CARE International began work in Sierra Leone in 1961, initially focusing on school food programs to improve children’s nutrition. More recently, CARE Sierra Leone’s priorities have become economic development, food security and public health. By understanding and addressing the underlying causes of poverty, we are focusing our efforts on long term goals to help the people of Sierra Leone improve their livelihood.

CARE Sierra Leone seeks to engage a Consultant to act as a Program Manager for three months to support the implementation of the Worldreader Pilot program.

Interested eligible Consultants may obtain further information from CARE International in Sierra Leone, Attention: Procurement Coordinator – Amy Foday, email:

Amy.Foday@care.org 

Kindly follow the instructions in the document and make your submission by hand delivery/ courier delivery addressed to:

The Procurement Coordinator

CARE International in Sierra Leone

11 Old Railway Line

Wilberforce

Freetown, Sierra Leone

The sealed bid must clearly mark “Service of a Consultant –  RFP/CARESLPM/2021/003.” and should be submitted at CARE Sierra Leone’s head office No later than March 2^nd, 2021 at 16:00 GMT.

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR A CONSULTANT – PROGRAM MANAGER

WORLDREADER PILOT PROGRAM

Background and Objective

The impact of COVID-19 in Sierra Leone is far reaching and in addition to the high risk it poses to the education sector, measures to contain the epidemic such as lockdowns travel restrictions and economic disruptions has heightened socio-economic vulnerability. The most severe implications have been in the lives of school-aged kids particularly girls, who are bearing the largest burden of caring for their families while having their learning disrupted.

CARE Sierra Leone, WorldReader, and CRS Sierra Leone are coming together to implement a technology-based solution ‘BookSmart’ to provide learning accessibility and reduce learning loss due to the disruption caused by COVID-19. The solution encourages reading and other learning outcomes through access to digital books via a mobile application. This program will focus on primary school age students in grades 4-6, typically between the ages of 9-14, who are most at risk of dropping out and/or not continuing to secondary school.

The BookSmart solution allows parents and caregivers to access a library from their e-reader/tablet to support their children’s learning during this time of disrupted education. BookSmart’s reading facilitation can help children maintain their readiness, enhance their reading outcomes, and support their critical thinking, skills development and socio-emotional learning.

The Worldreader pilot program will be undertaken in Falaba and Koinadugu Districts in Northern Sierra Leone where the need for learning and e-integration has been identified as one of the most underserved communities in Sierra Leone.

The objectives of this consultancy are to generate information and assess how students are learning with the reading materials provided by WorldReader and how this information shapes their world view on stigmatized societal issues such as peer pressure, menstrual hygiene management (if applicable), sexual and gender based violence (SGBV), gender equity etc in addition to assessing their reading skills and competency for both primary school boys and girls in classes 4-6.

III. Target Groups

1. 1.   598 pupils in Koinadugu and Falaba Districts
2. 2.   It is estimated the reading clubs will have 25-30 pupils in each group across 13 communities/schools.

Methodology:

• The recruited consultant will be expected to propose a detailed methodology as part of the inception report (based on the information given in this ToR) suggesting adjustments to the methodology recommended below and to the available tools as necessary to meet the objectives of the evaluation as detailed above.
• The consultant will be expected to review project documentation, interviews with a broad range of stakeholders including project management and field staff (in person or Skype calls), local partner organizations and government representatives where relevant and possible, as well as representatives of beneficiaries. Other methods including observations, documentation of the most significant change stories/case studies are also highly recommended.
• For field assessments, monitoring and evaluation the consultant will conduct field trips, with support from the CARE’s staff in arranging for field evaluation works.
• The consultants will be selected by CARE Sierra Leone based on the acceptance of the consultant on the above outputs and timeframe. The recruitment will be proceeded based on CARE’s  Administrative procedure.

Key deliverables are the following

1. An inception report detailing out: methodology for evaluation, delivery schedule, and research tools.

2.Workshop to present the inception report for validation; to be approved before commencement of actual data collection.

1. Soft and hard copies of draft of evaluation report / dataset.

4.Final evaluation report both soft and hard copies addressing all objectives, evaluation questions and including clear recommendations. The final evaluation report is the sole deliverable expected from the consultant.

DESIRED FIELDS OF EXPERIENCE OR KNOWLEDGE

• Experience in primary education in Sierra Leone
• Experience with Worldreader or other e-learning platforms with primary school pupils
• Project Management including the capacity to implement agreed work plans with the various partners
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting
• Knowledge and experience in working in Northern Sierra Leone especially in underserved and underprivileged communities.
• Working with international partners
• Strong training and facilitation skills

EXPECTATIONS

• Support the management and successful implementation of World reader pilot in Sierra Leone.
• Monitor, evaluate and supervise the pilot working bilaterally with international partners and local partners
• Work with partners in capacity building and training teachers/team leaders of book clubs and students on e-reader usage.
• Measure the output of student discussions and learning during weekly book club sessions.
• Track the progress of students from the initial stage to the final stage.

QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS/ EXCLUSION CRITERIA

The required qualifications and skills for this job assignment are:

• Must have a Bachelor’s in Education, Development studies or any related field. Masters will be a plus for the candidate.
• Proven Experience in mobile applications for e-learning
• IT experience and savvy
• Proven experience in training or designing training curriculums
• Minimum 3 years’ experience in the development sector either in education and programming.

Field visits play a large part of this role and as such, it is expected that the candidate is willing and able to take part in such activities.

APPLICATION MATERIALS

The proposal should include the following items:

1.       One-page Summary of experience, not more than one page

1. Detailed CV
2. Professional references: please provide two or three references from your previous clients.
3. Monthly rate: please mention the proposed monthly rate in USD.

The Summary of experience should be no more than one page and should include the following:

• Experience in leading project/program evaluations (number of evaluations led (with dates, locations and names of organizations)/ number of evaluations served as team member)
• Experience in qualitative methods numbers of years of experience / tools/methods used in past)
• Experience in emergency response, relief and recovery and rapid gender analysis.
• Professional experience in Sierra Leone (number of years of experience; organizations worked for — Northern Sierra Leone is a plus)
• Language proficiency

CARE International has a zero-tolerance approach to any harm to, or exploitation of, a vulnerable adult or a child, by any of our staff, representatives or partners. Recruitment to all jobs in CARE International includes, in particular, criminal record checks and the collection of relevant references. Safeguarding our beneficiaries is our top priority in everything we do. CARE is committed to Equality and value Diversity. We are a Disability Confident Employer and particularly welcome applications from disabled people. We guarantee interviews to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the job (see person specification