Consultant (Technical Program, Sierra Leone), Education Outcomes Fund (EOF), Hosted Fund, 12 Months, Freetown, Sierra Leone Req:574377

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, EDUCATION

There are few greater challenges faced by the global community than the twin crises of learning poverty and youth unemployment. In response, the Education Commission (chaired by Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister and UN Special Envoy for Global Education) and the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen) came together with our founding CEO (Her Excellency Dr.) Amel Karboul to create EOF. We aim to improve the education and employment outcomes of 10 million children and youth, by supporting governments to utilize a range of innovative finance instruments at scale, including outcomes funds and other results-based financing (RBF) instruments.

EOF is backed by a range of world leaders who support us to shape our approach and achieve our ambitious aims, as well as leaders in education and impact investing:

EOF supports improvements in the quality of education and skills programs, with a special focus on girls and underserved populations, including those in the hardest to reach rural areas. It measures (and pays for) what matters – both core skills like literacy and numeracy, but also critical 21st Century skills such as socio-emotional skills, ICT skills, and other broader fundamentals of a quality education. It helps close the persistent gap between the skills needed by employers and those attained by today’s youth.

For all the above, EOF pays primarily on the basis of the results achieved, ensuring that taxpayer-funded domestic resources, aid, and philanthropic funds are only used to pay for what works. This is a game-changing way to finance results in education, focusing attention and realigning systems on the most challenging but most important measure of a program’s performance: whether it is improving lives.

Together with our supporters, we believe this is the early stages of a much larger movement, with huge potential to increase learning outcomes for children and youth around the world, though improved aid effectiveness and government spending.

Since our inception in 2018, EOF has:

• Partnered with governments in Ghana and Sierra Leone to establish the two largest outcomes funds to date in developing countries, mobilising ~$50M for these programs.
• Established itself as a leading global player in RBF, and the only dedicated center of expertise for RBF in education and skills.
• Become the first outcomes fund hosted by the United Nations within UNICEF, as a scalable platform to partner with governments around the world.
• Established a major partnership with the LEGO Foundation, to develop a scale portfolio of RBF programs in early childhood across a diverse range of countries, as well as to amplify the movement and ecosystem of partners around this approach.
• Had our innovative approach featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, FT, Economist, Brookings, and more.
• Built our institutional capacity to contract and implement large-scale outcomes funds more efficiently and effectively than historic impact bonds.
• Established a strong culture of performance and an active focus on ongoing professional development for all our team.

How can you make a difference?

PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The Sierra Leone Education Innovation Challenge (SLEIC) programme is a partnership between the Government of Sierra Leone, outcome funders, education delivery partners and social investors. Five different delivery partners have been selected to support 325 schools across five implementation lots to improve learning outcomes for 136,000 children in partnership with school leadership and teachers in accordance with the Basic Education curriculum.

The program will run for nine school terms, starting September 2022 and ending in August 2025. The aim is to generate evidence to inform which interventions are the most effective in Sierra Leone context, which can then be scaled up by Government and donors. Using a result-based financing approach, service providers are expected to build sustainable capacity in schools, targeting interventions that improve learning beyond the life of the programme.

In addition to the SLEIC programme, the Education Outcomes Fund is working with the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) to set up an outcomes fund that will support the rapid expansion of early childhood education (ECE) provision through community early childhood development (ECD) centres while ensuring that the ECE services provided are high quality and support holistic child development.

As Consultant (Technical Programme), you will provide technical advice and guidance on the implementation of both programmes. You will report directly to a member of the program team and collaborate with all members of EOF’s Sierra Leone team and EOF’s central team.

DESCRIPTION OF ASSIGNMENT

SLEIC Programme

Deliverable	Description	Estimated number of working days	Deadline/ timeline
Deliverable 1: Pre-reading for 5 governance meetings prepared and shared with meeting attendees in advance (estimated 20 slide PowerPoint per meeting)	Prepare, in consultation with the Senior Program Lead, pre-reading for 10 governance meetings, and support with facilitation of the meetings (each c. 90 minutes). Pre-reading should be finalized at least two weeks in advance of each governance meeting.	20 (4 days per meeting)	By the end of the assignment
Deliverable 2: Provide technical advice to Grantees about data submission through the EOF data platform at the end of each term in 2024 and 2025	Facilitate a c. 90-minute workshop for Grantees at least 2 weeks prior to the data submission deadline on 4 occasions throughout 2024 and 2025. Provide written feedback to each Grantee within 2 weeks after their data submission in the form of a report on any data they are missing, and additional information required by EOF’s central team.	8 (1 day to prepare for and facilitate each of the 4 workshops, and 1 day to provide feedback on 4 occasions)	By the end of 2025
Deliverable 3: Spot check activity reports at the end of each school term to a sample (5 schools) in EOF’s program and write a school-visit report to be shared with Grantees, summarizing ongoing program activity and areas for improvement.	School visits conducted within the last fortnight before the end of term in each of the 4 school terms of 2024 and 2025. School visit reports written and sent to Grantees within 1 month following the end of term for each of the 6 school terms in 2024 and 2025.	28 (16 days to visit a sample of schools on 4 occasions, and 12 days to prepare written reports)	By the end of August 2025
Deliverable 4: Provide technical guidance to the Program Lead on a termly basis regarding Safeguarding, in the form of a written report following school visits.	Safeguarding report at the end of each school term summarizing the areas for strength and areas for improvement in the practices of the grantees (estimated 3 pages per report, for each of the 5 grantees)	20 (estimated 5 days per term)	Termly, by the end of 2025
Deliverable 5: Provide technical advice and support to the program manager in regard to risk management for EOF’s Sierra Leone country office (estimated 1 monthly monitoring meeting of 60 minutes)	Input into the risk management procedure for the Sierra Leone country office, advising the Program Lead on best practice and support in assessing risks and planning for mitigations and contingencies.	12 (1 days per month)	Monthly
Deliverable 6: Lead monthly meetings with each of the 5 grantees to discuss any challenges to their implementation (5 meetings per month, each of approximately 60 minutes)	Prepare for and lead monthly one-to-one meetings with each of the 5 grantees. Provide a written summary of each meeting to the Senior Program Lead within 1 week of the meeting taking place and use these conversations to inform the pre-reading preparation for governance meetings (deliverable 1).	60 (5 days per month)	Monthly
TOTAL ESTIMATED WORKING DAYS		148

ECE Programme

Deliverable	Description	Estimated number of working days	Deadline/ timeline
Deliverable 7: Participate in the process for selecting grantees for the program (an estimated 3-day workshop), and provide written comments on grantee proposals (estimated 15-page proposals for c.8 grantees)	Provide technical guidance to the Sierra Leone Early Childhood Education team during the selection of grantees through participating in the workshop with government and EOF staff to discuss proposals from grantees, and through providing written feedback on the grantees’ applications.	11 (3 days for the workshop, 8 days to provide written feedback)	Q2 2025
Deliverable 8: Pre-reading for 5 governance meetings or design workshops shared with attendees in advance (estimated 20 slide PowerPoint per meeting)	Prepare, in consultation with the Senior Program Lead, pre-reading for 5 governance meetings or design workshops and support with facilitation of the meetings (each c. 90 minutes). Pre-reading should be finalized at least two weeks in advance of each governance meeting.	20 (4 days per meeting)	By the end August 2025
TOTAL ESTIMATED WORKING DAYS		31

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in business, economics, political science, finance, education, international development, or a related field is required.
• A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in operational, administrative or programme delivery work, in growing responsibility.
• Prior experience with Safeguarding in Sierra Leone is highly desirable.
• Experience in directly leading people, projects and teams.
• Experience working in a start-up/ scale-up environment; comfort and ability to thrive amidst ambiguity and to quickly (re-)adjust to new circumstances.
• Experience or an interest in international development, the global education sector, and international aid.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language, Krio, is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS).

To view our competency framework, please visit  here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants/individual contractors with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks: 

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Interested candidates are required to fully complete their application profile, upload a cover letter and their financial proposal (daily fee rate in USD).

Applications with incomplete profile and without a financial proposal will not be considered.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants. Consultants are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.