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
As Nepal seeks to recover the learning losses experienced by children during the pandemic and address the broader learning crisis, it is incumbent on all tiers of government to identify appropriate learning recovery strategies in the short term. The Government in partnership with UNICEF and other education development partners has developed and initiated the School Education Sector Plan (SESP; 2022-2027) to facilitate an inclusive recovery of learning loss through need-based and targeted accelerated and remedial learning programs.
Responding to the needs of these children, UNICEF and the European Union have jointly initiated a program to strengthen the institutional capacity for the successful implementation of the SESPO across all levels. Under this program, UNICEF and the EU continue to support adaptation of SESP into provincial and local level education sector plans and its implementation through common packages initiatives under education through local level partnerships (SESP 22 LG and common packages – 7 LGs) in Karnali province.
UNICEF collaborates with the federal, provincial, and local governments to strengthen the Education sector plans aligning with SESP in the Karnali province for better planning and implementation of SESP implementation. The focus of our initiatives will be around gender is to provide support to the Government to ensure equitable access to quality education for all children, including girls, with a focus on children from the most marginalized and hardest to reach social groups and communities.
Purpose of Activity/Assignment:
The purpose of this consultancy is to support Local Governments of Karnali Province in the adaptation of the School Education Sector Plan (SESP) in their local education plans and budgets and the implementation of the Common Program package. Specifically, the consultant will provide administrative-, and technical support to:
- Develop provincial level education sector plan and its adaptation into local level education sector plans and budgets.
- Strengthen capacity of local governments for implementation of the Common Program Package, as defined in UNICEF Education Sector Annual Workplan.
- To support the coordination and communication for the engagement with local governments with the Provincial Government, development agencies and civil society representatives.
Scope of Work:
- The consultant will be undertaking the following activities:
Liaise with the implementing partners and provincial government to ensure timely development of the provincial education sector plans and its linkage to local education sector plans. - Provide technical support for formulation of provincial and local education sector plans through wider stakeholders’ consultation.
- Disseminate drafted/updated document within UNICEF team members. Ensure comments/feedback from other sectoral colleagues, within UNICEF field office and education section at Kathmandu.
- Work closely with provincial, local governments and implementing partners to ensure the local level planning and budgeting.
- Provide technical inputs for implementation of common packages in the province and local level.
- Follow up for complying quality works with local implementing partners and local governments to ensure policies, knowledge and skills are translated into classrooms of programme support.
- Work closely with the other education development partners for synergies results through avoiding duplication of works on ground as well as work with other UNICEF sectoral teams in areas that are relevant and related to education sectoral interventions.
- Monitor activities and document evidence that includes at least 3 human interest stories.
Duration of Contract: The total duration of the contract is for 12 months.
Duty Station: The consultant will be based in Surkhet for Karnali Province.
Deliverables:
| Tasks | Deliverables | Timeline | Proposed Fee |
- Technical support to develop provincial and local education plans aligning with federal SESP in province and 22 Local Governments (LGs).
- Technical support to develop Education Sector Plan (ESP) formulation plans with the support of local implementing partners.
- Quality compliance of formulation process and procedures of the ESPs
| - Submission of copy of approval of provincial and local education sector plans
- Submission of technical inputs for the workshops
- Submission of monthly progress report
| By end of February 2025 | |
- Technical support for details programme implementation plans of the common package initiatives.
- Technical support to CSOs for finalizing of training contents under common package with the support from UNICEF FO/section and participate in and contribute for session deliveries.
- Updates of roster training in the province under education themes.
- Technical support for provincial education cluster for information management and disseminate to federal education cluster.
| - Submission of detailed programme implementation plan.
- Submission of revised and compiled training contents of education theme and sessions delivered report.
- Database of trainers’ roster Submission of monthly progress report
| By end of June 2025 | |
- Develop and adopt monitoring plans of the project implementation under SESP and common package.
- Observe training sessions and feedbacks.
- Work closely with provincial education division and local level for education coordination.
- Develop case studies and HIS
| - Submission of monitoring plan for SESP implementation under common package.
- Submission of training reports
- Submission of monthly progress report
- Submission of case studies/HIS
| By 14 October 2025 | |
Kindly submit your proposed professional fee in Nepalese currency based on the outlined deliverables for this assignment.
To qualify as an advocate for every child the consultant will have…
Academic Qualification:
- Master’s in education, Social Sciences, Development Studies, and other related fields.
Work Experience:
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A minimum of 5 years of experience working for education sector programme planning and management.
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Familiar with the education programmes and policies of Nepal including in the context of federal structures.
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Sound knowledge of education sector planning, foundational learning activities, acceleration of learning approach, learning continuation campaigns and disability inclusive education
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Excellent communication, coordination, and rapport building skills including the ability to facilitate diverse groups (Government, CSOs, Technical Expert)
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Strong working knowledge of Nepali and English
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Experience in the capacity building of partners at the national, regional, and district levels
Skills required:
Strategic thinking, analytical skill, high-level coordination, networking, and facilitation skills
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:
Request to submit financial proposal (Nepalese currency) based on the deliverables for this assignment.
Female candidates and candidates from the under-represented ethnic groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract 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 and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors 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.