Young Mums Skill Building Curriculum consultancy 186 views0 applications

Terms of Reference

Consultancy: Development and modification of curriculum to support rights-based functional literacy and numeracy through parenting education

About Build Africa:

Build Africa was founded in 1978 as part of International Christian Relief, and has nearly four decades’ experience of helping communities escape poverty. After becoming fully independent we directed our work away from aid relief and towards long-term development through community empowerment. Following the decision to work exclusively in rural Africa, we then changed our name to Build Africa to reflect our focus on sustainable development.

Build Africa believes in the power of education to help end poverty. We work to give children the education they need and fight the inequalities that stand in their way. We partner with remote and rural communities where children are leaving school without vital basic skills. Our unique approach then helps parents and teachers to create sustainable, effective schools and to nurture their children’s learning. For over 20 years we have ensured vulnerable children in Africa get the right infrastructure, teaching and family support so they can get the most from their time at school and go on to lead productive, healthy and happy lives.

Background:

Build Africa is already working hard to help children in Uganda learn to read at school, but now we urgently need to break through the barriers they face at home – supporting over 2,000 young mums to learn life-changing literacy and numeracy skills, as well as access valuable health and nutrition services, so they can help their children not just survive but succeed. In July 2017, we secured a DFID AidMatch contract, allowing us to address these issues. The project, codenamed MumsRead Project, is a 3 year project to be part funded with UK aid from the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and will be implemented in Kiryandongo and Oyam Districts”

Uganda has made strides in the past decade in its socio-economic development efforts, and was one of the first countries to develop its 2015/16–2019/20 national development plan in line with the SDGs[i]. Vision 2040 sets ambitious goals for the country around gender equality and economic prosperity[ii].

However, current figures tell us that women in Uganda are lower on the human development index than men:[iii] they go to school for an average of 2.3 years less[iv], are less likely to receive a secondary education[v] and are more likely to work without pay[vi]. Research shows that mothers with access to a full education go on to be healthier, more economically stable[vii] , have children later[viii] and take better care of those children[ix] , including sending them to school[x]. This in turn addresses one of the root cause of poverty, given that ‘each additional year of schooling raises average annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth by 0.37%’.

The situation is hardest for the rural poor in Uganda, and young mothers, particularly those without partners, remain marginalised from economic and educational opportunities, as well as health services.

Young mothers in Kiryandongo and Oyam sub-counties in Uganda do not have the education or life-skills they need to be active and equitable members of society. Women in Oyam are more likely to be married or have children than they are to be able to read[xi]. This limits their ability to adequately care for their children, disempowering them from participating in household and community decision making and perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

Build Africa has therefore elected to work with 2,243 young mothers (aged 19-29 with one or more child aged 3-9) in these districts. The lower age cap was selected to ensure we did not engage girls for whom a return to school remains a real possibility. We will address their poverty of access to health services, help to rectify their isolation from a full education which contributes to the ongoing cycle of poverty for themselves and their children and the inequality of current cultural decision making structures in the home and community, including decisions on childcare and income generating activities in these agriculture dominated areas as ‘wages, agricultural income and productivity are higher where women involved in agriculture receive a better education’[xii].

Build Africa has been working in Oyam and Kiryandongo since 2002 and has formed strong linkages with these communities. We have engaged the communities in a participatory design process through guided exercises and focus groups. We will support the self-selection of beneficiaries through extensive community mobilisation conducted through traditional structures, community meetings and enrolment at mother-care spaces.

Objectives:

The consultancy will result in a set of training tools to support the development of functional literacy and numeracy skills for young mothers, as well as skills that will help them better support their children’s healthy development, and encourage them to take more ownership over their involvement in household and community activities.

1. With Build Africa staff, form an advisory team to review the design of the content delivery and the content itself. Should be comprised of an outside educationalist, a Build Africa HQ staff member (Head of Project Design and Innovation or Head of Project Implementation), and a project staff member from the Uganda team.
2. Review the notes that Build Africa staff have developed on the design of the programme and what considerations need to be made to ensure equitable and sustained engagement of young mothers in the project.
3. Review the existing content on the relevant topics gathered by Build Africa to serve as the basis for most of the content required. Modify by adding or removing content as appropriate.
4. Review the proposed outline of the sessions and modules contained therein, designed by Build Africa to ensure that we meet the envisioned outcomes of the project. Modify as appropriate.
5. Create the content, integrating learning about rights, child development, parenting, life skills, and literacy and numeracy into one package of content. Develop the content to be delivered a) to young mothers on their own (at Mother care centres when their children are in child care/early child development spaces); and b) in family education environments (at Mother care centres where young mothers and male caregivers come together to session and the children join them at parts)

1. Work with the consultant designing the male caregivers content to ensure the curricula are complementary.
2. As much as possible, integrate co-design components that involve end users in the conceptualisation of the content and its delivery.
3. Ensure that the design of the delivery is based on situated cognition and builds from the theory of cognitive apprenticeship. In other words, learners should be exposed to new ideas, have a chance to reflect together and individually on their meaning and application, make connections between the ideas and their impact on their lived experiences, and practically apply the theory in their every day lives, before returning to the classroom to reflect on challenges and opportunities as a result of their practice. This suggests that the design of the delivery use a methodology lasting many months and cognizant of young (working) mothers’ existing commitments.
4. Relatedly,
5. Every attempt at pedagogy that focuses on student led appreciative and exploratory inquiry should be made.
6. Active learning inside and outside the classroom should be prioritised.

iii. Relevance of the topic and the means of generating knowledge must be paramount.

1. Feed forward pedagogy should also be used: show them the right way to do something first. Then encourage them to model it, both in and outside of the classroom.

1. Pilot test the content with trainers in a ‘table read’ environment before rolling out the full training of trainers to them.
2. Train Build Africa staff on how to train the trainers.
3. Observe a few TOT sessions.

Deliverables:

1. Trainers manual for direct trainings and peer to peer facilitation guide

This manual will need to be developed in an accessible and simple manner with graphics to guide the trainer to key steps in his/her process of running a training, such as prep work, organising trainees, materials required, etc. See the IRC’s Healing Classrooms toolkits for examples of good trainer/facilitator manual design design. The audience for this manual will be the trainers.

Considering the evidence about the efficacy of peer-to-peer learning, design a complementary peer-to-peer facilitation guide that will help trainers work with volunteer mothers to lead periodic sessions that will complement their formal learning sessions. The purpose of the sessions is to bring mums together to reflect on what they are learning in the classroom, their challenges with the theory and practical application, to help one another, and to share their successes. The audience for this guide will be the trainers and volunteer mothers who are co-facilitating.

1. Participant toolkit for direct trainings and peer to peer learning

This toolkit will comprise any reference tools (such as glossaries), workbooks, or handouts that the young mothers will require to do their work and develop their skills.

1. TOT manual for staff to use to train the trainers

This is a guide for Build Africa staff to help them understand the various manuals and to guide them through the process for training the trainers.

Timeframe:

The consultant should allocate approximately 30 days to content development and finalisation, inclusive of piloting. The remaining 5 days should be used for training Build Africa staff and reviewing and feeding back on training sessions, as well as reviewing and quality assurance of the materials after they have been copy edited and graphically designed and before printing.

Level of effort: 35 working days

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in education, adult learning, educational psychology, or related topics
• Proven expertise in adult learning, gender inclusion, and related topics
• Experience designing and/or delivering training programmes for adult learners
• Past experience with curriculum design
• Excellent written English.
• Experience working on programmes inclusive of life skills, parenting skills, early childhood development skills, and/or teacher training
• Familiarity with and use of active learning pedagogies
• Southern Luo (Lango, Acholi) and/or Nyoro or Ruuli language skills would be helpful.

[i] UNDP in Uganda, http://www.ug.undp.org/content/uganda/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html

[ii] Uganda Vision 2040

[iii] Female rate: 0.459, Male: 0.523, http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/UGA

[iv] Mean years in school for men are 6.8, compared to 4.5 for women, http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/UGA

[v] 25.9% of women compared to 32.1% of men, http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/UG

[vi] Oyam District Statistical Abstract for 2012/13

[vii] Global Partnership for Education ‘One extra year of schooling increases an individual’s earnings by up to 10%.’, http://www.globalpartnership.org/education/the-benefits-of-education

[viii] Global Partnership for Education ‘If all girls had secondary education, child marriage would drop by 64%’, http://www.globalpartnership.org/education/the-benefits-of-education

[ix] Global Partnership for Education, ‘Children of educated mothers are more likely to be vaccinated and less likely to be stunted because of malnourishment’. ‘In sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 1.8 million children’s lives could be saved if their mothers had at least secondary education’, http://www.globalpartnership.org/education/the-benefits-of-education

[x] http://www.uwezo.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Uwezo2014-ALA-UG-FINAL-web.pdf – Finds that parental levels of education and literacy affect enrolment age, drop-out rates and children’s literacy rates.

[xi] In Oyam only 32% of women are literate (Oyam District Statistical Abstract for 2012/13) but Over half of 20-49 year old women are married in the Easter Region of Uganda and 45% of girls from poor rural areas have a child before they are 18 years old (Unicef Uganda, National Strategy on Child Marriage)

[xii] Global Partnership for Education, http://www.globalpartnership.org/education/the-benefits-of-education

How to apply:

How to apply:

The proposal/ bid must be submitted by 30th March 2018 at 17:00 hrs East Africa time via email to Fred Semyalo, Head of Programs ; [email protected]. It should include the finance/ budget proposal and the narrative. Please include 3 referees for previous works of similar nature

Consultants must have an existing legal right or hold the relevant visa to work in Uganda.

The selected consultant(s) will be chosen based on their relevant experience, robustness of their submission, availability as well as overall cost effectiveness.

N.B: This consultancy will be offered subject to final DFID approval of this project