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 :

Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is central to the mandate of UNICEF and its focus on equity. UNICEF Gender Action Plan (GAP) 2018-2021 specifies the organization’s programmatic focus on girls’ secondary education and outlines strategies to promote it, including partnership with United Nations Girls’ Education initiative (UNGEI). The Sustainable Development Goal target 4.6 states that “By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy.” Specifically, the global indicator for target 4.6.1 measures learning outcomes as a percentage of the population in a given age group achieving at least a fixed level of proficiency in functional literacy and numeracy skills. The target age group for this indicator is the population of 15 years and older. These provisions have been translated into the UNICEF Country Programme document and specifically under the Pillar 2: School Age Children output 5: Alternative and non-formal learning opportunities that provide functional literacy and numeracy are available to out-of-school children, especially adolescent mothers and children under the 14 to 17 years who have not been to school or dropped out of school before attaining functional literacy and numeracy skills.

Malawi continues to experience consistent high girls’ dropout rates from upper primary education despite a number of investments on girls’ education for the past three decades. Primary education experiences lower transition rates to lower secondary school currently at 36 percent for girls, and 34 percent for boys. Malawi has 6.6 percent of primary school age girls and 5.2 percent boys out of school. Further,  22.9 percent girls compared to 16.2 percent boys expected to be in lower secondary school are out of school implying high drop out rates for girls as they reach puberty. Additionally, only 10 percent of girls who drop out of school due to pregnancy return back to school. All these translates to 50 percent of school age girls being out of school (EMIS, 2017). Some of the reasons for high school drop out among girls and boys are, but not limited to poverty related issues, distance to school, family responsibilities,  and child marriages.  According to 2018 Population Census, 41 percent of school age going children are out of school, about 24 percent of primary school age children aged between 6 to 13 years are out of school with 25 percent males and 23.8 percent females. It is also reported that 19 percent of Malawians aged 5 years and older have never attended school.

Evidence shows that educating women and girls can lead to reduction in fertility rates, child mortality rates and increases life expectancy; and increased participation of women in social economic development. Further, that a certain level of literacy among women is pre-requisite for their functionality and improved living standards.

The Government of Malawi commits to address gender gaps in education through various policy and legal frameworks and implementation of strategic initiatives. Other development partners and implementing partners have also supported alternative learning approaches for various levels depending on the education levels and gaps. Thus, alternative learning through functional literacy programme has been implemented to provide literacy and numeracy skills to adolescent girls that cannot be accommodated in formal learning because of age. The programme targets children that are too old to be accomodated in formal primary schooling but never went to school or might have dropped out of school before attaining basic literacy and numeracy skills.

Specifically, UNICEF has been supporting adolescent girls functional literacy in three districts that have the lowest literacy rates namely; Mangochi 53 percent, Dedza 57percent, and Salima and 61 percent. This is implemented under the UN Joint Programme on Girls Education through an NGO (AGLIT). To date, over 19,000 adolescent girls have gained numeracy and literacy skills and are engaging in livelihood activities over the past three years to promote girls education.

It is based on this background that UNICEF wishes to contract services of a gender consultant to assess the contribution of this functional literacy programme in reducing the gender gaps in education.

How can you make a difference?

The Consultant should answer, inter alia, the following questions :

Does functional literacy programme reduce the gender gap in education focusing on literacy rates?

This demands an analysis of the drop outs of girls from formal schooling and those that enroll in the functional literacy to gain numeracy and literacy skills. How many of the girls’ school drop outs get absorbed through functional literacy programme and complementary basic education compared to the drop out in the area/district?  (Use enrolment and completion data) from the functional literacy, and formal school institutions within the same community).

Further, how many of the girls and boys get back to school after going through the functional literacy programme as this has a component to get back learners to the formal schooling. What factors contribute to the success of this mode of learning to complement the formal schooling?

The Consultant, among other issues, also needs to look the differences and similarities in terms of enrolment systems for functional literacy vis a vis the formal enrolment procedures , how these complement each other. What are the perceptions regarding functional literacy programme among the communities (male and female learners, instructors, and communities), other stakeholders (if any) and policy makers? Any areas for improvements?

What are the challenges faced by functional literacy learners that need to be addressed by a policy?

Assess the sustainability of literacy and numeracy skills among learners? This demands tracing some of the beneficiaries of functional literacy in the impact districts for at least the past three years.

Specific tasks :

1. Production of an Inception Report with detailed methodology and data collection tools. Conduct literature review of relevant documents to produce an Inception report which among others should detail methodology and tentative structure of the final report ;
2. Production of an Analysis Report with a gender perspective : Conduct consultations with key stakeholders both from service providers of functional Literacy, NGOs, communities and beneficiaries of functional literacy programme and selected policy makers. Conduct an analysis of the functional literacy programme, deduce how it contributes to the literacy rates among males and females in the selected districts ;
3. Produce a detailed Analysis Report with clear advocacy messages that would appeal to government to support the scaling up functional literacy programme in Malawi

Refer to the attached Terms of Reference for further details

 ToR Gendered Analysis of Adolescent Functional Literacy.docx

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

• At least a Master’s Degree in Gender/Women Studies or its equivalent (Women’s Law, Social Studies, Demography, Sociology, Rural Development, Education Economics or any other related technical field with special expertise in gender responsive programming ;
• At least 5 years’ experience in analyzing programmes and projects with a gender perspective ;
• Knowledge of social cultural context and girls education challenges in Malawi is a must ;
• Excellent communication, gender analytical and writing skills ;
• Fluency in English.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Commitment, Diversity and Integrity and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

View our competency framework at : 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 :

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

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