Norwegian Refugee Council seeks to recruit a consultant for youth programming study – DRC

Norwegian Refugee Council seeks to recruit a consultant for youth programming study – DRC

Fonctions	Technicien spécialiste
Activités	Social
Contrat	CDD

Background information :

For the past twenty years, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been affected by internal displacement due to ongoing conflicts. Between 20 October 2017 and 20 April 2018, the humanitarian situation in certain areas of DRC was declared as a Level 3 emergency. Part of DRC’s population lives in refugee camps in Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, and Tanzania, while eastern DRC hosts 46,502 refugees from Burundi. One of the most serious consequences of repeated displacement and economic fragility of households is the non-enrolment of children in school. Displacement renders households economically vulnerable as they lose their access to means of production and consequently struggle to cover their basic needs. Access to education for primary school aged children becomes limited as the formal and informal costs of education create a barrier for the families to send their children to school. According to USAID, there is an estimated 3.5 million primary school age children who are not in school, while 44% of children start school late.

The combination of conflict, repeated displacement, and poverty has taken a particular toll on girls’ education. Completion rates show that only 57.1% of girls who begin primary school successfully pass the exit exam, in comparison to 63.8% of boys. Around the age of 9 or 10, children in the DRC are considered overage and are therefore ineligible to start primary school. As there are very few quality educational opportunities for youth, countless children are lost to the education system and become illiterate members of society with few competences or skills, limiting their options in life.

NRC has implemented a Youth Education Pack (YEP) program for several years, and the last YEP project ended in 2016. Based on an external evaluation, NRC’s approach to YEP has been revised and improved to better address youth’s transition to employment.

NRC has secured funding from the Swedish Embassy for a youth-focused project in three geographic zones (Butembo, Kananga and Uvira) to improve conflict-affected youth’s transition to employment. This project builds a network of youth training centres and businesses to better match the training with employers’ demand for skills and human resources as well as market needs. This study will provide learning, insights and guidance to support the planning of the youth project, as well as other future education and livelihoods projects.

 

Purpose of assessment and intended use :

NRC will conduct a youth labour market assessment study for youth between 15-24 years. The objectives of this consultancy for the youth programme component are :

1. To obtain key information that will support the Project in integrating youth into the labour market;
2. To identify employment opportunities for youth in Butembo, Uvira and Kananga through addressing employers’ demand for skills and through identifying self-employment opportunities;
3. To find out the real needs and interests of the private sector in order to make sure the Youth Project responds better to their demand and thus ensuring the employability of youth, upon their programme completion;
4. To identify together with the private sector the challenges and opportunities that employers face within their existing workforces and when recruiting new employees;
5. To identify together with the private sector the challenges and opportunities that micro and small businesses face with regards to access to financial and non-financial services;
6. To identify together with youth groups the entry barriers and on-the-job challenges that young employees and young entrepreneurs face, in particular young women;
7. To provide some insights on how the collaboration between the certified youth and the private sector and/or public sector should be implemented in the context of the DRC; and
8. To review the existing literature regarding other vocational programs and youth business start-up programs in DRC, in order to understand the different approaches already used by other partners and eventually success.

These findings will also allow NRC to identify new partnerships in order to enhance the project. These opportunities will include training courses, apprenticeships and mentoring.

Finally, these findings will facilitate the development of a sound technical skills development Youth Project in DRC and will better respond to youth well-being and aspirations.

 

Scope :

• Dates of the evaluation: 1st February 2019 – 21 March 2019 ;
• Geographical coverage: Uvira, Kananga, Butembo ;
• Donor: NMFA.

 

Methods :

The evaluation shall include a mixed-method approach comprising of both qualitative and quantitative methods, but with emphasis on qualitative methods. This will include a combination of key informant interviews (KII), mini-surveys (non-probability sampling), focus group discussions (FGDs) and direct observation.

KIIs will target both internal and external informants including :

• NRC staff (minimum 5 people, at least one from each target geographic zone) ;
• CSO partners (minimum 1 in each target geographic zone) ;
• Members of the Federation des Entreprises du Congo (FEC) (minimum 2 in each target geographic zone) ;
• Division of Social Affairs (minimum 1 in each target geographic zone) ;
• Trainers in vocational training centres (minimum 1 in each target geographic zone) ;
• Community leaders (minimum 1 in each target geographic zone) ;
• Youth leaders (minimum 1 in each target geographic zone) ;
• Major local employers (minimum 1 in each target geographic zone) ;
• Micro-entrepreneurs (minimum 1 in each target geographic zone) ;
• Customers (minimum 1 in each target geographic zone) ;
• KIIs will target a mixture of female and male representatives ;
• FGDs will be carried out in homogenous groups of community members, including groups of youth, separate groups for men and women ;
• Respondents to the surveys shall principally be youth and employers ;
• Direct observation will be done within the community to evaluate types of trades and services available, goods produced in the zone and participants in the trades and services ;
• KIIs, FGDs and observations shall apply semi-structured guides, while the surveys will be closed questions. It is instrumental that the evaluation captures in-depth opinions, views and experiences of youth.

Participants in KIIs and FGDs, as well as survey respondents, will be identified and selected in coordination with NRC based on the criteria proposed by the consultant. All data collection tools will be drafted by the consultant and submitted to NRC for validation before proceeding to fieldwork.

 

Study, Follow up and Learning :

NRC CO will dedicate a staff to be a Study Manager in order to ensure the consultant gets all the needed support in order to carry out the research using quantitative and qualitative methods to meet the research objectives.

Learning from the study will be immediately integrated into the planning for the Swedish Embassy-funded youth project and will also be shared with all Education and Livelihoods and Food Security staff for continued strategic reflection.

 

Management of the Study

The Study Manager will be the consultant focal point. S/he will provide administrative and logistical support, and continuous feedback throughout the whole study process.

NRC will provide the following support to the Consultant team :

• Transmission of the existing literature and data (project proposal, monitoring data, reports, studies, etc.) ;
• Meeting arrangements with stakeholders and beneficiaries, if requested by the consultant ;
• Support of selection of data collectors, translators, facilitators, note takers, if requested by the consultant ;
• Introduction of the consultant to NRC key stakeholders and other very important key informants.

 

Deliverables and reporting deadlines :

The expected deliverables are :

• Inception report: Prior to the study, the consultant will need to submit their terms of reference to NRC for approval before starting data collection. These terms of reference will include: methods, evaluation matrix, data collection tools, assessment tools including key informant interviews questionnaire, FGD guidance note and direct observation questionnaire, etc. (to be approved by NRC before starting data collection) ;
• Desk review of secondary sources that analyse labour market trends for youth in the DRC ;
• Draft evaluation report for review by NRC staff and other stakeholders ;
• Final report in French (max. 40 pages, excluding appendices) that consists of :

1. Executive summary (in French and English) with focus on lessons learned, conclusions and recommendations ;
2. Methodology ;
3. Evaluation findings with associated data structured around methods and evaluation questions ;
4. Conclusions ;
5. Present policy recommendations for DRC Government, donors and all relevant response actors on appropriate means of responding to identified youth needs and minimizing harmful impacts of displacement, as well as ensuring longer-term benefits in the context of unclear durable solutions ;
6. Present recommendations and defined programmatic activities that NRC and other actors/agencies can implement to respond to the needs of youth with a specific focus on education/training ;
7. Appendices, which include e.g. TOR, Inception report, data collection tools; and
8. Cleaned databases with evaluation data, in Excel format for quantitative data, and all transcriptions in French in Word format for qualitative data.

• PowerPoint presentations in French and English containing findings and recommendations to be presented to NRC during restitution workshop (Skype conference) ;
• PowerPoint presentation in French to be shared with national education authorities and other stakeholders.

 

Study Consultant Team :

The consultant will be responsible for supervision of the implementation of the consultancy, including the design, collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, writing reports, presenting the findings and recommendations to NRC and other clients in a workshop, and producing the reports. The consultant will also supervise and provide guidance to the enumerators and design the surveys/questionnaires, sampling framework, data collection, analysis and reports

Expériences / Formation du candidat :

Mandatory requirements for the consultant or consultancy team :

• Advanced degree from an internationally recognized university in social sciences, economy, education, international development or other related fields ;
• Minimum 5 years of experience in market assessments for youth programmes or market assessments for business development ;
• Minimum 5 years of experience in education/youth development, preferably with a focus on employability programmes ;
• Experience of quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and strong analysis capacity ;
• Experience with assessment and evaluation of projects funded by donors ;
• Fluency in written and spoken French and English is an asset, for all team members ;
• Good communication and demonstrable team leadership experience ;
• Computer skills (word processing, spreadsheets, statistical analysis software application, internet research, etc.).

The following is a plus :

• Prior experience in DRC/Central Africa ;
• Experience working/conducting research with young people is essential.

The evaluation team will be guided by the following ethical considerations :

• The views expressed in the report will be the independent professional opinion of the evaluator ;
• Openness – of information given, to the highest possible degree to all involved parties ;
• Broad participation – the interested parties should be involved where relevant and possible ;
• Reliability and independence – the evaluation should be conducted so that findings and conclusions are correct and trustworthy.

Documents à envoyer :

Interested candidates are invited to send an email to Didier Musimbi at email didier.musimbi@nrc.no

The title of the email should be ‘Consultancy for Youth Market programming study– NRC DRC’. Deadline: 31/01/2019.

 

Applications shall include the following :

• 1 technical offer detailing the evaluation framework, methods, evaluation matrix, evaluation matrix and evaluation team (max. 6 pages) ;
• 1 financial offer (Excel) detailing the costs of the evaluation ;
• CV of the research lead and team members demonstrating relevant experience / knowledge (max 10 pages) ;
• 2 references of organisations to be consulted in order to be informed about the consultant prior experience in this area of study ;
• 1-2 samples of previous studies, research or case studies previously conducted by the consultant.

Please include feasible start date and mention where you found this posting. Preference will be given to applicants who include at least an executive summary or abstract of a similar work conducted. Female applicants are strongly encouraged to apply.