Background/Introduction

The African Union (AU) envisions among others, a peaceful and prosperous Africa, integrated, and led by its own citizens and occupying the place it deserves in the global community and in the knowledge economy. Inspired by this vision and the aspirations of AU’s Agenda 2063, the Continental Education strategy (CESA 16-25) (expected to deliver the necessary human capital for the realization of the AU’s vision) recognizes peace and a secure environment as one of its pillars under the mission of reorienting Africa’s education and training systems to meet the knowledge, competencies, skills, innovation and creativity required to nurture African core values and promote sustainable development at the national, sub-regional and continental levels.

CESA 16-25 is operationalizing its programmes through clusters, presently 12 in number, among which is the Peace and Education Cluster. The mandate for this Cluster includes, among others, formulating national policies on peace education and conflict prevention; training stakeholder as peace actors and mediators; learning lessons and developing and disseminating materials on peace education; and reinforcing initiatives and activities of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA)’s Inter-Country Quality Node (ICQN) on Peace Education.

An innovative practice by CESA 16-25: ensuring continuous education for children affected by armed conflict

CESA 16-25 underscores the importance of protecting schools and universities from attacks and military use in order to ensure the continuation of education during war and in post conflict situations in Africa. According to Education For All Global Monitoring Report in 2013 by UNESCO, 44% of the world’s 28.5 million children affected by armed conflict are out of school in sub-Saharan Africa. The vast majority – 95% – live in low and lower-middle income countries of which Africa hosts significant proportions. Girls, who make up 55% of the out of school children, are the worst affected, as they are often victims of rape and other sexual violence that accompanies armed conflicts. Moreover, a number of violations are perpetrated against girls and boys during armed conflict. The violations include recruitment and use of children; killing or maiming of children; sexual violence against children; attacks against schools or hospitals; abduction of children; and denial of humanitarian access.

In response to attacks on schools and universities, and their military use which predisposes them for attacks, CESA 16-25 condemns the practice by both national forces and non-state actors and has identified the Cluster on Peace Education as the appropriate platform to facilitate continuous education during wars and in post conflict situations, towards the attainment of the continental education strategy’s goals and objectives.

Progress made at the AU on the protection of education from attacks and military use

Save the children Pan Africa and AU liaison has been working with the AU Commission to influence policy decisions at the Commission’s department for Human Resources, Science and Technology (AU/HRST) and that of Peace and Security Council (PSC). In the past 4 years, apart from the issue of attacks on education being recognised by CESA and having indicators on monitoring and evaluating attacks adopted in the CESA compendium of indicators; African Ministers of Education in October 2017 adopted a decision on safe schools calling for all member states to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration (SSD) and implement its Guidelines.

The safe schools Guidelines is useful as a tool for preventing attacks on schools as well as for protecting education during and after armed conflict situations. To date, only 28 out of the 55 African member states have endorsed the SSD.

Under the coordination role of Save the Children AU Liaison and Pan Africa Office recruited a international consultant that conducted Continental Safe School Research Report by assessing the state of peace and education in Africa. In this vein this TOR is developed to recruit an international consultant that who will undertake the task of proof reading and editing of the report to ensure the quality of the undertaken work meets all the necessary technical standards for publication. The report has gone through series of reviews and update with necessary information by Save the Children AU Liaison and Pan Africa Office.

The Scope of the responsibilities

The principal tasks under the consultancy will be the following:

• Conduct high-quality (content and language) editing of the Safe School Research report which is finalized and ready for review
• Substantive and organizational editing, to clarify logic and presentation, shorten and streamline content and ensure that the report meets high quality report standard ;
• Correcting typographical errors, punctuation, spelling, grammar and vocabulary;
• Corrections to ensure stylistic consistency, consistency in the use of terminologies, clarity of expression by re-writing where necessary;
• Corrections to ensure consistency in referencing and indication of sources in line with the Guidance, including paraphrasing and rewriting parts when necessary;
• Check facts and ensure error-free texts and raise any related queries with the contact person;
• Ensure that figures, photos, charts, graphs, boxes and tables are correctly identified and cross-referenced in the texts, where applicable, and that data from them are also accurately reflected in the document;
• Create a list of acronyms and ensure correlation between the list and their occurrence throughout the texts; and
• Ensure that footnotes are consistently numbered, appropriately positioned and formatted.

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modelling the SCI values and ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Excellent planning and organizational skills 

Job Requirements

Academic Qualifications and Experience

• BA degree and/ or Masters in Literature, Journalism and related fields in social sciences.
• Comprehensive and documented knowledge of issues related to the issue of Peace and Education in Africa

Years of Experience

• 5 -10 years of work experience research and editorial work related with International Organization.
• Extensive and demonstrated experience in content editing and writing as well as the publication of knowledge products of similar nature.
• Previous experience working with the Africa Union system or other inter-governmental organizations will be considered an advantage.

Language and Other Skills

• Abreast with latest development in the field of child protection
• Familiarity with child protection in emergencies would be beneficial, including advocacy programming at local, national, regional and Pan Africa levels.
• Strong communication skills - both oral and written English and French
• Full command of Microsoft applications, particularly Excel, and other relevant software.

Duration

Estimated duration of the consultancy is__ working days, within the period of …….. The consultancy will be home-based.  

Timeframe Deliverables Duration

(Estimated # of days)

1. Review the report to conduct high level editing of the content and language days
2. Develop a first draft of the report for review by SCIPAO days
3. Incorporate the comments/feedbacks and finalize the report days
4. Develop the final report ready for publication days Tota days

How to Apply

Expression of Interest and application

SCIPAO and PIAULO invite competent individuals to express interest and electronically submit a technical and financial bid to selamawit.amdeberhan@savethechildren.org and Tsion.nega@savethechildren.org not later than March 10/ 2021.