Consultancy, “Deep Dive Study on OOSC Since the Pandemic”-RFP

About Save the Children

Save the Children is the leading global independent organisation for children. Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. Around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children’s unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

Our vision: A world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.

Our mission: To inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

Our values: Accountability, ambition, collaboration, creativity and integrity.

We are committed to ensuring our resources are used as efficiently as possible, in order to focus them on achieving maximum impact for children.

About the Safe Back to School (SB2S) Campaign

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated one billion children have seen a suspension to their learning. Tens of millions of these children are not expected to return.  An additional 260 million children who were not benefitting from educational services prior to the pandemic now face additional barriers to access their right to an education. 

In 2020, Save the Children declared the safe return to learning – and return to school, when safe to do so – a global priority. 

Safe Back to School (SB2S) is Save the Children’s global campaign to get the most marginalised children safely back into education and to improve learning outcomes and well-being. The campaign is being delivered across three pillars: (1) delivery of programmes; (2) advocacy and policy campaigns; (3) national co-ordination and leadership. Pillar one involves a focus on reducing barriers to learning for marginalised children including girls, children with disabilities, children living in poverty and children that are displaced.

Background information and context

Previous disasters and crises that have closed schools have resulted in significant long-term school dropouts. Predictions of the number of children who will not return to school globally after COVID-19 School Closures vary by the millions. 

To date, there is no up to date, standardised, global-level data on how many, and which children are out-of-school, not returning to learning, or at risk of dropping out. Surveys of children and caregivers are valuable, but so far limited (scale, frequency, selection bias, different methods, different targets, different questions). 

Marginalised children are most at risk. Children from families with refugee or IDP status are disproportionately affected1. The likelihood of school dropout is twice as high compared to non-displaced populations. There is a real risk that M&D children will not return to education, particularly girls. Children with disabilities, also, are particularly at risk of being out of school2 due to lack of accessible material or parental support.3 Getting children back into education is a critical, global challenge.

Lack of real-time data presents a huge barrier for our – and the sector’s – ability to effectively plan and deliver our response to the COVID-19 Education Crisis. 

Study objectives

The Safe Back to School (SB2S) study on Out of School Children (OOSC) aims to capture robust, standardised, real-time data on the number of children out of school and not returning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The study builds on a rapid assessment, which took place in Q1-2 2021 across six countries in total, to gather information on how many children are out of school, who they are and why. This next stage will provide a ‘deep dive’ in two countries4 to improve our understanding of the problem in specific country level contextual circumstances.

The study has three overarching aims:

1. Shape the externalnarrative to demonstrate the continuing numbers of children out of school and the implications of this in the context of COVID-19 and provide policy recommendations to the sector to address the OOSC data gap.

Capture national, sub-national and disaggregated data on the below:

• How many children are out of school, not returning to school or at risk of dropping out;
• Which children are out of school, not returning to school or at risk of dropping out;
• Why children are out of school, not returning to school or at risk of dropping out.

Contribute to the development of a clear pathway for how Save the Children (and the wider sector) can improve real-time, effective data capture of OOSC for our programmatic and advocacy responses.

Approach

Save the Children wishes to pilot an approach to address the above aims – tackling the current data gap and providing recommendations for further roll-out and scale-up. We anticipate the following tasks will be required.

1. Develop an OOSC resource and data toolkit comprising:

• Baseline tracking: derived from the Integrated Situational Analysis tool5 to provide the baseline of who is out of school and why;
• Enrolment and Absence Monitoring Toolkit6: to track return and retention rates; 

• Real-time monitoring: via an Integrated Community Case Management model to track who moves in and out of school areas and why, who is missing out on learning, and what the barriers to learning are7; and 
• Survey tool: building on an existing OOSC rapid assessment tool (as well as tools from other studies in progress8)to develop a robust and effective questionnaire.The questionnaire will comprise both quantitative data (closed questions) and qualitative data (open-ended questions).

1. Pilot the revised toolkit with a representative sample9 of schools in 1-2 Save the Children countries where schools have reopened face to face classes. 

Piloting of the toolkit will enable us to better understand the nature, scope, and scale of OOSC. We will provide staff and communities with skills and platforms to use the tools. We anticipate that the Country Office will have access to a list of all schools and which includes contact details for the school. Should MoE approval be required, the Country Office will bear responsibility for securing said approval.

1. Stakeholder interviews to gather wider, deeper perspectives. In addition to capturing enrolment and attendance data via head-teachers, we will also approach parents, community leaders, children and marginalised groups as part of the survey scope to improve our understanding of attitudes to education, barriers to returning to school (and differences by group10) and gain greater insight into the challenges of capturing enrolment and attendance data.

Expected deliverables 

1. A Preliminary OOSC Data Toolkit

A first draft, preliminary set of tools and resources will be available as a result of this study for country offices and other stakeholders to use in situ. This will include:

1. Baseline tracking tool

1. Enrolment and Absence Monitoring Toolkit

1. Real-time monitoring tool

1. Survey tool

1. Primary and country-level reports

One primary Word Report will be compiled accompanied by country-level reports. Country reports will comprise:

• Key findings at a country level (e.g. how many children are OOSC, who are they and why are they OOSC);
• Key requirements/drivers to improve return rates; and
• Recommendations regarding the prerequisites that would enable children to receive better quality learning opportunities (e.g. accelerated curriculum, health service, alternative tools, cash assistance/vouchers, stronger disability and gender-focused adaptation) and the resources required (and by whom)

The primary report will include:

• Comparative analysis of country level findings;

• Lessons learned from the pilot approach; and
• Recommendations outlining a clear pathway forward for how Save the Children and the wider sector can improve real-time data collection and facilitate and encourage all children to return to school.

Timelines

Due to funding requirements, the study must be completed and the final report delivered by December 31st 2021. Donor rules stipulate that there is no scope for extension beyond this date.

Experience and skill set required 

The consultant should cover the following essential competencies and experiences within the team.

• Demonstrated experience of providing similar services in country and in INGO context
• Excellent proven research skills, including instrument design, qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis (particularly participatory approaches)
• Strong understanding of education in fragile contexts
• Demonstrable experience leading a team, preferably on a field-based, research-led project

• Excellent oral and written analytical and reporting skills
• Familiarity with project management tools (e.g. MS Project) and budgeting.
• Familiarity with education technology solutions and innovation
• Arabic desirable (not essential).

Management and governance arrangements

The study will be managed and quality controlled by a Project Manager within Save the Children. We would expect the successful supplier to provide regular status updates to the project team, and attend regular catch-up meetings.

Guidance for your response

When submitting your response, please provide a response in Word in no more than 10 pages (excluding appendices). Your response should include:

• Understanding of the requirements

• Proposed approach
• Proposed individual or team
• Budget breakdown (USD) (including number of days per task per team member)
• Timeframe 
• Deliverables

Proposal timeframe

The deadline for responses is 24 August 2021. 

Short-listed candidates will be invited to a panel interview to discuss their proposal in more detail with the Project Technical Lead and the SB2S Director. 

Interviews for short-listed candidates are expected to commence on 27 August 2021. 

RFP- Request for Proposals