Background

UNDP is the development arm of the United Nations system, with offices in 180 countries. Globally, the organization employs 17,000 people and manages a budget of USD 5 billion each year.

The UNDP office in Skopje employs a team of 65 and currently manages a portfolio of projects in environmental protection, good governance and social inclusion worth USD 15 million per year.

UNDP is seeking an international consultant specialized in inclusive education to conduct an assessment of current state of activities related to the educational/ personal assistants in the country and provide recommendations, based on the existing practices and country context on the sustainable models to be of use to country’s policy makers.

The country’s decentralized system of local government aims to improve the quality, efficiency and inclusiveness of public services by bringing local governments closer to the people. However, many municipalities struggle to fulfill their responsibilities for social protection, education and healthcare. The 2012 saw the introduction of an innovative programme challenging social exclusion on two fronts at once. The Community Works Programme (CWP) was designed to tackle social exclusion by offering unemployed people the opportunity to gain valuable working skills while providing services to those who are most at risk of social exclusion. Piloted in 4 municipalities, by UNDP, the programme very soon gain in popularity among municipalities, and it’s eight cycle of implementation 2018 CWP covers 56 municipalities. Nowadays it is an integral part of the country’s employment strategy and is one of the active labour market measures stated in the Operational Employment Plan of the Government.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the Employment Service Agency and UNDP continue to join forces to build an innovative approach, which will support social services provision at local level and encourage gradual inclusion of the most vulnerable citizens in the labour market. Thus, the specific activities eligible under CWP primarily target the elderly people; pre-school children, children and people with disabilities; citizens of rural areas and elderly.

In addition, the joint project “Deinstitutionalization of persons with disabilities in the Strumica region” aimed to develop models of education, employment, social and health services to facilitate independent living of persons with disabilities is supported by the global UN Partnership for the rights of People with Disabilities, since the country has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in 2011. The UNCRPD states that country must ensure an inclusive education system at all levels (Article 24, para.1). All children and young people rely on teachers and non-teaching staff to enable their learning and participation in school. Non-teaching staff (learning support assistants, teaching assistants or similar) play a vital role for successfully engagement in every aspect of compulsory and post compulsory education.

Moreover, a new four-year project funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, to be implemented by UNDP, in one of the main objectives shall work to generate innovative policy and programming solutions to help Roma and persons with disabilities to access the labour market while promoting services for broader social inclusion.

Based on that, a model that envisaged presence of highly professional staff in the classrooms, assisting all categories of children with low educational attainment, focusing on disabled children was introduced as part of the 2016 Community Works Programme (CWP), where UNDP supported this kind of initiatives in 2 municipalities-Kumanovo and Strumica. Looking at possibilities for further upscaling and institutionalization of assistants’ role in 2017 CWP cycle, 140 educational and personal assistants have been trained and engaged in 18 municipalities. Following the high interest among the municipalities in 2018 cycle of the programme, 334 assistants are involved in 38 municipalities. All of them completed training modules developed in the previous year.  Further, careful analyses of the possible role and tasks of the educational and personal assistants within the educational system is required, complementing it with provision of consultative and advisory support to families and children, especially Roma children, for regular attendance on classes, and by thus completing education.

UNDP believe that inclusive education in action means: empowering teacher and empowering learners, but also families and communities. By drawing policy recommendations and/or guidance notes on the key inclusive and educationally -related principles, better conditions and results can be ensured for all in the country. 

Purpose of the consultancy

Objective of the Assignment

The overall aim of this consultancy is to support the UNDP to establish a common framework for analyzing how assistance is organized in schools and understanding, if not improving, its contribution to inclusive education. The consultant is expected to review the current policy setting, and by exploring, provide recommendation on possible models for restructuring assistance in schools, so the education systems can transform in ways which uphold the rights, as stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In doing so, the bottlenecks in the related field will be identified and policy recommendations and/or guidance notes on the issues will be drawn. Also, researching the current situation with the types of assistance provided, can bring up challenges faced by the all involved parties.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The methodology of work will consist of desk review of relevant project documentation and direct consultations with the project team and other key local stakeholders involved during the assignment. Guidance material will be provided by UNDP and will include, but not be limited to the following:

• Project Document “Creating Job Opportunities for All-III”
• Operational Guidelines for Community Works Programme
• Success stories “Community Works Programme”

The consultant should take the following elements into account for the gathering and analysis of data:

• Desk review of relevant documents for this assignment
• Discussion with the following focus groups:

(1) focus group of municipal coordinators (app. 10 coordinators) representing the municipalities where provision of services to children with disabilities enrolled in schools has been implemented, and

(2) focus group of providers of service subdivided on (a) educational and personal assistants (b) end-beneficiaries including the parents of children with disabilities and c) school professionals where educational assistants provide services.  If needed, a visit to a school(s) where the service is implemented can be organized

Expected outputs and deliverables:

The consultancy is expected to deliver the following outputs:

Institutional arrangment

The consultant will work under direct supervision by the UNDP Social Inclusion Unit Staff. He/she will be in regular communication with the supervisor through e-mail and will provide regular progress reports on bi-weekly basis. All communication and reports will need to be prepared in English language. UNDP Social Inclusion Unit Staff estimated lead time to review outputs, give comments, certify approval/acceptance of outputs, etc. shall be within 5 working days.

In course of performing his/her job, the consultant will need to meet with the Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the Employment Service Agency in the country. The UNDP office will assist with scheduling these meetings.

Duration of the work

The assignment shall commence on 30th of July 2019 and the tasks should be completed latest by 30th of September 2019.

Duty station and travel

Total estimated time for this assignment is 10 working days, out of which 3 days in Skopje and 7 days home-based. Three days in Skopje will be used for discussions with national institutions and with focus groups.

If unforeseen travel is requested by UNDP and not required by the Terms of References (ToR), such travel shall be covered by UNDP in line with applicable rules and regulations and upon prior written agreement.

Competencies

• Excellent communications and facilitation skills;
• Excellent analytical and negotiation skills.
• Excellent public speaking and presentation skills.

Required Skills and Experience

The selected candidates shall possess:

• Advanced university degree in development studies, social science, education, inclusion of people/children with disabilities and related areas;
• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible relevant experience in related fields of development, social science, education, inclusion of people/children with disabilities and related areas;
• Record of participation in at least 3 assignments of similar size and degree of complexity, such as participation in designing services for people/children with disability, preparation and/or analysis of services for people/children with disability etc.;
• Experience in developing and implementation of projects/ programmes/activities in the area of on social science, education, inclusion of people/children with disabilities or related topics;
• Participation in national/ international bodies or/ and associations working on education, inclusion of people/children with disabilities and related areas, shall be considered asset
• Excellent writing and oral communication skills in English.

Criteria for selection of best offer

The award of the contract shall be made to the offeror whose offer has been evaluated and determined using Cumulative analysis methodology. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) Being responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) Having received the highest score based on the following weight of technical and financial criteria for solicitation as per the schedule below:

* Technical criteria weight: 70%

* Financial criteria weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70%) in the technical evaluation shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

For the considered offers in the financial evaluation only, the lowest price offer will receive 30 points. The other offers will receive points in relation to the lowest offer, based on the following formula: (Pn / Pl) * 30 where Pn is the financial offer being evaluated and Pl is the lowest financial offer received.

Technical Criteria:

Documents to be submitted

Interested offerors are invited to submit the following documents/information to be considered:

1. Offeror’s letter, as per the following form LINK
2. Most updated CV with focus on required qualification as well as the contact details of at least three (3) professional references;
3. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment
4. List of relevant assignment as per the section criteria
5. Financial Proposal The financial proposal must be expressed in the form of a lumpsum all-inclusive cost*, supported by breakdown of costs as per template provided in USD for this consultancy (The term “All inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consummables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal. As for the indication of the cost of living in a duty station/destination, the Contractor informs the Offerors that the UN’s Daily Subsistence Allowance for Skopje is 134 USD)