International Education Consultant to Lead the Development of a Federal Ministry of Education of Nigeria, SBC strategy at UNICEF

UNICEF contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria with a mandate to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.

UNICEF’s Nigeria country programme:

Aims to accelerate the realization of the rights of all children and women to survival, development, protection and participation.
Promotes efforts to reduce infant, child and maternal mortality; expand access to quality basic education; and strengthen social and child protection systems.
Uses a rights-based and gender-sensitive approach
Plays a catalytic role in supporting federal, state and local governments in identifying key bottlenecks that hinder realization of the rights of disadvantaged children, supported by equity-focused, inclusive advocacy, planning, action and monitoring at all levels.
Supports adolescent development.Background:

Nigeria is home to approximately 206 million people, 43 per cent of whom are below 14 years of age. By 2030, there will be close to 126 million children in Nigeria. The growing child population places significant pressure on the provision of schooling and the delivery of education services. Despite the progress made in the past years, 10.2 million children of primary school age and 8.1 million children of junior secondary school age remain out of school. Due to the limited access to schooling and poor quality of education, about 75 per cent of children aged 7–14 do not develop foundational literacy and numeracy skills, which are critical building blocks for continued learning and acquisition of advanced skills. Insecurities such as armed conflicts and natural hazards in Northeast and Northwest of Nigeria poses additional challenges in securing and expanding access to quality, inclusive education for children in Nigeria.
Education is being transformed in Nigeria, specifically though the NESRI initiative. This is the Nigerian education sector reform initiative and focuses on six key education reform areas: These areas are Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medical Sciences (STEMM education), reducing the number of Out-of-School Children, Enhancing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), advancing Girl-Child Education, Harnessing Data and Digitalization and Strengthening Quality Assurance Mechanisms. Alongside these reform areas, there is also significant work taking place in social behavior change initiatives at Federal, State, LGA. School and community levels. The FME has requested the support of a technical specialist in SBC in the development of a national SBC strategy. Therefore, UNICEF seeks an international consultant to support FME in this development.

How can you make a difference? 

Scope of work

The scope of work for this consultancy is to:

Develop a national SBC strategy with leadership and guidance from the FME. This will include four parts:

The development of a rapid needs assessment which will provide evidence for strategy development
The development of the strategy  
Validation workshop with FME and all stakeholders
Dissemination of the strategy to selected States

Co-lead a series of (at least 2) high-level technical workshops with FME who will provide input and guidance on all four parts of the development (as stated above)
Provide up-to-date ideas on SBC implementation strategies to the technical group through-out the consultancy.

Work Assignment Overview:

Task/work area

 The development of a rapid needs assessment which will provide evidence for strategy development.

Deliverables/Outputs

Rapid needs assessment report
The development of the national strategy

Deliverables/Outputs

Draft strategy submitted
Validation workshop with FME and all stakeholders

Deliverables/Outputs

Workshop programme submitted. Workshop facilitated.
Dissemination of the strategy to selected States.

Deliverables/Outputs

Dissemination plan/programme and dissemination to one State

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

Minimum requirements:

Advanced university degree in Communication, advocacy and social behaviors change.
At least ten years of leading/managing SBC programmes at a senior level
Experience in developing SBC strategies in international contexts
Experience in supporting Governments to develop national SBC strategies.
Experience in working with Ministries of Education an assets
Experiences in working in Nigeria or other sub-Saharan African countries an asset.
Experience of working with UNICEF in SBC roles an asset