Closing date 15 Nov 2023
1. RATIONALE

The Madrasa Early Childhood Programme in Uganda (MECPU) in partnership with the Aga Khan Foundation and the ELMA Foundation will be implementing the Quality Responsive Care and Early Learning (QRCEL) project in Mukono, Wakiso and Luweero districts of Uganda. MECPU will implement interrelated approaches that focus on enhancing community support, improving access to Early Childhood Development (ECD) services, and strengthening systems for service provision and policymaking.

This Terms of Reference (ToR) serves as a request for a consultant to support the process of enabling Sub local government partners to self-identify where their team and institution is achieving, where challenges exist, and potential areas to improve using the Government Performance Index (GPI) developed and piloted under Foundations for Learning (F4L) in 2022. The GPI is a rigorous and inclusive process that process that enables government partners to self-identify where their team and institution is achieving, where challenges exist, and potential areas to improve. It is anticipated that when the Local Governments use the GPI process, they will be able to self-identify how they can overcome institutional and technical barriers to ECD service delivery in their districts and therefore develop their Institutional Development Plan. MECP will then support the implementation of the IDP but only in the three target districts through a flexible funding approach. The plan is to cover 10 districts but MECP will initially start in the three AKF target districts of Luwero, Kampala and Mukono in Year 1 before moving to the seven other districts where ELMA invests with other partners in early Year 2 of the project.

2.Project Background
QRCEL project aims at improving the quality of ECD support and services in Mukono, Wakiso and Luweero districts. MECP will use interrelated approaches that focus on improving access to ECD services and strengthening systems for service provision and policymaking. Specifically, QRCEL will aim to:
i.Enable sub-national and national leaders to develop their knowledge and skills to support quality ECD service provision.
ii.Strengthen the institutional capacity of sub-national government to support the delivery of quality ECD service provision.
iii.Collaborate with ECD centres to design cost-effective solutions for improving the quality of early learning environments and services for children.
iv.Co-creating and communicating evidence of ‘What Works to Improve Learning Environments and Learning Outcomes’ for young children in ECD centres to inform policy and practice.

3.Overall Goal/Scope of work

The Consultant MECP is seeking to bring on board will specifically:
i.Lead government partners to self-identify where their team and institution is achieving, where challenges exist, and potential areas to improve.
ii.Lead the local governments of three Districts in the first one year to priorities their needs and challenges and identify solutions for overcoming the challenges.
iii.Support the local governments to develop Institutional Development Plans (IDP). Under this partnership,
iv.Deliver reports on the process, the developed plans including innovations and learnings from the process.
v.Collaborate with the MECPU staff and partners on the project plus sub national government leaders. This will entail virtual calls and face to face meetings for cross-learning purposes.

4.Specific objectives for the Consultant

Specifically, the consultant will:
1.Lead the subnational government partners to use the GPI process to self-identify how they can overcome institutional and technical barriers to deliver against these priorities.
2.Support the districts to develop a second Institutional Development Plan.
3.support Sub-national partners, to present on how they have addressed issues through national forums to share how they have been able to achieve and give recommendations on how this could be replicated by other sub-national government.
4.Coordinate bi-monthly catch-up meetings with MECP and AKF and other representatives as deemed necessary.

5.Duration
The partnership is valid for six months from the date of offer.

6.Expected deliverables.
1.Inception Report and proposed plan of delivering on the assignment.
2.Report on the GPI processes with clear priorities and needs
3.District Development plans ready to be implemented.
4.Final report

7.Roles of MECPU/AKF
Provide Consultant with relevant project documents.
Meet agreed costs related to the Consultancy.
Provide timely feedback to the Consultant.

8.Activity schedule:

SN Date Activity
1 15th November 2023 Submission of proposals both technical and financial by partner.
2 25th Nov 2023 Signing partnership agreement for assignment.
3 10th Dec 2023 Inception plan.
4 15th December 2023 Planning meeting with the reporting partner to brief on activities/work plan.
7 12th February 2024 Submission of interim report on the GPI Assessment
8 15th March 2024 Submission of the IDP plans for the three districts
Review of report by MECPU/AKF by 30th March 2024
9 15th April 2024 Final reports submission:
12 TBD: Two full-day physical meetings and Two remote calls

18 Monthly (every second Wed in a month) Reflection meetings with the consultant. Updates on the report and planned activities for completion

9.Key Qualifications and Experience
Academic qualification: A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in any field related to the role.
Experience: A minimum of 3 years’ experience in conducting assessments.
The Consultant should be an institution or organisation registered in Uganda that works with Local partners.
The Consultant should have human resources (the team with capacity and related expertise in Education or Early Childhood Development) to carry out this assignment.

10.Budget
The budget will be based on need to complete the deliverables but will not exceed the pre-approved budget under the Project approved budget.

Payment terms