Consultancy Title: Sierra Leone Project Coordination Consultancy

Division/Duty Station: Education Outcomes Fund, UNITED HOSTED FUNDS/London/UK/remote

Duration: 01 May 2025 – 30 April 2028

Home/ Office Based: Remote

About UNICEF

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you. For 70 years, UNICEF has been working on the ground in 190 countries and territories to promote children's survival, protection and development. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. UNICEF has over 12,000 staff in more than 145 countries.

BACKGROUND

Purpose of Activity/ Assignment:

We are seeking to recruit a consultant to provide technical advice on the delivery of EOF’s Basic Education and Early Childhood Education programmes in Sierra Leone.   

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.  The implementation of this program is expected to run from Spring 2025 to the end of 2028.

Scope of Work:

The consultant will provide technical advice and guidance on the implementation of both the SLEIC and ECE programmes in Sierra Leone. The consultant will report directly to EOF's Programme Manager and collaborate with all members of EOF’s team.

Terms of Reference / Key Deliverables

Work Assignment Overview/Deliverables and Outputs/Delivery deadline:

1.  Prepare, in consultation with EOF's program team, pre-reading for program governance meetings

Pre-reading should be finalized at least two weeks in advance of each governance meeting

-  Pre-reading for an estimated 12 program governance meetings for EOF’s two programs in Sierra Leone. Pre-reading will be in the form of a 20–25-page PowerPoint slide-deck

31 Dec 2025

31 Dec 2026

31 Dec 2027

2.  Facilitate 90-minute workshops for EOF’s grantees at least 2 weeks prior to the data submission deadline on 6 occasions throughout 2025, 2026 and 2027

Provide written feedback to each Grantee within 2 weeks after their data submission in the form of a 2–3-page report on any data they are missing

-   Facilitate 6 workshops for EOF’s grantees about programme data submission through the EOF data platform at the end of each term in 2025, 2026, and 2027

30 June 2025

30 December 2025

30 June 2026

30 December 2026

30 June 2027

30 December 2026

3.  Conduct visits and produce activity reports on 12 occasions. Visit reports written and shared with EOF’s Programme Manager and grantees within 1 month of each visit concluding

- 12 Activity reports based on field visits to a sample of schools and early childhood centers (covering an estimated of 5-8 sites per visit) for EOF’s two programs in Sierra Leone; reports will be 12-15 pages in length and will document ongoing program activities, key successes and areas for improvement for each of EOF’s grantees. Reports will include qualitative insights, quantitative data and recommendations for program enhancement

30 September 2025

30 December 2025

30 June 2026

30 December 2026

30 June 2027

30 December 2027

30 April 2028

4. Following each of the 12 visits to schools and early childhood centres, produce safeguarding reports summarizing the areas for strength and areas for improvement in the practices of the grantees.

Estimated 2–3-page report per grantee, across 8 grantees in total

-  12 Written reports providing technical advice to EOF’s program team on Safeguarding

30 Sept 2025

31 Dec 2025

30 June 2026

30 Dec 2026

30 June 2027

31 Dec 2027

30 April 2028

5.  Facilitate workshops with EOF’s grantees on an estimated 60 occasions throughout the programme’s implementation.  At times, this will be all grantees included in the meeting, and for others will involve 1:1 meetings with specific grantees

-  facilitate 60 workshops with the grantees on both programmes to discuss programme implementation, key challenges and risks, and any safeguarding incidents. Written reports of 1-2 pages provided to EOF’s Programme Manager  following each workshop, summarizing the discussion and next steps

Travel: 

An estimated 12 mission travels will be required, within Sierra Leone, each for an approximate 5 working days.

Qualifications

Education:

• 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

Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required *:

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in 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.
• Fluency in Krio is required

Requirements:

Completed profile in UNICEF's e-Recruitment system and

- Upload copy of academic credentials

- Financial proposal that will include/ reflect :

• • the costs per each deliverable and the total lump-sum for the whole assignment (in US$) to undertake the terms of reference.
  • travel costs and daily subsistence allowance, if internationally recruited or travel is required as per TOR.
  • Any other estimated costs: visa, health insurance, and living costs as applicable.
  • Indicate your availability

- Any emergent / unforeseen duty travel and related expenses will be covered by UNICEF.

- At the time the contract is awarded, the selected candidate must have in place current health insurance coverage.

- Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed satisfactory deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

U.S. Visa information:

With the exception of the US Citizens, G4 Visa and Green Card holders, should the selected candidate and his/her household members reside in the United States under a different visa, the consultant and his/her household members are required to change their visa status to G4, and the consultant’s household members (spouse) will require an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) to be able to work, even if he/she was authorized to work under the visa held prior to switching to G4.  

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

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results. View our competency framework at: Here

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:  

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.