READ II PROJECT
VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICE
Creative Associates Overview:
Creative Associates International is a dynamic, fast-growing global development firm that specializes in education, economic growth, democratic institutions and stabilization. Based in Washington, D.C., Creative has a field presence in more than 25 countries with a strong client portfolio that includes the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department, among others. Since its founding in 1977, Creative has earned a solid reputation among its clients and is well-regarded by competitors and partners alike.
Program Overview:
The five-year READ II project, funded by USAID, will boost the quality of literacy instruction and student support, reaching out to children at risk of failure and dropout caused by cognitive, emotional and physical effects of hunger, violence, and displacement. READ II seeks to better equip teachers with effective early grade reading instruction techniques and materials in seven mother-tongue languages and English, while simultaneously building a culture of reading in the school, home and community.
READ II's overall objective is to contribute to USAID/Ethiopia’s goal of improving the reading proficiency of 15 million children by 2023, with a focus on six target regions - Addis Ababa, Amhara, Oromia, Somali, SNNPR, and Tigray.
The overall objective is supported by three intermediate results:
READ II’s objective is supported by two cross-cutting and complementary components: interventions that can meaningfully and measurably prepare a range of vulnerable and at-risk students to succeed; and contribute to the implementation of a structured gender approach to increase boys' and girls' grade retention and grade progression at key grades in key regions or zones.
READ II supports grade 1-8 students, teachers, and communities. In order to inform the design of cross-cutting project interventions for project years 2-5, READ II will conduct a rapid assessment in the six regions of intervention. A Lead Researcher will be recruited to assist READ II in developing data collection tools, training and overseeing data collectors, rapidly conducting data collection, cleaning and compiling data, and writing the report.
Scope of work for the Consultancy Service: Rapid Assessment in Six Regions
Consultancy Overall Objectives
Overall and Specific Objectives of the Rapid Assessment
The overall goal of the rapid assessment is to gather information on school systems to evaluate how adolescent girls and vulnerable and at-risk students are supported and gender-equitable policies and practices are implemented; as well as to conduct focus-group discussions (FGD) and key-informant interviews (KII) to assess attitudes and practices that either hinder or foster a positive learning environment and equal participation of all students, regardless of sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, religion, appearance, or disabilities.
Specific Objectives are:
Assessment Design:
A purposeful, convenience sample will be conducted, attempting to get information from as many woredas whose demographics and cultures are different. School-level data will be collected from as many schools as possible from 50 woredas. FGDs and KIIs will be conducted by consultants and/or counterparts from the MOE, REBs and woreda representatives.
Basic Consultancy Information
Consultant Qualifications
Master’s degree or above in Demographics, Social Sciences, Development studies or related fields, proven or demonstrated experience in the areas qualitative research, gender analyses, gender and vulnerable children interventions, and knowledge of the Ethiopian rural context. Fluency in written English, and multilingual an asset.
Deliverables
The consultant will be responsible for preparation of the Data Collectors Training Guide and finalization of the data collection tools, as well as conducting the training of data collectors. The consultant will be responsible for the Methods Section, the Results Section, and contributions to the Discussion Section of the final report. The final report will be a comprehensive analysis of how well vulnerable and at-risk students are supported by school systems and gender-equitable policies and practices are implemented; as well as to assess factors in school success and retention, attitudes and practices that either hinder or foster a positive learning environment and equal participation of all students, regardless of sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, religion, appearance, or disabilities. The report will highlight regional differences, and will include recommendations for programming.
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