The Somali Region, experiences multidimensional child poverty and significant deprivation in access to equitable education and child protection services essential services such as equitable access to equitable education and child protection services. services. Vulnerable children, including orphans, street children, children with disabilities (CwD), CwD), out-of-school children (OOSC), internally displaced children, returnees, and those exposed to chronic illness, child labor, GBV, and harmful traditional practices, remain disproportionately affected. According to the 2020 UNICEF-CSA report, the Somali Region has the highest rate of child poverty in Ethiopia, with over 70% of school-aged children experiencing education deprivation. CAAP, a registered local NGO, is designing an inclusive model boarding school program for OVC in Gode town. However, a critical data gap persists in understanding the current access, barriers, and educational needs among OVC. This assessment aims to generate evidence to inform context-appropriate inclusive and equitable education services for OVC.

Overall Objective: To assess the access, quality, barriers, and service needs related to education for OVC in Gode Town and generate recommendations for inclusive & equitable education programming for OVC

Specific Objectives:

• Develop appropriate tools and methodologies for the assessment, aligned with research ethics.

• Assess current OVC enrollment, attendance, dropout, retention, re-enrollment, and academic performance by gender, age, disability, and location.

• Assess availability and quality of infrastructure and services including school/classroom functionality, WASH, MHM, learning materials, foundational skills, digital access, and other indicators required to inform inclusive and equitable education services for OVC

• Map existing services related to education, psychosocial support, protection, referral pathways.

• Evaluate the capacity of schools and community systems to meet OVC education needs.

• Assess the perceptions and lived experiences of OVC, caregivers, and community members.

• Produce a detailed, actionable report including scalable and inclusive education models.

3. Scope of Work:

The consultant/firm will be responsible for carrying out a comprehensive assessment of the education situation of OVC in Gode Town. This includes conducting an in-depth desk review to identify data gaps, designing a contextually appropriate research methodology, and developing relevant data collection tools. The consultant will train and manage enumerators, oversee primary data collection, and ensure accurate data entry and analysis. The assessment will focus on Gode Town with comparative sampling from nearby kebeles and will involve engagement with key stakeholders at regional and local levels, including government bureaus, school management, community and child-focused organizations. Field visits will be conducted to formal (public, private, and religious) and non-formal (ABE) schools and learning centers to gather primary data on key indicators such as enrollment, attendance, staffing, infrastructure, and service availability. The consultant will profile various OVC categories and ensure the use of standardized tools endorsed by MoE, UNICEF, and the Education Cluster. Data will be disaggregated by gender, age, disability, and location, and findings will be triangulated across sources. The assignment will also integrate cross-cutting themes such as gender equality, disability inclusion, and conflict sensitivity, and explore linkages between education and related sectors like health, nutrition, child protection, and GBV. The consultant will facilitate validation workshops at city and regional levels and will be responsible for submitting all required deliverables including a final report, policy brief, infographic, and child-friendly summary in both editable and PDF formats.

4. Methodology:

The methodology will be gender-sensitive, disability-inclusive, and aligned with national and international child protection and research ethics involving OVC.

• Use a mixed-methods approach, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative tools.

• Quantitative methods: Household surveys, school surveys, service mapping, enrollment, or other tools to gather numerical data on prevalence, access, and other relevant indicators.

• Qualitative methods: FGDs, KIIs, Participatory tools with children, case studies, or other methods to gather in-depth information on experiences, perspectives, and contextual factors.

• Ensure meaningful participation of adolescent girls, children with disabilities, and minority groups using child-friendly, culturally appropriate tools.

• Follow national and international guidelines on ethical data collection with children and vulnerable populations.

• Ensure data is disaggregated by sex, age, disability, location, to identify specific vulnerabilities.

5. Ethical Considerations

• Compliance with IASC, MoE, UNICEF protocols on research ethics, safeguarding, PSEA and data confidentiality.

• Obtain ethical clearance from relevant regional authorities (BoWCA, BoLSA, REB).

• Ensure culturally appropriate engagement and do-no-harm principles.

• Obtain informed consent and assent.

6. Deliverables and payment schedule

# Deliverable Timeline Payment

• Inception report Day 7 30% upon approval

• Final Data Collection Tools Day 8 Included in 1st milestone

• Preliminary Results Presentation Day 25 Included in 2nd milestone

• Draft Report Day 27 30% upon draft submission & validation workshop

• Validation Workshop Report Day 32 Included in 2nd milestone

• Final Report Day 40 40% upon final report approval

• 7 2-page Summary brief & infographic Day 40 Included in final milestone

• Inception Report: Detailed assessment proposal, gaps from the desk review that the assessment would seek to address., a comprehensive risk assessment (covering child safeguarding, PSEA, and safety risk mitigation), ethical review clearance, quality assurance plan, and a full methodology outlining data sources and proposed assessment sites.

• Final Data Collection Tools: such as questionnaires, data input matrices, datasets, guides and enumerator training materials, shall be finalized, pretested, contextually adapted, and approved

• Preliminary Results Presentation: A PowerPoint presentation highlighting key findings, emerging trends, and initial recommendations will be prepared and delivered to key stakeholders

• Draft Report: Include the full methodology, key findings, initial conclusions, and draft recommendations for review and feedback.

• Validation Workshops: Two validation workshops, one at the city level and another at the regional level, to present and validate the findings, collect feedback, and refine recommendations

• Final Report: A comprehensive and well-structured final report will be submitted. It will detail the methodology, key findings, analysis, conclusions, and actionable recommendations.

• Summary Brief (2 pages): A concise two-page summary highlighting the key findings, recommendations, and infographic visualization of the assessment

7. Management and Coordination

• The Consultant will report to the CAAP MEAL Coordinator

• A Technical Working Group comprising BoE, BoWCA, BoLSA, GBV/CP AOR, Education cluster, and relevant child-focused organizations will provide oversight and technical input.

• Any delays must be reported at least 10 days in advance. Late submissions without justification will incur penalties (0.5% daily).

• Copyright of all outputs will be retained by CAAP. No dissemination without written consent.

Job Requirements

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Lead Consultant: Degree in Social Sciences, or related field; 5+ years in assessment, evaluations.

• Data Analyst: Degree in Statistics/Information Systems with 3+ years’ experience.

• Data Collectors: Relevant degrees, 1+ year of field data experience.

• Team Composition: Must include experts in Education, Gender, and Disability Inclusion.

• Experience in Somali Region, OVC programming and participatory methodologies preferred.

• Strong knowledge of statistical tools (SPSS, STATA, R), GIS, MS Excel (e.g. pivot tables, functions)

• Proven technical expertise for managing data entry and storage, for analysing diverse datasets, and presenting information in user-friendly tables, charts, maps, graphs and reports; proven skills in using GIS and map-making packages.

• Excellent writing and analytical skills.

• Provide at least one previous sample report from a similar assignment.

• Fluency in Somali and English is mandatory.

• All licenses and registrations must be valid and up to date (VAT/TIN/Business License).

• Only listed team members in the proposal must carry out the assignment.

How To Apply

Interested applicants must submit a complete application package in PDF format, including the following:

Cover Letter: A formal letter on official letterhead, duly signed and stamped, confirming the applicant’s availability, acceptance of the ToR, and legal eligibility to undertake the assignment.

Legal Documentation: Copies of valid business license, TIN, VAT/TOT certificates, and any other relevant legal or regulatory certifications.

Technical Proposal: A comprehensive technical proposal demonstrating a clear understanding of the ToR. This should outline the proposed methodology, sampling, work plan, ethics and safeguarding approach, team structure, and roles and CV summaries of all proposed team members, highlighting their qualifications, relevant experience, and designated responsibilities and ethics and Safeguarding Protocols describing measures to ensure full compliance with research ethics, child safeguarding, and protection from sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA).

Team Composition: The proposed team must include, at a minimum: one lead consultant, one data analyst, and three subject matter experts in Education, Gender, and Disability Inclusion, along with ten qualified data collectors.

 Financial Proposal: An itemized budget presented in ETB, detailing all costs associated with delivering the assignment.

 References: Contact details (name, phone, and email) of at least two professional references from comparable assignments.

Please note that only electronic submissions in PDF format will be accepted. Hard copy or physical submissions will not be considered.

CAAP reserves the right to reject any or all applications and may cancel or modify the selection process without obligation to provide a reason. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

10. Submission Deadline

All applications should be submitted in PDF format to: hr@caapeth.org Deadline: July 8, 2025 – 5:00 PM EAT