Save the Children International (SCI) is the world’s leading independent organization for children. SCI has been working in Zambia since 1989, implementing both development and humanitarian programmes with the government, civil society partners, caregivers, communities, and children to advance the rights and wellbeing of children to ensure all children learn, survive, and are protected. Save the Children supports programmes in the thematic areas of education, health and nutrition, child rights governance, child poverty, and child protection.

Zambia is a signatory to many international agreements on education including the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal number 4-Quality Education. The Ministry of General Education, (MOGE) has developed a national ECCDE policy, which is being incorporated into the main Education Sector Policy for the country. The revised Education policy has also included key aspects of Inclusion for all categories of learners. Despite all these efforts only 29.8% of children enrolled in grade one, mostly in urban areas, had ECCDE experience in Zambia in 2018 with quality of service provision being low.  Although there has been an improvement, Western Province is still one of the provinces with low levels of children accessing ECCDE, which is 12.8% (MOGE 2018 Statistical Bulletin).

Overall Objective

To contribute to equal access and development outcomes of children aged 3-6 in a quality and Inclusive Early Childhood Care Development and Education (ECCDE) centers in Zambia

Specific Objective

To enhance access to quality and inclusiveness in 20 ECCDE centers through creating a collaborative environment & policies that value and meet the diverse needs of all children in four target districts

Expected outputs

Output 1: Increased knowledge, attitude, and practices among community members and parents of 3-6 children about inclusive ECD education.

Output 2: Increased access to quality and inclusive early childhood care and development centers for 3-6 aged children in Kalabo, Shang’ombo, Mongu and Sioma Districts of Western Province

Output 3: Improved quality standards of inclusive ECCDE services to promote holistic child development

Output 4:  Policies at the national, provincial and district level are better able to promote equitable access to free, mandatory inclusive quality, and holistic ECCDE programs.

Ethics and Child safeguarding

The consultant will have to adhere to the Save the Children child safeguarding protocols and relevant ethical guidelines which will have to be demonstrated in the inception report and throughout the assignment.

Proposed Time Frame

The estimated time frame for the assignment is 37 working days

Understanding of Requirements and Experience

To be considered, the study team members together must be gender-balanced and have demonstrated skills, expertise and experience in:

The lead researcher will have:

• A Master’s Degree in education or any relevant social science. PhD will be an added advantage.
• A sound understanding and experience in early childhood care and development education is a must.
• Demonstrate knowledge and skills in inclusive education and ideally inclusive education for pre-primary age children
• At least 10 years’ experience in research in an education-related field.
• Designing and conducting outcome evaluations using quasi-experimental design
• Proven experience in conducting qualitative and quantitative research and analysis including use of IDELA or other child development measurement tool.
• Previous knowledge and experience of ECD research for children age 3-6 years
• Leading socio-economic research, evaluations or consultancy work in Zambia or in the East Africa region that is sensitive to the local context and culture, particularly child rights and inclusion
• Sound and proven experience in conducting evaluations based on OECD-DAC evaluation criteria, particularly utilization and learning-focused evaluations.
• Conducting ethical and inclusive studies involving children and child participatory techniques
• Conducting ethical and inclusive studies involving marginalized and/or vulnerable groups in culturally appropriate and sensitive ways
• Managing and coordinating a range of government, non-government, community groups and academic stakeholders
• Strong written and verbal skills in communicating technical and/ or complex findings to non-specialist audiences (especially report writing and presentation skills)
• A track record of open, collaborative working with clients

The other members of the research team must have relevant qualifications and experience:

• At least 5 years’ experience in research, monitoring and evaluation.
• Proven experience in conducting qualitative and quantitative research and analysis.
• Previous research experience involving children (at least one of the consultants).
• Must have expertise in disability inclusion (at least one of the consultants).
• Knowledge of the Zambian context is a strong asset.
• Some of the team members need to have local language skills i.e. Lozi
• The composition of the team need to be gender-balanced.
• Previous experience in working with Save the Children or other child rights-focused organizations is an asset.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.

There is a high expectation that:

• Members (or a proportion) of the study team have a track record of previously working together.
• A team leader will be appointed who has the seniority and experience in leading complex study projects, and who has the ability and standing to lead a team toward a common goal.
• The team has the ability to commit to the terms of the project and have adequate and available skilled resources to dedicate to this study over the period.
• The team has a strong track record of working flexibly to accommodate changes as the evaluation is implemented.

Mandatory Requirements

• The lead Researcher must have a background in education or social science research
• That they are not on any Save the Children prohibited parties list or blacklisted by the government.
• Copy of the National Registration Card or copy of the passport
• Copy of Tax Clearance Certificate (TPIN)
• Certificate of incorporation for companies

Follow link provided for specific additional information requirements click here or here.

The deadline for submission of the Expressions of Interest is Monday 16th August 2021 at midnight GMT.  Expressions of Interests submitted after the stated closing time and date will not be accepted.

• All inquiries should be directed to:  [email protected]
• Applications should be submitted to [email protected]

Note

• Save the Children will only contact successful applicants
• Save the Children reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal/expression or cancel the procurement process at any time, without assigning any reason, and shall have no liability to any potential consultants for such rejection or cancellation of the procurement