I. BACKGROUND

Ethiopia has gone through repeated human-made crisis and natural disasters in the last few years, with 2019 registering over three million people displaced. According to UN Humanitarian Needs Overview at the time, about 2.62 million school-aged children including 1,257,600 (48%) girls were in need of humanitarian education support in IDP hosting sites. The main barriers that prevent emergency-affected children from attending educational services include lack of learning spaces for children affected by displacement, gender sensitive WASH facilities, inadequate food and water as well as basic education materials. Teachers work in environments that are not conducive to learning and in-service support is lacking. Getting all out of school children affected by displacement including girls and children with disabilities (CWDs) back to school and providing them with access to water, food, protection and psychosocial support will be a key step to responding to these problems and building their resilience to current and future shocks and stresses.

The Multi-Year Resilience Programme (MYRP), through Seed Funding from Education Cannot Wait (ECW) (2020 – 2023) and a budget of US$27 million, will initially focus on addressing the critical educational needs of 60,487 out of school children affected by displacement  children (30,717 boys, 29,770 girls) in 81 schools, 17 woredas and 3 regions (Amhara, Oromiya and Somali). The MYRP in the long run aims to improve learning through equitable access, crisis-sensitive and quality relevant education for 745,997 emergency-affected children (380,418 boys, 365,579 girls, including children with disabilities) in 44 prioritised woredas in Ethiopia.

The theory of change of the ECW programme points out the cause and effect relationship within the results framework. It states the conditionality for increased access as making the learning environment safe and protective, improve children’s readiness for learning by addressing their needs and building the awareness and engagement of communities and parents to support the school.  It posits that learning outcomes will improved if the teaching and learning processes are strengthened and is child-focused, especially those affected by emergency. Retention and transition rates will improve if the focus on the individual child leads to addressing the learning and personal needs of the child and the school provides equitable opportunities for all. Finally, all these will lead to improved learning if the system is well planed and managed, taking into account the special needs of children in difficult  circumstance, especially girls and the most marginalized like children with disabilities.

A ‘whole of school’ approach will be pursued in targeted areas through interventions that will expand access, improve quality and relevance of education, promote retention and transition of learners, and resilience of school communities. School-based interventions will be supported by system-strengthening efforts at all levels of the sector. Relevant capacities of key stakeholders (education sector officials, school management, teachers, community members, learners) will be developed to strengthen conflict and disaster risk sensitivity of education. Key aspects of the education sector (data management, planning, teaching-learning classroom practices, parental-community engagement, school-based early warning systems) will be supported to promote resilience of the sector, institutions, and communities through education.

II. GOAL AND OUTCOMES OF MYRP

The goal of the Multi-Year Resilience Programme is to improve learning through equitable access to relevant (crisis-sensitive) and quality education for emergency-affected children in Ethiopia. The goal will be delivered through four interlinked outcomes built around four strategic priorities (thematic areas), namely: gender, equity, and inclusion; education quality and relevance; retention, transition, and protection; and systems strengthening and resilience.

 The proposed MYRP, through the ECW Seed Funding program and in later years through resources to be mobilized from donors, includes immediate actions to address critical educational needs of internally displaced people (IDP), returnees, host and other emergency affected children and medium to long-term interventions to build the resilience of the education system to support the (re)integration of returnee and relocated children and their host communities. Additionally, the MYRP will include activities aimed at sustaining results delivered through 2017-2019 ECW initial investments in Ethiopia to strengthen refugee teacher systems. 

 III. PURPOSE OF THE BASELINE  

The purpose of this ToR is to call for applications from consulting firms to undertake a baseline assessment of the Multi-Year Resilience Programme with the aim of putting in place benchmarks for comparison of progress made each year for the ECW Seed Funding programme until the end of June 2023 and the long-term MYRP beyond. It will also be used to adjust programme plans and strategies throughout the implementation years. The baseline report will be used by implementing partners, grantees, the MYRP Steering Committee, government and ECW to monitor progress and identify areas of improvement.

IV. SCOPE OF THE BASELINE ASSESSMENT

The detailed needs assessment will only be conducted in the target regions for the Seed Funding- Amhara, Oromiya and Somali. The assessment will:

·         Produce representative data to allow for improved geographic prioritisation, and response planning.

·         Provide a greater understanding of the barrier’s children face in accessing education in the target regions and identify priorities from communities affected by displacement.

·         Provide a status update on the security in each of the three regions, assessing the viability of educational response in very insecure areas e.g. woredas facing ongoing conflict. This includes a map of the shocks and stresses affecting education in the target areas.

·         Evaluate the resilience capability of the education system to cope with and respond to crises, especially the Education Cluster at sub-national level. This will include analysis of the different levels of the educational system - learners, teachers,  parents, woreda and regional education authorities.

·         Assess the current state of learning in classes in emergency contexts (reading and writing skills, teacher capacity, supportive community environment).

·         Assess the linkages between educational response and child protection systems at a local level.

·         Evaluate the types  of educational and well-being outcomes that will be relevant to the planned interventions.

·         Assess the specific needs of vulnerable groups especially out of school girls and children with disabilities and provide recommendations for implementation in the programme.

·         Assess the capacity of the education system to plan, manage and monitor education in emergency.

The other deliverables include:

·         An evaluation of the current indicators in the results framework, based on the need’s assessment and an assessment of the feasibility of tracking these indicators annually.

·         A recommended results framework for the Seed and the MYRP, with proposed means of tracking the indicators for Grantees

·         A revised list of target woredas and beneficiaries based on needs for the Seed and MYRP. This will consider  all available data on displacement in the country e.g. DTM and VAS datasets and factor in government’s prioritisation at a regional level. The targeting must also factor in a balanced and conflict sensitive approach to programming in conflict affected woredas e.g. in areas of cross border conflict, the Seed and MYRP should focus in both areas.

VI. TEAM COMPOSITION 

A.   Profile of Team

The candidate consulting firm needs to have experienced professional/s with the required educational qualification in education at MA level or above. The firm will also be evaluated against its track record in similar areas of work.

 -         A minimum of 10 years of practical work experience in the fields of education 

-       Experience in conducting baseline, mid-term or final evaluations, on similar studies as well as experience of social research and analysis

-         Experience in training and mentoring of qualitative researchers and enumerators.

-         Good analytical skills and report writing experiences to international and national organizations

-         Experience in the region and local knowledge of the country offices the study targets, as well as in the thematic area