National Consultancy: To support the development of a MoEYS scholarship transition strategy, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

UNICEF, the world’s leading organization working for the rights of children, is looking to hire a Cambodian national consultant to support the development of a MoEYS scholarship transition strategy with Education Section/ UNICEF Cambodia Country Office. If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about making a lasting difference for children, the world's leading children's rights organization would like to hear from you.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, education.

UNICEF began providing assistance to Cambodia in 1952 and has been working since then to improve the wellbeing of Cambodian children. UNICEF established its first country office in 1973 in the capital of Phnom Penh. More information on what we do in Cambodia is available at https://www.unicef.org/cambodia/.

How can you make a difference?

Based on the findings from the evaluation, and further to the recommendation in the equity-focused primary scholarship framework, there is a need to develop and implement a more consistent basis for the allocation of scholarships to provinces, districts and schools across primary and secondary scholarship programmes. MoEYS has now issued Prakas #1240 on the establishment, roles and responsibilities of the scholarship committee for both primary and secondary education from national to school levels. Further to the issuance of the prakas, MoEYS has recently developed a unified governance structure to oversee scholarship at all levels – national, and sub-national levels. A further objective of this assignment is to support MoEYS to translate these prakas into improved central and provincial organization and coordination of scholarship allocation and monitoring.

Currently, there is no consistency between selection criteria at primary and secondary levels. At central level and in databases there is no data linking primary feeder schools to their secondary schools. Furthermore, there is no centralized management information system to consolidate information on primary and secondary scholarships. As a result, the primary and lower secondary scholarship programmes have been unable to effectively and purposefully support transition from primary to lower secondary education.

Work Assignments...

With UNICEF as the contract manager, the national consultant will under the daily supervision of the international consultant on this assignment. Under the overall strategic guidance of the Director General of Directorate Basic Education, the national consultant will support the international consultant to collaborate closely with the Primary Education Department, General Secondary Education Department, Department of EMIS, Department of Policy, and Department of Finance to achieve the assignment objectives. The consultant will also be expected to facilitate the collaboration with other relevant line ministries such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), the Ministry of Social Affairs and Ministry of Interior, to access relevant information. The national consultant will also be required to work closely with UNICEF Education and Social Policy Specialists.

Major duties and responsibilities of the national consultant are listed below:

• The national consultant is expected to work closely with the international consultant and MoEYS to provide administrative support, including translation from English into Khmer and vice versa.
• Collect relevant documents for desk review, translate where necessary, and support international consultant in the preparation of inception report;
• Interpret in meetings and workshops from Khmer into English and vice versa
• Prepare meeting notes and collect inputs and recommendations from each meetings and workshops
• Assist the international consultant in arranging relevant consultative workshops and other required meetings at all levels;

     •  Assist the international consultant in cleaning and categorizing data collected from meetings, workshops and field missions

     •  Summarize and synthesize inputs and recommendations from all stakeholders

     •  Provide necessary support for international consultant in drafting the technical deliverables in the assignment such as the (i)                  analytical report on the findings, with changes to the operational manual on the targeting and allocation criteria of scholarships              at both primary and lower-secondary levels to promote transition from primary level; (ii)  support to GSED to revise relevant                sections of the operational manual for secondary scholarship programme based on recommendations proposed in the analytical              report, primarily in the areas of allocation of scholarships and geographic targeting, and (iii) training manual and training report            on capacity development of MoEYS scholarship programme managers on simulation model

    •  Translate other outputs and deliverables from English into Khmer for further consultation with concerned stakeholders

    •  Prepare PowerPoint in Khmer for other necessary consultative meetings with MoEYS and DPs; and  

    •  Assist in any other task that might become relevant during the assignment.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or Master’s degree in education, social sciences, international development or related technical field in relation to scholarship programmes;
• Have at least one year experience in policy development, social protection, or education programs;
• Familiarity with the education sector in Cambodia and MoEYS policies and programmes, including scholarships strongly preferred;
• Demonstrated experience providing good quality written inputs in English, working to deadlines; and
• Demonstrated experience in equity, gender equality and human rights analysis is a distinct advantage.

Competencies, Knowledge and Skills

• Have strong communication, critical thinking, problem-solving and organizational skills;
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to interact and communicate effectively and diplomatically with government staff; and
• Ability to engage in substantive technical discussion with all stakeholders
• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to work in a multi-cultural environment and establish harmonious and effective working relationships, both within and outside the work place

To view detail Terms of Reference for this assignment, please click here  Scholarships Transition Natl TA TMS.pdf

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The functional competencies required for this post are...

View our competency framework at

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/UNICEF_Competencies.pdf

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.