Consultant - Baseline Research at ActionAid Nigeria

ActionAid is an anti-poverty agency that prioritises works with the poor and excluded; promoting values and commitment in civil society, institutions and Governments with the aim of achieving structural changes in order to eradicate injustices and poverty in the world. ActionAid Nigeria is an affiliate of ActionAid International, an International Non-Governmental organisation registered in The Netherlands with its headquarters in Johannesburg South Africa. ActionAid International works in more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Consultant - Baseline Research for Promoting Quality Education through Progressive Domestic Resource Mobilisation

Location: Nigeria

Background

• Breaking Barriers is a 4 year (2018-2021) multi-country project that brings together Mozambique, Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania working towards a common goal which is to ensure that children (especially girls) have increased and progressive government spending on quality public education for girls and marginalised.
• The project is funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and will run from January 2018 to December 2021.

Objectives
By the end of its implementation period it will have achieved the following objectives:

• Government Take Actions to Increase the SIZE of National Budgets by Raising Fair Tax, Particularly Corporate Tax.
• Governments take actions to increase the SHARE of funds allocated to and spent on free, quality, inclusive public education
• A strong, active movement of community and civil society structures effectively SCRUTINIZE education budgets and expenditure and hold the governments to account for the provision of free, quality, inclusive public education especially for girls and marginalised children.
• Public education policies, systems and expenditure are SENSITIVE to the rights of girls and marginalised children.

In Nigeria, the project will be implemented in Two (2) States in Nigeria. These are Lagos and Sokoto and reaching a target of 30 schools directly, aiming to ensure that 600 boys and 10,500 girls benefit from a range of activities including Advocacy, Sensitization, Capacity Building, Community mobilization etc.

Globally 57 million girls of primary school age have never been to school. A recent analysis suggests that 70% of these girls come from the most excluded communities and face multiple types of disadvantages due to location, ethnicity and low socio-economic status (GMR, 2014). Girls make up 54% of global population of out of school children, with West Africa accounting for 57% of out of school girls. It will take up to the year 2086 for the poorest girls to reach universal primary completion (GMR, 2014). The percentage of primary-aged girls’ enrolment has ranged from 45% in 2005/2006 session to 46% in 2009/ 2010 session (Nigeria: Digest of Education Statistics 2006-2010).

There are still more girls than boys of primary age out of school, especially in Northern states in Nigeria. At primary level on average only 40-50% of boys and girls stay in school longer than 5 years (Global Education Digest, 2010). Girls’ enrolment and retention in primary school is still a major challenge. Over 10% of the out of school children are PLWD, who are further marginalised by education policies and practices, as the schools in Nigeria are not disability friendly.

Several factors have been espoused as the major cause of keeping girls out of school in Nigeria, these include poverty, inadequate female teachers, inadequate and dilapidated infrastructure, inadequate learning materials and poor mobilisation of girls and the community, which are symptomatic of the deep patriarchal system in Nigeria.  Over the years, this deep patriarchal system has led to the marginalisation of women and girls; a gross disrespect for their rights and even reflecting in public life through policies and structures. Poverty accounts for up to 60% hindrances in stopping girls’ aspiration to education in Nigeria (ActionAid Nigeria, 2009)

Nigeria ranks top with about 10.5 million children out of school. Sixty per cent of those children are in northern Nigeria. Increased enrolment rates have created challenges in ensuring quality education, as re-sources are spread more thinly. It is not rare to see cases where there are 150 pupils to one teacher, or where students learn under trees because of  lack of classrooms. 

The Project Baseline
Purpose:

• The project has a significant research component and, as part of this process, ActionAid and partner organisations have committed to conducting a number of research at local, national and international levels during the life-time of the project, including baseline studies, which will be conducted in 4 participating countries
• The purpose of the baseline study is to gather key data at local and national levels that will allow the project to track progress against key indicators outlined in the project Goal Hierarchy agreed with the donor, as well as measuring changes in the extent to which children’s right to education is being fulfilled in target schools
• This information will also be used to support local and national level advocacy for increases in funding to and quality of public education.

Approach:

• The research will be implemented using a participatory and collaborative approach that is key to ActionAid’s Human Rights Based education programming, which is outlined clearly in the Promoting Rights in Schools framework
• This that will involve working closely with ActionAid staff as well as key education stakeholders such as Education Authorities, teachers, parents and pupils from intervention states, the approach to the baseline research will align with ActionAid’s overall research signature, i.e.  ‘People-led evidence, combined with external knowledge, influences change at local, national and international levels.’
• As outlined in the project proposal approved by the donor the research will include participatory research on the quality, provision and financing of public education at local level
• The field level research will be undertaken with active involvement of communities, partner and ActionAid staff   in a way that contributes to build their capacity and understanding of action research
• It will also include a desk-based review component, which will enable a comparative analysis of locally gathered evidence on the status of education at school level with national-level education policies, local and national budgets allocations and spending, strategies and indicators
• Together this data will create a strong evidence base for local education improvements and for local, national and ultimately, international advocacy.

Research Framework:
The research framework for the baseline study will be developed with reference to overall project objectives and key indicators outlined in the goal hierarchy agreed with the donor as well as a range of education-related indicators and process of data collection as outlined in ActionAid’s Promoting Rights in Schools framework which have been designed to help track the extent to which children’s right to education is being fulfilled at school level.

In order to ensure a degree of harmonisation across the countries participating in the project, it is expected that a single research framework will be developed with input from ActionAid and research consultants from all 4 countries during a multi-country workshop scheduled to take place at the end of February.
Nevertheless, as research questions will be linked to the project goal and objectives they are likely to focus on the following issues:

Children’s access to education: this may include an analysis of information such as:

• Gender-disaggregated access indicators at national, state and school level
• Legal and policy measures in place to promote access (especially for girls)
• Different barriers to access experienced by girls and boys

Free Public Education: this may include an analysis of information such as:

• Legal and policy measures in place to promote free public education (especially for girls) and the extent to which these are funded and implemented at national, state and school level
• The average cost of sending a child to school per year
• The different costs (direct and indirect) incurred by families as compared to their average income and the impact this has on choices about which children (especially girls) to send to school

Quality of Public Education: this may include an analysis of information such as:

• Key gender-disaggregated education indicators (e.g. pupil teacher/qualified teacher/classroom ratios, attrition, completion and transition rates, performance at key exams, literacy and mathematics scores etc.)
• Quality of school infrastructures and resources

Financing of Education: this may include an analysis of information such as:

• The size of the budget allocated to education as compared to other sectors at all levels
• The share of budget to different levels within the education sector and to different cost-categories within each level.
• The Sensitivity of the budget to the rights of girls and marginalised children
• A proportional analysis of the sources of funds for the education budget (donor funds, domestic resource mobilisation) 
• The amounts allocated to education at district and school level
• The extent to which community members and civil society organisations are aware of issues related to financing of education and the type of actions taken to ensure greater access to, quality of and accountability in education at different levels across the system.

Process and Methodology

• Given ActionAid’s participatory, people-led approach to action research as captured by the research signature mentioned above, the nature of the research process will be highly participatory, particularly where primary data collection is involved
• Overall, the process will follow key steps outlined in ActionAid’s Promoting Rights in Schools framework, which prioritises key stakeholder involvement
• As such, whilst the consultant is required to lead on and provide overall technical guidance and quality assurance throughout the process, data collection and analysis will actively involve education authorities, traditional leaders, teachers, parents and A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods will be used and whilst these can be discussed in greater detail between ActionAid and the consultant, it is envisaged that primary data collection methods may comprise of Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions during which a range of Participatory approaches can be employed (especially when collecting data from and with children)
• The secondary data collection process is likely to involve a desk review that will capture key information about education policies, strategies and indicators.

Roles and Responsibilities

• The section below outlines key roles and responsibilities to be assigned to the two main parties in the baseline research process, i.e. ActionAid Nigeria and the consultant
• Assign a technical support team responsible for managing and supporting the overall process e.g. facilitating and providing required documents, facilitating field work for data collection, provision of logistical support etc.
• Facilitate and support consultant’s participation at the multi-country M&E and baseline workshop to be organised by ActionAid International
• Monitor and ensure that the process is followed as per agreed methodologies and approach
• Arrange and facilitate stakeholder validation meetings at various levels
• Review the quality of the reports and provide timely feedback to the consultant
• Release payments after checking the quality of the deliverables meet the standard and expectations
• Sign off the final research report with relevant annexes by the Country Director for print and wider circulation.

Consultant:

• Initial discussion and agreement on the TOR with AA on the scope, deliverables, time frame and procedures of the research
• Submission of inception report confirming the consultant’s understanding of the Terms of Reference as well as her/his technical and financial proposal for this piece of work.
• Undertake desk review including analysis of relevant research, policies and strategies relating to access, quality and financing of education.
• Attend multi-country M&E and baseline workshop to be organised by ActionAid

International:

• Finalisation of the research protocol and tools for qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis to be validated and agreed with AA technical team.
• Train and orient relevant ActionAid, partner staff and community facilitators to use the participatory tools. 
• Lead on and provide technical input to and quality assurance during primary data collection in collaboration with ActionAid and other key education stakeholders.
• Agree a reporting template for the school level as well as national level reports with ActionAid staff and partners.
• Produce the first draft research report and submitting to ActionAid.
• Present findings to a panel and also at stakeholders’ validation workshops at local, district and national levels.
• Produce the final report accommodating the inputs and feedback provided.

 Deliverables:

• An inception report prior to the commencement of the research, confirming the consultant’s understanding of the Terms of Reference as well as her/his technical and financial proposal for this piece of work.
• A desk review summarising the consultant’s analysis of relevant research, policies and strategies relating to access, quality and financing of education.
• Validated research protocol and tools for data collection.
• Technical leadership and quality assurance during the data collection process.
• Final consolidated baseline report drawing together data collected during desk review and primary data collection process (hard and soft copies). The report should be submitted in English in a standardized format as per agreed reporting template no longer than 40 pages.
• Digital copies of all raw data, data collection instruments as well as any photos, video footage etc. obtained during the research process.

Time-Frame:

• The baseline research workshop, field work and reporting is scheduled to take place between the months of August to October 2018.

Research Ethics and Child Protection

• All contact with stakeholders will be guided by ActionAid’s child protection policies to ensure that risks to children’s well-being as a result of their engagement in the research are minimized and that strict confidentiality is observed throughout
• All primary research will be conducted with respect for ethical standards in research and information will only be gathered from respondents who have given informed and written consent. 

Specifications

• ActionAid is looking for a qualified and experienced Consultant, or team of Consultants with a background in education and experience of social research, monitoring and evaluation who will be able to provide essential technical leadership and quality assurance throughout the baseline research process.

Essential:

• Advanced Degree in the field of Education, Social Research or other relevant Social Science subject.
• Proven experience of research in the field of international education, including experience of research into issues related to girls’ education, education financing and tax matters
• Ability to apply a range of primary and secondary research methods including participatory methods
• Experience of using qualitative and quantitative data analysis packages (e.g. SPSS and Nvivo)
• Experience of collecting data with children and/or on issues related to children’s rights (especially education)
• Understanding the tax system in Nigeria.
• Experience of working with international NGOs
• Understanding of the role of Monitoring & Evaluation in the programme cycle and experience of conducting baseline research
• Proven track record of relevant research
• Understanding of issues related to research ethics and child protection
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to tailor communications to a range of audiences
• Fluency in written and spoken English

 Desirable:

• Experience of working with ActionAid and understanding of/familiarity with the organisation’s Promoting Rights in Schools framework or other Rights based frameworks for quality education e.g. UNICEF’s Child Friendly Schools or Save the Children’s Quality Learning Environment
• Fluency in a relevant local language of intervention areas.

Selection Process
Candidate selection will be based on the following criteria:

• The ability to respond to and meet the essential and desirable specifications outlined in this term of reference
• Demonstrated capacity to undertake the type of services sought
• Relevant academic and professional qualifications and experience
• Proposed budget and schedule

Application Closing Date
10th July, 2018.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should submit the following Application Documents below electronically to: [email protected]

• A copy of the CV or CVs of the Consultant or Consultants who will be assigned to conduct the work
• A technical proposal (max 8 sides of A4) detailing a) how the consultant/s meet the selection criteria and b) their understanding of the ToR c) financial proposal and d) availability
• A sample of relevant reports or publications
• Contact details of 2 independent referees.