Assessment on Early Childhood Care and Education, Sudan

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Closing date: 25 Jun 2009
Location: Sudan (the)

Background

A good start to life is the foundation for children’s rights. There is a well-established body of evidence that choices made and actions taken by parents and society in the earliest years of childhood have a powerful and long-lasting influence on the later progress of individual children, and on the wider progress of nations. Quality care and protection in these years are key to preventing disease, stunted growth, trauma, malnutrition, developmental delays and death while ensuring healthy growth, building self-esteem and the ability to learn. These in turn are central to school readiness, further learning, the effectiveness of school based programmes and to the future ability of children to contribute as parents, economic actors and citizens. Investing in young children will bring long term social change and sustained realization of children's rights.

There is little information currently available on early childhood care and education (ECCE)/ Early Childhood Development (ECD) sub-sector in the northern sates of Sudan. The ECCE/ECD concept and opportunities are generally confined to pre-primary education system in the country. In 2008, UNICEF Education Programme has started to provide some limited support in the areas of teacher training, educational materials and classroom construction. The existing programme cooperation framework between UNICEF and Federal Ministry of Education in 2008 envisages the development of sub-sector strategic plan on ECCE. UNICEF’s global Medium Term Strategic Plan (2006-2009) and the 2007 Education Strategy accentuate the importance early childhood development and care particularly using integrated and holistic approaches.

UNICEF’s latest education strategy states that progress in getting children to enter and complete primary education and in establishing the quality of that education will continue to suffer setbacks as long as too many children start school later than the prescribed age and are poorly prepared for learning. Early child development and school readiness is an important support area that cuts across the three priority themes in education programming. This focus on early development and school readiness helps assure that programming in education can be more readily linked to support for child survival programmes. The strategy recommends interventions in the areas of parenting education, community-based ECD programmes, formal pre-school programmes, and child-to-child school readiness activities.

UNICEF has launched a global initiative to Accelerate Child Survival and Development (ACSD). This initiative provides an opportunity for the education sector to contribute through ECD to the attainment of child survival results. The ACSD identifies the following 6 high impact areas of action that have been proven to reduce child and maternal mortality and morbidity. The education sector can provide complementary responses in the following areas:

Infant and Young Child feeding, including micronutrient supplementation and de-worming:
- Targeting pre-school children in the provision of micro-nutrition supplementation and de-worming will improve the health and well-being of children thereby reducing absenteeism, enhancing alertness, general well-being and improving learning outcomes

Provision of maternal and childhood immunization and promotion of new vaccines
- Including in a parenting education programme, messages for parents to ensure immunization against killer diseases, among other Lifeskills for health, hygiene and nutrition

Prevention of mother-to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV;
- Management and care of HIV-exposed or infected children
- Including in parent education, learning modules on HIV and the prevention of mother to child transmission

Prevention of malaria using insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and intermittent preventive treatment of malaria
- Including in primary education, ALP for children and youth out of school, and parent education Lifeskills-based lessons on prevention of communicable diseases such as malaria

Management of common childhood illnesses applying the IMCI strategy
- IMCI as a community-based approach provides opportunities for the use of child-centred approaches

In order to contribute more effectively to the attainment of the ACSD results and to optimize the benefits of ACSI for children, the ECD assessment will collect information and data on the situation with respect to each of the ECD issues:

- Early Reading Skills: To what extent do pre-schools focus on the development of early ready skills in children 3-6 years?
- Parenting: What is the content of parent education activities in the health and nutrition sectors and how are they delivered? What is the role of the education sector in parenting education?
- Lifeskills learning: What is the state of readiness for implementation of the ECD component of the life skills curriculum, how are the pre-school units organized for delivery of the new curriculum, what are their capacities?
- School Readiness: To what extent are teachers in grade 1 adequately prepared to receive children in grade 1 and what are the enabling factors in the primary school can aid retention of children in grade 1.

UNICEF advocates an integrated lifecycle approach to early childhood development – an approach that looks at the “whole” child, from conception, birth, his/her registration, protection from violence, exploitation and discrimination to the development of self-esteem and the desire to learn. This approach focuses on good health care and nutrition for children and mothers, as well as a clean and safe environment for them. It involves strengthening bonds between parents and children and evaluating the effectiveness of institutions and services for young children .

The introduction of an ECCE initiative in the country with four major components of parenting skills, care giving practices, early learning/school readiness and pre-primary education - with a focus on the child and the mother in an integrated manner - will require comprehensive assessment/analysis of national realities, opportunities, commitments, capacities and resources in order to formulate realistic, targeted and applicable strategies to develop national ECCE plans and policies.

Justification

The Federal Ministry of General Education (FMOGE) is committed to the development of a sub-sector strategic plan for early childhood development within the broader cooperation framework of the 2009 UNICEF/FMOGE Annual Work Plan. The purpose of the plan will be to outline a vision, goals and a framework for strategies and policy development that will guide interventions in the sub-sector sector and provide future directions for early childhood education programming in northern states of Sudan.

UNICEF, the government of Sudan as well as other aid agencies and donors envision Universal Primary Education by 2015 in Sudan, and have been investing a considerable amount of funds to the education development of the country. After the CPA was signed, a big window of opportunities has been opened for providing education opportunities to those children whose right to education has been neglected for a long time. Although the government as well as aid agencies are tying to catch up with the overwhelming needs of education access and quality (classrooms construction, teacher education, material distribution etc.), there is a lack of visioning, strategy and policy direction.

This consultancy service is expected to provide analytical information on the situation of ECCE in northern states. The over all goal of this initiative is to improve access and quality of ECCE services with a focus on the child’s readiness for school, parenting skills, care giving practices and pre-primary education. The initiative aims to ensure that children enter a basic school with strong foundations through participation in school readiness and pre-school experience.

The assessment will help in analyzing the current levels of knowledge and the practical existing care practices adoption among towards the care of young children and pregnant women, including: infant and child feeding; psychosocial care, stimulation and early learning; home health and hygiene practices; prevention and appropriate treatment of common illnesses; prevention of discrimination, neglect, abuse and violence against both children and women.

Specific Tasks

Under the overall guidance of the Education Section Chief and in close collaboration with relevant government counterparts, the consultant will undertake the following key tasks as part of the overall assignment. The consultant will be assisted by the UNICEF technical and support staff in carrying out the activity plan in a timely and efficient manner.

He/she will discuss and agree on an activity plan, methodological approach as well as travel plan. The Consultant will be responsible for managing ECCE assessment to provide baseline information on ECCE and to help in developing a conceptual framework on ECD appropriate to Sudanese context and aligned with the UNICEF approach/priorities in the areas of ECD/ECCE; and a long-term vision for the interventions/ response in this sector.

1. Using a mix of focus group discussions with parents and service providers in the education and health sectors, as well as secondary data sources assess and analyze the key challenges and affecting the provision of ECD services for children 4-5 years, their causes, roles of key duty bearers and capacities to address these challenges.

2. Assess the opportunities that present themselves in existing care giving/child rearing practices and social services that can facilitate the provision of quality ECD services within a holistic and integrated framework.

3. Assess the factors that promote or hinder school readiness for children entering grade 1 and what should be done to create an enabling environment for enrolment, including what parents can do for their children (e g. early hygiene training) to prepare them for schooling.

4. Analyze the quality and effectiveness of ECD policies (including the policy on creation of an ECD class in every school); regulations, standards, approaches and programmes/projects in North Sudan with respect to efforts aimed at reducing infant and maternal mortality, ensuring that children have opportunities to acquire early reading and life skills; that their parents are knowledgeable in effective early child care practices; and that teachers have the necessary skills to create supportive early learning environments for children 4-5 years.

5. Document and analyze the availability and quality of existing home and community-based ECCE models in community, public, private and NGO spheres in the country highlighting good practices, success stories and scale up opportunities. Recommend context specific models that can be scaled up in schools and communities. Propose strategies and actions to start an ECCE movement, particularly promoting home and community-based models led by parents in their communities.

6. On the basis of the situation analysis, develop a conceptual framework for ECD in north Sudan that uses the education sector and community structures optimally to contribute to the ACSI goals while contributing to EFA and MDG goals in education, showing clearly how the ECD interventions in the education sector can contribute to the ACSI goals.

7. Analyze and document available ECD curricula, training and resource materials that can support ECD capacity development. Assess opportunities for teacher training and courses/modules available in tertiary institutions on ECD.

8. Assess existing government capacities to develop ECD policies and plans, coordinate, monitor, track, and evaluate ECCE activities, and identify specific areas of weakness that need to be strengthened. Outline approaches to facilitate capacity building for the ministries, teachers and parents.

9. Design and conduct a national technical workshop on ECD policy and strategy. Present the outcomes of the analysis to the workshop and facilitate the production of initial inputs into an ECD Policy and strategy.
10.Assist in the development of the ECD Policy and Strategies, including a financing and coordination mechanism.

11. Outline the ECD standards and monitoring framework that can be used to monitor effectiveness and assess impact of the ECD policy.

Methodology

An ECCE technical reference group will be formed with the participation of key stakeholders. The Group will serve as a forum to guide the assessment process and ensure coordination and communication. UNICEF will provide direct support to FMOGE to manage/administer local operational costs such as data collection, workshops and field trips. The group will ensure alignment with government's broad priorities for early childhood development its strategic goals and a framework for policy on early childhood education. It will identify and take into account relationships between government policy in early childhood development and other government policy goals, particularly those in education, health/nutrition and social welfare. The group will also assist in the implementation and mobilizing resources of the strategic plan for early childhood education in the long term.

The assessment methodology is expected to include:
- Literature Review including existing reports related to ECCE in Sudan as well as research of best practices in other countries similar to Sudan.
- A number of interviews with different actors
- Analysis of situation, issues, characteristics, attitudes and needs of young children
- Analysis of care practices and capacities of parents and service providers (including education authorities and other social services such as health and social welfare, parents, peers, community workers/volunteers, common belief, social, cultural and religious norms etc.)

As listed above, the consultancy will conduct a number of interviews (both group and individual interviews), observe and document current status/situation and observe and analyze the current capacities of institutions who are involved. The consultant is encouraged to use participatory methods to conduct this assessment wherever possible.

Once the findings of the assessment are consolidated and reflected in an associated sub- sector action in draft form, they will be presented at a national level workshop with most of the partners and institutions involved for this assessment as well as other agencies and organizations who would be interested. The workshop will be a good opportunities for the participants to learn about the findings and agree on feasible suggestions for change. The results of the workshop will be documented by the consultant and they also will nourish the policy recommendations of this assessment.

The consultant will work under guidance of the UNICEF Chief of Education and UNICEF staff in the States, and the departments of the Federal and State Ministries of Education. The consultancy requires certain amount of field trips for the purposes of assessment at field level.

Expected Deliverables

The following results are expected:

Deliverables - Expected date of submission
1. Activity plan, assessment methodology, TOR for the local field staff for data collection with schedule developed by consultant, travel plan for the consultancy discussed and approved by Chief Education UNICEF - 15 July
2. An assessment report that provides a context specific conceptual framework and an analysis of baseline information and an outline of strategies and recommendations for addressing ECCE - 15 August
3. A draft sub-sector Policy and strategic plan for ECCE (soft and hard copies) - 30 September

Expected background and Experience

Qualifications:
- An international consultant is required. He/she shall have a Master's degree in education, ECCE/ECD, public health, social sciences, or related field.
- The international consultant will serve as lead consultant and shall hire local staff for support in the data collection.

Work Experience:
- 5- 10 years experience in the design of strategies and policies for ECCE/ECD.
- Extensive experience in the design of intervention strategies and the management and implementation of complex social assessments.
- Experience of working with grassroots community groups, young children and government institutions.
- Familiarity with educational, social and political context of Sudan/North Africa.

Language skills required:

- Fluency in English required; knowledge of Arabic language an asset. Good English writing skills are essential.

Other skills and attributes required:

- Excellent communication and facilitation skills.
- Sensitivities in communicating with children and people who have disabilities, social stigma, and other disadvantages.

How to apply
sudanhrvacancies@unicef.org