THE REPUBLIC OF SUDAN

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

Capacity Building for Improved Quality of Education System and Skills Development (CBIQESSD) Project

Education Sector

Financing Agreement reference : 5900155008451

Project ID No. : P-SD-IA0-001

RECRUITMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANT

1. The Government of Sudan received financing from the African Development Bank toward the cost of the Capacity Building for Improved Quality of Education System and Skills Development (CBIQESSD) Project, and intends to apply part of the agreed amount of this financing to payments under the contract for the review of the Sudan’s Technical Education and Vocational Training (TEVT) and Higher Education (HE) sub-sectors ;

2. The Ministry of General Education (MoGE) and the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) are looking for the services of an International Consultant to undertake a comprehensive review of the Sudan’s Technical Education and Vocational Training (TEVT) and Higher Education (HE) sub-sectors ;

3. The review will involve a comprehensive situational analysis of the above-mentioned sub-sectors, in relation to, among others: their provision, access and equity as well as quality and relevance. The Consultant will be supported by staff at MoHE, MoGE and the CBIQESSD Project Implementation Unit (PIU) ;

4. Individual Consultants are hereby invited to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested Consultants shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to undertake this assignment (documents, references to similar services, experience in similar assignments, etc.) ;

5. The eligibility criteria, establishment of the short-list and the selection procedure shall be in accordance with the African Development Bank’s Procurement Policy for Bank Funded Operations, dated October 2015 which is available on the Bank’s website at http://www.afdb.org. Please note that interest expressed by a Consultant does not imply any obligation on the part of the MoGE and MoHE to include the applicant in the shortlist ;

6. The estimated duration of the consultancy is Fifty (50) working days, spread over a period of Four (4) months, and the expected starting date is: 30^th August 2021 ;

7. Interested Individual Consultants may obtain further information at the address below during working hours: Sunday through Thursday, 09:00 am to 15:00 pm ;

8. A shortlist of three to six individual consultants will be established at the end of the request of expressions of interest. The consultants on the shortlist will be judged on the following criteria on the basis of their updated resume.

9. Interested Consultants shall provide information on their qualifications and experience demonstrating their ability to undertake this assignment in English language.

10. Expressions of interest must be submitted or sent by e-mail to the address below by Monday 16^th August 2021at 2:00 pm Khartoum time, specifically mentioning “Expression of Interest for TEVT and HE sub-sectors Analysis : International Consultant.” For the attention of :

Mr. Khidir Adam Mohamed Procurement Specialist 4th – Osman Digna Street Khartoum-Sudan

Tel : +249 91 773 7393 / +249 91 248 0154.

Email : cbiqessd@gmail.com

REPUBLIC OF SUDAN                          THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

DRAFT TERMS OF REFERENCE

SUDAN : REVIEW OF SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN SUDAN: A FOCUS ON TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (TVET) AND HIGHER EDUCATION (HE)

INTERNATIONAL CONSULTANT

July 2021

1. Background :

Over the last decade, the economy of Sudan has been through turbulent times. The economy has been in recession since 2018. After a short rebound, with real GDP growth averaging 3.5% during the period 2015-17, the economy experienced a downturn regressing into a recession as it shrunk by -2.3% in 2018, -2.5% in 2019, and -8.4% in 2020. In fact, Sudan was reclassified from a low middle income to low-income country on account of the sharp decline in its real GDP growth per capita from US$1,320 in 2017 to US$590 in 2019.

Sudan’s growth prospects have been dampened by a number of factors including decades of conflict, political and social instabilities, vulnerability to natural calamities and external economic shocks and more recently by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the country’s economic growth has not created sufficient and sustainable jobs for its bulging population, particularly the youth. In 2018, unemployment rate among the youth (15-24 years) was 26.7% (20.2% for male youth and 43.6% for female youth) and youth are close to 3 times more likely to be unemployed than the adults. Youth unemployment, especially in States that are have been in longstanding conflict situations, could be more than what is officially reported.

A large proportion of youth in Sudan are characterized by low or lack of skills, which makes it difficult for them to be integrated into the labour market. Enrollments in technical and vocational institutions is particularly far lower than corresponding non-technical institutions, a phenomenon that impedes skilling up of the youth. For instance, at the secondary level, graduates from basic education are 20 times more likely to enroll in academic than technical secondary schools. Girls enrolment, especially those from regions like Darfur is low in skills development i.e. TVET and higher education.

Although enrollments remain low compared to Sudan’s regional comparators, they are is growing demand for skills development as more Sudanese children are entering schools, thus putting pressure on government to expand skills development infrastructure at all levels. In addition, the transition government, in August 2020, signed a peace agreement leading to re-integration of Darfur, Southern Kordofan, and the Blue Nile States. Such re-integration efforts have a huge implication on the education and skills development of the youth as these previous conflict States are characterized by a huge proportion of youth who are out of school and unskilled. The government now faces the challenge of establishing learning infrastructure to support the skills development in these States.

Lack of relevant skills among the youth has been a major contributor to youth unemployment.

TVET and promotion of STEM in HE is considered as a pathway to provide relevant skills that enable youth to prepare for productive self-employment or wage employment

and innovation. The access to TVET and HE is low. There are 12-public vocational centers, 9 of which are in Khartoum. States that are recovering from conflict remains grossly underserved despite having a very high concentration of youth out of school.

The transition government has promised a number of strategies to deal with this increasing demand to equip the country’s youth with relevant labor market skills. One of such strategy is enhancing the access and relevance of skills development in TVET and HE sub-sectors. The government hopes to increase enrolments in technical secondary education, as a ratio of total secondary enrolment, from 2.3% to 50% so as to achieve an equal enrolment in academic and technical education. The government would like to establish a technical

University in every State, that will focus on the social-economic realities of the respective State. The government’s intention is to expand technical and University education infrastructure, especially in former conflict States, and undertake curriculum reforms, to ensure the youth are equipped with skills relevant to the labour market.

Based on the government commitment to promote relevant skills among the youth to propel its socio-economic transformation, the government through the Ministries of General Education and Higher education would like to undertake a review skills development focusing on the TVET and STEM in HE. The outcome of the review is expected to inform the government strategic investment in skills development for its economic transformation.

The Ministry of General Education (MoGE) and the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) are therefore looking for the services of an International Consultant to undertake a comprehensive review of the Sudan’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Higher Education (HE). The Consultant expert will be supported by the local expert, whose main roles will be providing analytical and logical support to the international counterpart. This document outlines the TORs for this assignment.

2. Objective of the Assignment :

The main objective of the consultancy is to review the status of skills development in Sudan with a focus on TVET and HE. The work will focus on understanding the current status (policies and strategies, capacity, access, quality and relevance as well as financing issues) as regards to these two sub-sectors. It will identify challenges and recommendations to tackle the challenges identified.

3. Scope of Work : 

The context and enabling environment for the delivery of TVET and HE in Sudan :

• Analyze the structure and delivery of TVET and HE in Sudan ;
• Analyze the governance, institutional and policy arrangements of the TVET and HE (public, private for profit, private not for profit) sub-sectors in Sudan at national, regional, community and institutional levels ;
• Analyze the current the policies and strategies supporting the delivery of these two sub-sectors and how they have contributed to the achievement of the corresponding sub-sector goals and objectives ;
• Highlight the bottlenecks and gaps in policy, regulatory environment, governance and information management system ;
• Make recommendation that can enhance conducive enabling environment for skills development.

Access and equity :

• A review the geographic coverage and distribution of TVETs and HE institutions in Sudan by ownership, operational status, areas of specializations (trades on offer) ;
• Analyze trends in enrolments in Sudan’s TVET and HEST sub-sectors, on the basis of, among others, gender, disability, and other important parameters, at the national, state and if possible institutional level ;
• Analyze capacity of existing facilities and their adequacy to meet the demand in the medium term, say 10 years, highlighting capacity gaps and challenges ;
• Make recommendations enhancing accessing including strategies for enhancing gender access to TVET and HE.

Quality and Relevance :

• Review quality of skills development infrastructure mainly for TVET and HE institutions ;
• Analyze the trades and courses being provided TVET schools their relevance to the labour market needs ;
• Analyze staffing levels in TVET and HEST in Sudan (including teachers, instructors, and administrators) including their gender and qualifications ;
• Analyze adequacy of training facilities, equipment and learning materials in developing quality, relevant and competitive skills ;
• Analyze the adequacy and quality of the TVET and HE curricula to respond to the labour market needs, while making proposals for reforms ;
• Analyze the linkage between TVET and HE sub-sectors (at the national, state and institutional levels) and the labour market ;
• Analyze the contribution/relevance of TVET and HE institutions to the development of the States/regions they are located or the key economic growth sectors in the states/regions.
• Identify key best practices, from relevant countries, regarding quality of TVET and HE education provision that Sudan can learn from ;
• Make recommendations on how to enhance quality and relevance of TVET and HE sub-sectors in Sudan.

Financing :

• Provide a description of spending, public and private, in the TVET and HE sub-sectors including providing trends in spending per sector as a share of GDP/national budget, spending by functional and economic classification ;
• Review the existing funding and financing mechanisms in the TVET and HE sub-sectors, at the national and institutional levels ;
• Provide a mapping of stakeholders in skills development including their level of funding and instruments. These could include Development Partners (bilateral, multi-lateral and others), private sector, religious organizations, NGOs etc. ;
• Highlight funding gaps in the TVET and HE sub-sectors and strategies to fill such gaps.

4. Methodology, Organization and Outcomes

4.1 Methodology : 

The study will be carried out by an international higher education specialist consultant who will be assisted by a local expert based in Sudan. The overall execution and delivery of the work will be under the international Expert. The review will involve: (i) desk review which will involve a review of existing reports, documents, research and data focusing on TVET in Sudan; (ii) interviews with all key stakeholders in the TVET and HEST sub-sectors including the government and its agencies, the development community, the sector beneficiaries, development partners, private sector among others.

The lead international consultant will be expected to provide clear methods and tools for gathering data from the stakeholders. The lead international Consultant, with the support of the local Consultant, will also liaise with government (in particular with MoGE and MoHE) and PIU all based in Khartoum, to ensure successful delivery of the study.

4.2 Tentative Activities and Duration :

The review period is expected to take 50 working days, spreading over 4 months commencing in August 2021. The tentative schedule of activities against expected days for each activity, is as shown below.

The lead Consultant will work under the general supervision of the Project Implementation Unit and guidance of the ministry of MoGE and MoHE.

5. Qualifications and Experience Of the Consultant :

The assignment will be contracted to a person with demonstrated knowledge and understanding of the TVET and HEST and skills development, especially in the context of fragile countries.

5.1 Academic Qualification :

• The lead and international Consultant should have, at the minimum, a master’s degree in education, education economics, development economics or related discipline. PhD is an added advantage. A specialization in TVET and/or HEST and skills development is an added advantage.

5.2 Experience :

• At least ten years of experience in education policy development and/or policy research ;
• Practical experience of working on skills development mainly in TVET/HE education ;
• Practical experience preparing technical reports on public policy and strategy for international development organizations. Technical expertise in assessing issues of labor market demand and supply in Africa, and the ability to draw strong and valid conclusions ;
• Highly developed organizational and strong analytical skills. Ability to deal with complex issues in a clear and practical manner ;
• Excellent oral and written communication and writing skills in English; ability to write clear and concise reports ;
• Knowledge of Arabic is an added advantage ;
• Ability to work within tight timelines and work in a multi-cultural environment.