which aims to enhance equitable access to quality and inclusive education in rural and urban areas by addressing supply and demand barriers, particularly those related to gender and social inclusion. The GEA’s design is aligned with the Somalia Partnership Compact, which is in turn informed by the 2022 Education Sector Analysis and 2022 Enabling Factors Analysis. The GEA is designed to address the barriers hindering girls’ education outcomes, which were identified by prior research conducted in country. It also seeks to scale up practices boosting girls’ access, learning, and retention, which were previously identified as effective by rigorous studies conducted in Somalia.

Under the leadership of the MOECHE, the GEA program will contribute to reducing the gender gap in primary education by improving girls’ education outcomes, with a specific focus on those facing multiple barriers to succeed: displacement, conflict, disability, and social vulnerability. To achieve this, the GEA will strengthen institutional capacity and mechanisms – policies, supervision, reporting, monitoring – incorporating gender transformative and socially inclusive practices in education management in Somalia. The program will be implemented across all Federal States and Banaadir Region Administration (BRA).

 1.2.1 Program Objective/Components/Targets

The GEA program’s overall objective is to enhance equitable access to quality and inclusive education in rural and urban areas. This will be achieved through three outcomes:

1. Outcome 1: Equitably increased primary gross enrolment rate.
2. Outcome 2: Equitably improved literacy and numeracy and completion rates.
3. Outcome 3: Strong regulatory and financing framework.

The overall program beneficiary targets include:

• 15,600 vulnerable out-of-school girls in underserved areas with the highest concentration of out-of-school girls and limited or no access to education services will be enrolled through construction of 20 new schools for girls.
• 15,000 vulnerable out-of-school girls will be enrolled through capitation grants.
• 10,000 vulnerable out-of-school girls and girls affected by emergencies receiving 30-month special grants to enroll and remain in primary school.
• 1,200 (60% girls) out-of-school children with severe disabilities attending special needs education through a 30-month special grant.

2. Rationale for development of gender and inclusion monitoring guidelines in school supervision

To strengthen school monitoring and enable MOECHE to incorporate gender and inclusion measures in quality assurance processes, the GEA will support the Quality Assurance Unit at the MOECHE to develop guidelines for Quality Assurance Officers (QAOs) to evaluate the gender responsiveness and inclusivity of schools and revise the existing quality assurance tool to incorporate gender-focused criteria. This will enhance the ministry’s quality assurance system’s ability to identify and address gender disparities. This gender-focused data-driven approach will inform interventions to create a more inclusive and equitable learning environment for all students, with a particular focus on girls.

This GEA activity will be undertaken in close coordination with the Quality Assurance Unit and Gender and Inclusion Unit. The GEA will also ensure complementarity by coordinating with the European Union (EU)-funded SESSP (Somalia Education Systems Strengthening Programme)

operating within the Quality Assurance Unit, World Bank (WB)-funded Somalia Education for Human Capital Development project (expected to develop national teacher standards) and MOECHE to disseminate the guidelines to Education Sector Committee (ESC) and Education Cluster partners to enhance awareness and adherence to gender and inclusion standards.

3. Objectives

The objective of this consultancy is to:

1. Develop monitoring guidelines for the MoE QAOs to assess gender-responsive and inclusive practices at the school level.
2. Revise the existing quality assurance monitoring tool to incorporate gender-focused items and indicators.

4. Scope of Work

The consultant(s) will undertake the following key tasks:

1. Develop data collection tools for the attainment of consultancy scope of work

• Share draft data collection tools with CARE SOM and CARE USA for inputs.
• Incorporate comments received from CARE SOM and CARE USA.

1. Review of relevant gender and inclusion documents shared by CARE, MoE and Gender Focal Points e.g. Gender Analysis, Gender Policy, Gender Frameworks etc.

• Conduct a comprehensive desk review on relevant gender and inclusion documents such as most recent gender analysis, gender policies and gender frameworks etc.
• Identify key elements required to ensure gender-responsive and inclusive practices monitoring in school supervision.

1. Review of existing QA Monitoring Tools and Processes

• Conduct a comprehensive desk review of existing quality assurance tools and processes used by the MoEs.
• Identify the gaps and limitations in addressing gender-responsive and inclusive practices within the current QA framework.
• Incorporate gender and inclusion-focused items and indicators as deemed necessary to ensure that the tools adequately capture and assess gender-responsive and inclusive practices at the school level.
• Align the revised tools with the developed guidelines for QA officers.

1. Stakeholder Consultation

• Engage with key stakeholders, including the MoEs at the Federal and State levels, school administrators, teachers, students, and Gender and Inclusion officers at the Federal and State levels, to understand the current challenges and needs related to gender-responsive and inclusive practices in schools.
• Gather feedback and insights on the desired features and components of the monitoring guidelines and revised QA monitoring tool.

1. Development of Quality Assurance Monitoring Guidelines for QA Officers

• Develop comprehensive monitoring guidelines for MoE QAOs to assess gender-responsive and inclusive practices at the school level, adding to the already existing guidance on quality assurance procedures.
• The guidelines should cover areas such as:

-          Identifying gender-responsive and inclusive indicators for school-level assessments.

-          Methodologies for data collection and analysis from a gender perspective

-          Approaches to provide feedback and recommendations to schools for holistic school improvement.

-          Capacity-building of QA officers on gender-responsive and inclusive practices

1. Pilot Testing and Finalization

• Pilot test the developed QA monitoring guidelines and revised QA monitoring tool in selected schools to assess their effectiveness and feasibility.
• Gather feedback from QA officers, school administrators, and other stakeholders during the pilot phase.
• Finalize the monitoring guidelines and a QA monitoring tool based on the feedback and lessons learned from the pilot.

5. Deliverables

1. Inception report outlining the approach and scope of the assignment, detailed work plan, methodology, stakeholder engagement, and timeline for the consultancy.
2. Final data collection tools approved by CARE SOM and CARE USA.
3. Report on the desk review of existing MoE QA tools and processes, including the identified gaps and limitations in addressing gender-responsive and inclusive practices.
4. Detailed draft of quality assurance monitoring guidelines, key performance indicators (KPIs), tools, and protocols for review by the MOECHE, CARE SOM and CARE USA. This will also include a list of strengths to be maintained, solutions and way forward to address existing gaps and a plan for how to maintain the strengths and address the gaps.

1.         Final quality assurance monitoring guidelines, KPIs, tools, and protocols for rollout, inclusive of the feedback from the MOECHE, and CARE.
2.         Report of pilot test of the revised QA tools.

1. Final report detailing the consultancy process undertaken to arrive at the deliverables (above) with each deliverable annexed to the report.

6. Timeline

The consultancy is expected to be completed within a period of 30 days effective upon signing the contract until final sign off by technical team.

Experiences and Qualifications

1. Preferred Qualifications

 Essential:

• Advance degree in education and technical expertise and practical experience required to deliver the scope of work.
• Experience in advanced statistical analysis skills; education policy analysis and capacity strengthening of education institutions; and gender and inclusion.
• Extensive experience in education quality assurance at school level, with a focus on gender-responsive and inclusive practices.
• Demonstrated expertise in developing guidelines, frameworks, and tools related to education quality assurance.
• Strong understanding of the Somali education context and the challenges related to gender equality and inclusion.
• Excellent research, analytical, and report-writing skills.
• Ability to facilitate stakeholder consultations and workshops.

• Written proficiency in the English and Somali languages.
• Knowledge of PSHEA policies, code of conduct for teachers and school administrators, and safeguarding measures to protect vulnerable children and vulnerable adults apply in all contracting services.

Skills Required

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