Purpose of Activity/Assignment:

The United Nations recognizes the Climate Change as one of the most important global issues today.  Addressing the challenges of environmental sustainability is imperative for UNICEF to fulfil its mandate and protect the world’s most vulnerable children. Unless we act forcefully to stem the climate crisis now, the danger will only escalate.  Climate change and environmental degradation undermine the rights of every child and become a direct threat to a child’s ability to survive, grow, and thrive. Children are the most vulnerable to diseases that will become more widespread as a result of climate change, such as malaria and dengue fever. For children who are already disadvantaged, the stakes are even higher. As climate change makes crises more common and recovering from them becomes harder the actions must begin with knowledge and understanding and educating children to adapt to the immediate challenges of climate change – and to understand the role that they will be called on to play. Therefore, education is considered as an essential component and a catalyst for responding to global climate change. Article 6 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) encourages Parties to promote, develop and implement educational, training and public awareness programmes on climate change and its effects. Article 12 of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change also stimulates Parties to cooperate in enhancing climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information.

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda, specifically SDGs 4 and 13, Turkmenistan is committed to ensuring integration of the Climate Change Agenda into the education sector strengthening resilience of the children of Turkmenistan towards the climate change impacts.  To further support the efforts of the Government of Turkmenistan on Climate Change and Environment (CCEE), UNICEF CO and the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan developed and introduced the Climate Change, Environment and Energy Curriculum that was incorporated into 5 environment related subjects in 2019. The Teacher Training Manuals were also elaborated jointly with the specialists of the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education of Turkmenistan ensuring methodological support and introduction of the interactive methods of teaching and strengthening the teaching/learning practices of the Climate Change, Environment and Energy Curriculum.  To upgrade knowledge and strengthen the capacities of the schoolteachers on the advanced interactive teaching methodology of the CCEE Curriculum the Climate Change Adaptation in-service training course was jointly developed with support of the specialists of the education sector of Turkmenistan.

To ensure consistency and further incorporation of the Climate Change Adaptation agenda into the education system of Turkmenistan the Pre-service Climate Change Adaptation training course will be elaborated equipping the primary and secondary education schoolteachers with the innovative teaching methods and tools.

It is within these initiatives that UNICEF is seeking an international consultant to provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan in Capacity Development for Pre-service Climate Change Adaptation training and methodological support. It is envisaged that consultant will design and introduce the pre-service training course on Climate Change Adaptation for Children that will be complementing the Climate Change, Environment and Energy curriculum and the Teacher Training Manuals developed and introduced to the Government of Turkmenistan in 2018 and 2019.

Scope of Work:

Specific Tasks

• Facilitate the online meeting with the national partners to explore the state of affairs in pre-service CCA education discussing the gaps and conducting the needs assessment;
• Provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing curriculum or training materials of higher education identifying the gaps in methodology and practices of interactive teaching/learning of the Climate Change, Environment and Energy topics in pre-service education and training;
• Develop the training course for Capacity Development for Pre-service training with the focus on the best practices and international experience ensuring the CCA topics are an integral part of the higher educational institutions curriculum;
• Facilitate the online meeting engaging the local partners to discuss the drafted training materials to collect their feedbacks and align the drafted training materials with the provided comments;      
• To proceed with the online piloting of the In-service and Pre-service CCA training courses to strengthen the capacities of the national education specialists in Climate Change Adaptation engaging the specialists of the Ministry of Education, the National Institute of Education, the Methodological-training Centers and relevant Higher Educational Institutions. It is envisaged that the consultant will proceed with the visual presentation of the innovative methods of interactive teaching and learning of the Climate Change Adaptation training courses. 
• Develop and submit the Final Report complemented by all developed materials.

Workplan and deliverables 

The consultancy duration is 30 working days, covering the period of 14 September 2021 – 23 November 2021. The distribution of days by tasks and corresponding deliverables is suggested below. The consultant is expected to work home-based.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks/Milestone:

Deliverables/Outputs:

Timeline:

Estimate

Budget:

1. Facilitate the online meeting with the national partners to explore the state of affairs in pre-service CCA education discussing and identifying the gaps and conducting the needs assessment;

Meeting Agenda; 

14 – 17 September 2021

1 working days (home based)

$ 10,500 USD (30 working days, home based)

2. Provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing higher educational institutions curriculum or training materials on CCA identifying the gaps in methodology and practices of interactive teaching/learning of the Climate Change, Environment and Energy topics in pre-service education and training;

Desk review report;

20 – 23 September 2021

3 working days (home based)

23 September 2021 Submission of the report

3. Develop the training course for Capacity Development for Pre-service education and training in Climate Change Adaptation with the focus on the best practices and international experience;

Drafted training course;

27 September – 22 October 2021

20 working day (home based)

25 October 2021 Submission of the drafted document;

4. Prepare and facilitate the online meeting engaging the local partners to discuss the drafted training materials, to collect their feedbacks and aligning the drafted training materials with the provided comments;  

Final draft of the training course for Capacity Development for Pre-service Training in CCA;

08 – 11 November 2021

2 working day (home based)

5. Testing the In-service CCA training course to strengthen the capacities of the national education sector specialists in Climate Change Adaptation;

Online training to demonstrate the innovative practices of interactive teaching and learning;

12 – 18 November 2021

2 working days (home-based)

6. Testing the Pre-service CCA training course to strengthen the capacities of the national education sector specialists in Climate Change Adaptation;

Online training to demonstrate the innovative practices of interactive teaching and learning;

7. Development and submission of the Final Report complemented by all developed materials;

Final Report and training materials;

19 – 23 November 2021

2 working days

23 November 2021 Submission of the Final Report