Education Consultant

1.      Organization

The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) is the lead apex institution for community-driven development in the country. Set up as a fully autonomous not-for-profit private sector organization, PPAF enjoys facilitation and support from the Government of Pakistan, World Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), KfWEntwicklungsbank (Development Bank of Germany), and other statutory and corporate donors. PPAF aims to be the catalyst for improving the quality of life, broadening the range of opportunities and socio-economic mainstreaming of the poor and disadvantaged, especially women.

The understanding and experience of PPAF about the dynamics and dimensions of poverty has grown to recognize that poverty is not just about low income levels but is endemic in households and communities which have limited opportunities, few assets, low education and health status, lack of access to basic infrastructure and suffer from lack of social, economic and political participation. This refined understanding has enabled PPAF to expand its vision to encompass Pakistan without hunger and poverty and its mission is to reduce poverty in the country through a multipronged strategy which enables poor rural households to increase their productive potential, reduce their vulnerability through investments in assets, skills and access to services and increase their social, economic and political participation.

The core operating units of the PPAF deliver a range of development interventions at the grassroots/community level through a network of more than 130 Partner Organizations (PO) and 1020 Union Councils across the country. These include social mobilization, livelihood support, access to credit, infrastructure and energy, health, education and disaster management. Externally commissioned independent studies have demonstrated positive outcomes and impact of PPAF interventions on the lives of benefiting communities related to their economic output, household incomes, assets, agricultural productivity skills, and other quality of life indices. 

1.      Background

The Italian Development Cooperation (IDC) has entrusted to PPAF € 40 million soft-loan for the execution of the Programme for “Poverty Reduction through Rural development in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata and neighboring districts/ Programme for Poverty Reduction/PPR)”.

The Pakistan-Italy partnership to support beneficiaries rural Communities within the PPAF methodology framework will encompass leading principles of Italy’s Official Development Assistance (ODA), including its adhesion to the Aid Effectiveness agenda (Paris, Accra and Busan), mainstreaming guidelines, local coordination and sharing of responsibility with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Development Partners. Capitalization and appropriation of output results of PPAF and Italian Cooperation portfolio will be a logical scope to pursue, in response to the aforementioned criteria. The Programme funding encompasses untied and tied components: the first for the preparation and execution of all field activities, the latter, worth € 2 million, for the procurement of goods and services of Italian origin. Harmonized and coherent utilization of tied funds will also be part of the technical package adopted for Programme implementation.

The Programme covers 14 districts and 38 Union Councils in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and FATA. The population is approximately 995,000, constituted by 136,000 households, out of which 86,000 HH (63%) are involved directly and indirectly with agriculture/horticulture and livestock, and 12,000 HH (9%) are earning their livelihoods through fisheries. Remaining 38,340 HH (28%) are either employed, self-employed or have established their own small businesses/enterprises.  The components covered under the PPR include Social Mobilization, Livelihoods and Enterprise Development/LEP, Construction and improvement of small-scale community-infrastructures/CPI, Health and Education.

Selected local communities, cooperating with a variety of national to local level stakeholders, will be supported to use and manage their resources and capacities in a proactive and sustainable manner, not only to improve their livelihoods, but to also contribute to ecosystem stability, functions and services. Lessons learnt from successful activities will be documented, and widely disseminated to encourage up-scaling in other areas of the country.

The AICS has entrusted to World Bank, via an "Agreement for Advisory Services", as the supervision body for the program including oversight andmonitoring, implementation and compliance of environmental and social management framework and fiduciary (financial management and procurement) control of the Programme, which is carried out on regular basis and through semi-yearly "Implementation Support Missions/ISM"

Rationale for the Consultancy

PPR unit intends to engage an individual consultant to assist and support PPAF efforts for Educational interventions. The consultant will be provided working space and internet access in PPAF for the time frame of the work assignment

Purpose and Scope of the Consultancy Services

The purpose of consultancy services is to assist the Education team for the implementation of project activities. Consultant is expected to do, but not limited to, the following tasks:

Capacity Building and linkages:

1. Work with Education Team to identify various stakeholders working in education sector for leveraging, followed by consultation and meetings with stakeholders.
2. Facilitate in setting the agenda for PPR supported District Education Forums and their organization and follow up.
3. Work closely alongside existing partners on programme delivery and implementation to maintain strong and quality interventions, including joint development of work plans and monitoring compliance.
4. Support the team in aligning new activities in the Education strategy of PPAF with PPR project document and implementation of the same.
5. Support Education Team for monitoring the field interventions and timely reporting.
6. Support and respond to partners’ organizational development and staff capacity building needs through training and training support.
7. Initiate and participate in learning workshops and consultations at different levels with partners, donors, and target communities to report progress and share learning and approaches.

Documentation and Exit Strategy:

1.       Develop exit strategy for the component with clear framework of activities and linkages with government and other existing facilities and service providers/ departments. This is aimed at ensuring sustainability of the activities.

1. Document field interventions on education
2. Assess and develop lessons learnt, case studies, and collection of project completion reports and assess the reports for corrective measures.
3. Facilitate the team in MIS update and drawing reports and analysis from it. Support in preparing progress reports for the Education Component of PPR.
4. Undertake any other pertinent professional duties as assigned by the Programme Director 

Approach and Methodology

• The Consultant shall be stationed with PPR and closely work with the concerned team to accomplish their tasks as laid down in the “Scope of Work”. Extensive travel to field is involved.

• All the information gathered/generated during the process shall be the intellectual property of the PPAF, which shall not be shared with any third party without prior written consent of the PPAF CEO.
• PPAF does not accept any responsibility of any other communication or commitment made by the consultants to any other party during the course of the contract.
• Equipment provided to the Consultants for the purpose of the study will remain the property of the client and will be returned to PPAF on the completion of the consultancy.
• The consultant will abide by the core values of PPAF. 

Deliverables

The Consultant will submit 05(one every two months) reports explaining the details of the performed activities as described in the “scope of work”. These reports must have annexes of reports/documents produced:

• Documentation of field interventions on Education like exit strategy, linkages report
• Field visits reporting
•  At least 10 Case Studies, Success Stories and Lessons Learnt
•  Any other report/document prepared

Duration

The duration of the contract is for ten months

Institutional Arrangements and Reporting:

The Consultants are required to report to Programme Director – PPR through Education team for all their activities.

Consultant Qualification

• Master’s  degree in  Education or a relevant advanced degree
• At least 5 years of experience in the Education sector in implementing Education related activities at grass roots level
• Familiar with project cycle management
• Experience of working with NGOs (preferably for education projects).
• Familiar with the working structure of schools/ national programmes of education (both for community and government schools)
• Experience of preparing work plans and progress reports
• Ability to develop reports, case studies etc.
• Experience of coordinating training for staff and/or community members
• Willing to travel in various parts of Pakistanspecifically in Programme areas
• Ability to manage time effectively
• Good in spoken and written English

Selection Method

The Consultant will be selected as per the World Bank Procurement Guidelines for Selection of Consultants (January 2011).