ICT in Education Expert to write a blog and to facilitate a webinar in the Leadership Network for Sustainable Development

Terms of Reference

Short-term International Consultancy

ICT in Education Expert to write a blog and to facilitate a webinar in the Leadership Network for Sustainable Development

Type: Consultancy (Short term)

Start date: 1 July 2017

Finish date: 31 July 2017

Number of working hours:   40 hours over a period of 4 weeks (work from home)

1. Background:

GESCI, the Global E-Schools and Communities Initiative, is a non-profit organisation founded by the United Nations ICT Taskforce.  GESCI, with its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, provides strategic advice to relevant Ministries in developing countries on the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) within the context of inclusive Knowledge Societies.  See www.gesci.org.

GESCI in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC) and other partners developed the African Leadership in ICT (ALICT) capacity building programme which successfully graduated 497 participants across 16 African countries and from the AUC. Among the ALICT graduates, 160, i.e. 33%, are women leaders. The ALICT course presents a multi-stakeholder approach for capacity building and awareness raising of African leaders on the issues of the Knowledge Society, ICT, Education, Science & Technology and Innovation in support of the AUC Action Plan.

ALICT alumni form the core membership of the “Leadership Network for Sustainable Development” (LN4SD), a growing Community of Practice (CoP) that brings together public sector leaders and stakeholders working in knowledge society related sectors to harness the power of knowledge, skills, technologies and innovation to drive African social and economic transformation and achieve inclusive growth and sustainable development. The network connects public policy and decision makers, researchers and key actors, and is expected to facilitate and stimulate the collective leadership capacities for sustainable development of African and other developing regions through knowledge exchange, sharing learning, experiences and discussions on how to address common challenges to inform policy and decision making processes, support relevant research and empower potential leaders as to how to leverage knowledge society sectors (education, ICT and STI) for sustainable development, while addressing critical areas such as the environment and climate change, gender, youth skills and entrepreneurship, and social responsibility and accountability.

• The LN4SD’s online platform (http://www.leadership4sd.org) was launched in Abidjan, June 8-9, 2016 to encourage networking, knowledge sharing and learning and the emergence of innovative and provoking perspectives in addressing knowledge sectors-related policy debate through discussion forums, webinars, blogs, etc. in order to achieve the required paradigm shifts and transformation required to reach development goals and targets through well-informed, distributed and innovative knowledge era leadership.

GESCI is seeking 5 acknowledged experts, who for a period of five (5) months, February to July 2017, will (1) write well-informed research blogs and respond to comments following the publication of the blog on the Leadership Network for Sustainable Development’s online platform, and, (2) facilitate live webinars (each webinar: 20 min presentation and 40 min discussion) to be attended by members of the LN4SD.

The present TORs are intended for the recruitment of the fifth expert who will write the blog and facilitate the webinar (1 July – 31 July 2017) in line with the below theme and context. The blog and webinar have to address the challenges associated with the theme of the month.

Theme: National ICT in Education initiatives and programmes: lessons learned.

Proposed sub-thematic areas:

• Technology deployment for ICT integration in teaching and learning: involving schools / ecosystem development.
• Tools and instruments that can inform ICT integration and deployment in education.

Context:

• Policies are usually developed by external consultants with little experience in ICT integration at both school and local/national system levels in Africa.
• Focus is on technology deployment rather than on integration in teaching/learning.
• Schools and teachers are not involved in policy/strategy design and implementation.

Challenges:

• Lack of collaboration between MoEs and Ministries in charge of ICT, Planning and Finance, i.e. lack of policy coherence
• Lack of tools/instruments to inform costing of national initiatives/programmes.

2. Requirements for the consultant:

Highly Desired

• Specialist in ICT integration in education.
• Expert with deep, comprehensive understanding of ICT integration and related solutions at conceptual and implementation level.
• Vast experience publishing online research-backed blogs, articles and papers on ICT in Education
• Minimum five years’ track record of writing engaging research-backed blogs.
• Minimum five years’ experience in facilitating engaging and interactive online vibrant group discussions.

       Required

• Minimum Master’s degree in ICT/ Education, ICT in Education related discipline.
• Proven track record in designing and implementing project/programmes in relation to the theme mentioned above within the African the context.
• Minimum five years’ experience in ICT in Education, preferably in the African context.
• Expertise in articulating ideas/concepts simply, engagingly, clearly and in a focused manner
• Substantial professional online presence.

3. Deliverables and timelines for delivery:

4. Duration: The time frame for the consultancy assignment is as below:

• Start date: 1 July 2017
• Finish date: 31 july 2017

5. Consultancy Fee: The consultancy fee will be Euro 2000.  This amount is inclusive of 20% withholding tax in Kenya.  This tax amount shall be deducted and paid to Kenya Revenue Authority and the certification shall be provided to consultants

6. Payment schedule:

• 100% upon successful execution of the deliverables after the four weeks

7. Confidentiality and Copyright: The consultant will be required to sign a confidentiality clause whereby information accessed through this activity can only be disclosed and shared with authorised members of the ALICT programme. GESCI will have ownership over any Intellectual Property developed for or derived from this consultancy engagement.

8. To apply: Please submit by email under the heading ICT in Education Expert: blogs and webinar for the Leadership Network for Sustainable Development’ to GESCI procurement at procurement@gesci.org by 24 June 2017.

                          The application should include:

1. a detailed CV
2. a cover letter specifying why you qualify for this contract
3. Links to published articles, online articles, webinars and blogs

Only consultants meeting the academic and experience requirements need to apply. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.  For further information on the consultancy, you can contact Senthil Kumar, Programme Manager – ALICT at senthil.kumar@gesci.org