ICTworks by Inveneo

Country offices in all UNICEF regions (including the Soloman Islands, Suriname, Uganda, Liberia, Kosovo, Nigeria, Mongolia and China, as well as others) are exploring how appropriate technology can help strengthen flexible alternative pathways to realize the right to education for the difficult to reach and children out of school. There is clearly a need to bring together private sector, academia and development professionals to help accelerate healthy adoptions of systems and innovations. The starting point for this will be to review the existing e- pilot undertaken with the e-learning desk of local partner Ahfad University for Women (AUW) and other partners, which is presently concluding its first phase.

In addition, the consultancy will review the existing e-learning pilot project undertaken from 2009 in collaboration with the e-learning department of Ahfad University for Women (AUW) and with involvement of INGO War Child Holland as well as a range of (non) State actors. This project, which aims to create a non-formal alternative to primary education, is presently concluding its first phase and is planning for the second phase. The second phase aims to upscale the pilot to 100,000 children in 230 communities in all States of northern Sudan. The third phase plans to extend it to 1 million children. War Child Holland, may, at its own cost, add one or two members to the consultancy team.

UNICEF would like to hire a consultant to explore issues related to technology for education and help prepare a plan for piloting and monitoring the use of innovative technologies for education in North Sudan.

Learn more and apply for the "Terms of Reference: Mission to Qadarif"

Objectives of this Consultancy

We are proposing to look at a pilot population in North Sudan and assess how innovative programming and use of technology for development purposes can provide better access to information, reduced drop-outs and higher quality of outputs from the education process.

The expected start date for the consultant is Q3 with a mission to North Sudan accompanying a UNICEF team in early to mid-Q3.

Please Note: Because of a rapidly changing political situation, there is a chance that it will be logistically difficult to complete this precise consultancy – in which case the focus of the project would shift to another, similar, e-learning initiative in East Africa and the Terms of Reference below would be revised – though the essential deliverables would remain the same.

Scope of Work

Several weeks of “sensitization” to the work UNICEF is doing around innovative technology for education would lead into a preliminary mission (2-3 weeks), with outputs being:

• further articulation to a budget package for types of innovative technology interventions and techniques into the existing education system;

• a project plan with detailed budget for innovative delivery of services to the population identified;

• a user-driven set of needs in education (what needs can students and teachers identify that we can help them adapt);

• documentation of proper monitoring and evaluation – especially taking into account the need in a “design-thinking” based exploration to expect and highlight fast failures in a project so as to better learn and adjust for conditions-; and

• a further draft of UNICEF’s Child Friendly Technology (CFT) framework based on the field work.

Methodology

This assessment would entail a mission to North Sudan (3 UNICEF staff + Consultant(s)) to:

• Identify which population(s) would be the most immediate points of intervention (to be identified in close collaboration with the Country Office and based on already priorities as established by the Federal Ministry of Education);

• Work with children, teachers, caregivers and local leaders to establish what the needs of children are to ensure that this approach is user-centric and solutions are adapted to local needs, rather than bringing them a set of pre-defined solutions;

• Create a document identifying needs for moving forward (i.e. a project plan) including assessment of the current e-learning pilot study underway in Sudan, with recommendations whether to continue, how to continue, or whether to change;

• Prepare redraft of / extension of Child Friendly Technology framework in collaboration with UNICEF Education team (more information can be found: http://unicefstories.wordpress.com/2010/08/26/cftinput/);

• Review existing partnerships and identify other partners for further work in Sudan – key contact points and modes for engagement, as well as local partners who would be main drivers for the Country Office to take the project forward;

• Ensure that the most vulnerable children are reached, and that methods for engaging the bottom quintile of the population are at the forefront of this discussion; and

• Identify key external partners with experience in similar settings who can help drive the project forward.

Expected Output and Reporting

At the end of the assignment, the consultant is expected to present a report that captures the issues identified in the scope of the consultancy. The report will be made up of smaller reports, to be delivered during the consultancy.

Learn more and apply for the "Terms of Reference: Mission to Qadarif"

According to the Daily Independent, the Nigerian Federal Government has introduced RapidSMS for data collection in malaria control and immunization.

Minister of Health, Oyebuchi Chukwu says the goal of RapidSMS deployment is to use SMS in the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) at the facility level in 774 LGAs for:

1. routine data management
2. track changes over time in service delivery
3. inform service and resource planning

So far, RapidSMS has been deployed in stand-alone campaigns in Kano, Anambra, Rivers and Akwa Ibom states. It has also been used to track and coordinate delivery of 70 million ‘long lasting insecticide-treated nets’ distribution campaign.

As a pilot activity, RapidSMS was used in Kano state to capture data of commodities from state stores to the Local Government Area (LGA) and distribution points using logisticians in 21 selected LGAs and 4 pilot LGAs for mobilization and distribution of nets. Distributors who were not reporting were able to be identified and contacted immediately to follow up on distribution problems.

The UN Global Pulse project is seeking an Innovation Officer to assist in the initial planning, documentation, fundraising and skeleton-defining of an innovation "Pulse Lab" in Uganda.

Pulse Labs are national facilities established to support the work of government by developing analytical and technological capacity for evidence-based decision making and sustainable innovation in crisis resilience. Central to the Pulse Labs mission is the development of sustainable “dual-use” systems that simultaneously provide value directly to vulnerable communities while also generating streams of actionable real-time information to help leaders understand quickly how populations are being affected, respond rapidly with high-value, targeted policy interventions, and generate evidence for advocacy at the global level.

In preparation for global deployment, Global Pulse will stand up an initial network of three Pulse Lab “prototypes” over a three-year period to develop and refine the model. The basic modality of a Pulse Lab is to support the lab team, through both curriculum-based training and ad hoc, on-the-job peer mentoring, as they work to support government in improving crisis resilience.

The primary work of the lab team consists of identifying critical information gaps and needs, selecting vulnerable communities to participate as Global Pulse sentinel sites, and working with public and private-sector partners to create technology solutions that strengthen national capacity for evidence-based decision making and rapid response.

This lab set-up exercise should also be an exercise in open source collaboration. There are many lab efforts already ongoing in Uganda. The Pulse Lab should not replace or supplant existing efforts but rather build on them and serve as the connective tissue that can bind them together.

The scope of work for this consultation is to map out the existing landscape of labs / innovation in Uganda and to work closely with UNICEF Uganda's Innovation team to generate the plans necessary for starting a full Pulse Lab in January 2011.

Interested? Read more about the Pulse lab Consultancy