Country: South Africa
City: Pretoria
Organisation: UN Children's Fund
Theme: Education
Job years of experience: 5-10 years
Closing date: 20 Feb 2013
TERMS OF REFERENCE
Assignment Assessment of the
National South African Early Childhood Development Awards.
Location South Africa Duration 3 months
Estimate number of working days 60 days Start date
1st March 2013 End date 30th April
2013 Reporting to Education Specialist Closing date for proposals 20th February
2013
Justification/Background
The South African Early Childhood
Development Awards (SAECD Awards) started in 2003 as the ABSA SOWETAN ECD
Awards. The name change came about as a result of increased interest by other
ECD donors and development partners to participate and support the Awards. The
current Partners of the ECD Awards are, ABSA Bank, South African Congress for
Early Childhood Development, Jim Joel Fund, and the Departments of Basic
Education, Social Development UNICEF. Representatives from each of these
partners form the Awards Steering Committee. The Awards main objective is to
recognise best practice in the ECD sector and encourage the provision of quality
ECD services and programmes for the benefit of the young children of the
country. There are five categories of the Awards:
Best ECD Centre of the Year
Best ECD Practitioner of the Year
Best ECD Trainer of the Year
Best Publication of the Yea
Best ECD Intervention Programme
Partners contribute prizes for
each of the above categories as agreed upon by the Steering Committee
Recognition of best practice and outstanding participation in ECD is conducted
through participants entering themselves or being nominated to enter a
particular Award category. Selection commences at provincial level and
culminates to national level. Short listed candidates are interviewed and
verification visits to the programme sites are conducted where applicable. Final
short listed winners attend a national ceremony where finalists are awarded
their prizes. Recipients of the Awards are Trainers, Practitioners, ECD Centres
and Publishers of books for children birth to five. Prizes are used to enhance
the work of the ECD programmes that the prize recipients are involved in.
The Awards also provide a platform for:
• Participants to strengthen their
understanding of the importance of quality care, protection and early
stimulation in ECD.
• Advocacy and information dissemination, the
awards provide a communication strategy on the importance of the early years
and how to intervene in a child’s life for better child development outcomes
socially , cognitively, physically, and emotionally.
1.1. Objectives of the assessment the
objectives for the study are to: a. Assess the contribution that the Awards are
making in improving the quality of ECD provisioning. b. Provide a historical
record of the Awards from 2003 to 2012 c. Through an analysis of evidence
obtained from participants the assessment will provide evidence on the benefits
of the Awards. d. Provide information on the effectiveness of the Awards
partnership model
1.2. At this stage of the Awards
history this assignment is important and is a critical exercise that will. a.
assist in creating a base line for the awards. b. contribute to an
understanding of the issues and challenges regarding sustainability of the
Awards c. provide information about the Awards that can be shared with relevant
role players and stakeholders d. contribute to the awareness about the Awards.
e. provide previous winners an opportunity to share their perspectives about
the awards. f. Provide evidence about how the Award prizes have been used g.
Help to assess from a business perspective how the awards are an investment in
the sector. h. provide recommendations on how the Awards can be improved
Scope of the Work:
2.1 The work assignment will
entail documenting the Awards history, procedures and provide an analytical
assessment of the specific contributions that the Awards are making to the ECD
sector since their inception in 2003.
2.2 The Awards procedures and the
various categories will be examined and assessed to understand their relevance
and contribution to ECD.
2.3 The assessment will also
involve providing specific and general recommendations on the relevance of the
Awards, procedures, awards components, partnership, sustainability and impact
in the ECD sector.
2.4 The Awards data base has
approximately 320 finalists and recipients of the Awards prizes the assessment
will target 30 recipients and their sites as case studies to determine in
particular the benefit of the Awards to recipients and their programmes.
Methodology:
The study methodology will include
document analysis and conducting interviews at national and provincial levels.
Interviews will be conducted with various role players in the Awards, including
entrants, finalists and winners of the Awards, service providers involved in
Capacity and training programmes
for the finalists, and all partners of the Awards. Using the available data
base of provincial and national applicants for the different Award categories,
sampling will have to be applied to conduct interviews, using a set criteria to
ensure equitable representation of for example the provinces and the different
Awards categories.
Expected Deliverables:
At the end of the assignment it is
expected from the service provider to submit: a) Data base for the Awards
recipients b) Information brochure for the Awards c) A completed report of the
assessment with all the relevant sections d) A power point presentation of the
assessment report. e) A final and consolidated report of the review consisting
of the following sections: • Executive summary • Introduction • Methodology •
Findings • Analysis of findings • Recommendations • Conclusion • References •
Annexure
Desired Background and Experience:
Knowledge and experience in research of at least five years with proven
experience in conducting evaluations and assessments
An advanced Degree in Education or Social Science.
Knowledge and experience of the Early Childhood Development sector in South Africa
is required.
Excellent administrative skills.
Good skills in Microsoft Word.
Excellent analytical, conceptual and facilitation skills
Excellent and concise writing skills
Willingness to travel and valid driver’s license
Ability and commitment to work to a tight time frame
Call for proposals:
Proposals will be called from researchers
who will be able to complete the assignment successfully.
The selection of the service
provider will be done by the SAECD Awards Steering Committee.
The proposals called for to
include the following: (a) Project Description indicating how the service
provider analyses the work that will be done and how to go about in achieving
the deliverables. This part should show sufficient evidence that the service
provider understands the works assignment at hand; has analysed the amount of
work to be done realistically; has the capacity to implement the work
assignment; amongst others. A mere repetition of the Terms of Reference is not
acceptable. (b) Broad Plan of Action against timeframes and the terms of
reference provided. (c) Budget for the assignment based on the major
activities. Provide as much details as possible. (e) The proposal shall be
signed and initialed on every page.
In addition to the proposal the following is required from:
(a) Individual Service Providers -
Curriculum Vitae - Application letter - P11 form
All proposals shall be submitted
electronically to (UNICEF Procurement details to be inserted) before or on the
deadline that will be provided. No late submissions will be accepted.
Evaluation weighting
_60% technical
_40% financial
100% total
(Usually, 60% technical / 40% financial is recommended)
8 Conditions •
Local travel and airport transfers (where
applicable) will be covered in accordance with UNICEF’s rules and tariffs.
• Flight costs where applicable will be
covered at economy class rate as per UNICEF policies.
• Please also see UNICEF’s
Standard Terms and Conditions attached.
8.1 The payment schedule will be
as follows:
• 40% on submission of preliminary
report
t • 60% of the total fee after satisfactory
completion of the assignment and submission of satisfactory final report.
How to apply:
Enquiries: Please direct any
enquiries to: safpretoriavacancy@unicef.org Applications with all supporting
documents (application letter, CV, P-11 form) should be addressed to:
safpretoriavacancy@unicef.org with the subject line “Early Childhood
Development Awards” deadline for submission: 20 February 2013 Only South
African Nationals/candidates who have permanent residence/temporary residence
and/or valid work permit for the duration of the contract will be considered.
If you have not been contacted
within one month of the closing date, please accept that your application was
unsuccessful. Only short listed candidates will be contacted and regret emails
will only be sent to interviewed candidates.
