Section Early Childhood Development

Purpose Development of a National Parenting Curriculum

Location Kigali, Rwanda

Duration Six Months

Start Date Monday 30th April 2018

Reporting to1. The Nactional ECD Programme

Coordinator (NECDP).

2. The Chief of ECD -UNICEF

Date of Issue Tuesday 27th March 2018

Application Close Date Friday 13th April 2018 at 12:00pm

Type of Contract Instituional

Title Development of a National Parenting Curriculum

Background The Government of Rwanda has developed a comprehensive ECD Policy and Strategic Plan, offering government orientation on interventions to support children’s full physical, cognitive, language, social, emotional and psychological development. The policy is aligned with renewed government commitments under the EDPRS II (2013-18), the National Strategy for Tranformation (NST) (2017-2023), and the revised Vision 2020 targets.

ECD Minimum Service Standards have been developed to ensure that all ECD service providers, including parents, communities, community-based organisations, faith-based organisations, government institutions, multi-lateral and bi-lateral partners, and the private sector provide quality, accessible and equitable ECD services for young children in different settings.

Parenting or child rearing is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Each child is unique at birth, and the differences among children affect how they learn. Their early care also affects their learning. Experiences during the first years with their families and other caregivers greatly affect the kind of adults children will become. From a very

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young age, children learn important skills that will prepare them for life.

Families give their children special care for development by giving them love, attention, and many opportunities to learn. By playing and communicating with their children, families help their children grow healthier and stronger. Through a positive platform created by parents and other caregivers at home, children learn to communicate their needs, solve problems, and develop into responsible adults.

For this reason, the Government of Rwanda seeks international consultancy services to develop a comprehensive, evidence-based parenting curriculum. This curriculum will define themes of which parents and other caregivers should be familiar with, and how to provide optimal opportunities for children aged 0-6 years to develop and thrive.

Objectives, Purpose & Expected results

a) Objective: Develop a comprehensive, evidence-based parenting curriculum guided by the ECD policy and strategy as well as the Nutrition policy, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and Rwandan cultural values with regards to positive child rearing practices. Reference to and complimentarity with the minimum ECD service standards and REB pre-primary curriculum must also be maintained.

b) Purpose: To develop a parenting curriculum that provides a framework which articulates good parenting practices in a robust and holistic manner for general guidance, reference and use by all stakeholders in Rwanda to develop parenting programmes for children aged 0-6 years.

c) Expected Results:

A parenting curriculum that is inclusive of all children, and is holistic by addressing all domains of child development. It should be built on scientific evidence of child development and Rwandan cultural values, and should address parenting knowledge gaps and needs using a child’s life cycle approach from conception to school entry or age six.

A compendium of obtaining best child rearing practices in Rwanda as an annex for reference.

Description of the assignment

Early childhood development programmes have previously focused solely on pre-primary education. Although pre-primary education is a critical part of early childhood development, essential for helping children start school at the right age and preparing them to learn, new discoveries have made it clear that preschool is not enough. To provide every child with a solid foundation for life, it is essential to start early – before birth. It is essential to ensure that all children, especially the most disadvantaged, have the health, nutrition, protection, care and learning services they need to grow and

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thrive.

However, reaching out to children is only part of the solution. Parents and caregivers do not always have the necessary skills, tools or opportunities to create loving and enriching home environments. As a result, it is essential to involve parents and caregivers in developing a well-conceived parenting curriculum to encourage optimal child development from within the family. For this reason, the consultancy is expected to:

a) Review literature on cutting edge, best parenting practices, globally and with a bias towards the Rwandan context;

b) Through a desk review, conduct a study of existing norms and values of Rwandan parenting practices to put the curriculum in context of cultural relevance and values;

c) Conduct a stakeholder analysis of what parenting programmes are being implemented in Rwanda, including an analaysis of which services partners are providing and to which target populations;

d) Identify key parenting practices that should inform the curriculum and which should be promoted. These will allow children to become responsible adults capable of contributing to the national development agenda and Vision 2050; and

e) Create a curriculum that is well-informed and provides preventive and corrective measures of prevelant child development issues, such as stunting, inadequate care, and child neglect and abuse.

Deliverables The following deliverables are expected:

1. An inception report highlighting a summary of how the tasks are understood; the proposed outline for the report; methodology of data collection and analysis; description of tools to be used and their appropriateness; interpretation and the presentation of findings (10 pages maximum, font theme: Times New Roman, font size 12). The inception report should include a work plan showing outputs and expected progress of the team by activity on a fortnightly basis for the whole period of the consultancy submitted to NECDP and UNICEF as an annex

2. First draft report of the parenting curriculum for internal review submitted to MIGEPROF, NECDP and UNICEF only;

3. Second draft report of the National Parenting Curriculum presented to a special sitting of the larger NECDP coordination group members to be convened by NECDP and UNICEF for wider review

4. Third Report of the National Parenting Curriculum with comments integrated from stakeholders through an internal validation workshop at the ECDTW meeting chaired by NECDP;

5. Final Report: three colored hard copies and the editable version soft copy of the National Parenting Curriculum to NECDP and UNICEF only;

6. Facilitate a half-day National Parenting Curriculum Dissemination and handover workshop to ECD stakeholders

*All final deliverables will be in English and Kinyarwanda copyrighted MIGEPROF/NECDP

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Reporting requirements Brief monthly reports (max 3 pages), a succinct summary of all

activities of the month related to the assignment, describing progress in terms of curriculum development, highlighting progress made, challenges faced, if any and counter measures and opportunities.

All reports to be sent to the National ECDP Coordinator, copy Chief ECD UNICEF (email and hard copy)

Location and Duration

The consultancy will be located in Kigali, Rwanda and will be carried out over a period of 6 months from the time of contract is signing. The consultancy firm will work closely and regularly with NECDP, MIGEPROF, UNICEF and other key partners. The contract will be signed between the successful consultancy firm and UNICEF and will be governed by the UN rules and regulations. Delays of more than 15 working days in submission of deliverables to be agreed in the timeframe due to a myriad unforeseen circumstances must be submitted in writing to NECDP copy UNICEF.

Qualification requirements

a) Qualification and experience of the lead consultants:

At least 10 years experience in parenting, early childhood or human ecology programmes focusing on early years;

Have traceable qualifications in ECD, adult education, parenting, social studies, education sciences, early childhood development studies, psychology, sociology or other relevant fields;

Strong analytical and writing skills and ability to interpret findings and provide practical recommendations;

Familiarity with Rwanda’s policies, legal and development frameworks for children issues;

Proficiency in written and spoken English and knowledge of Kinyarwanda is required, French would be an advantage;

Computer literacy (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Internet); Flexibility and full availability during the consultancy period;

b) Minimum requirements for team members

The team should be composed of at least 3 members, excluding data collectors with the following qualifications:

At least a Masters degree in any of the following areas: ECD, Adult Education, Parenting, Social Studies, Education Sciences, Early Childhood Development studies, Psychology, Sociology or human anthropology studies. Psychology, Sociology or other relevant fields;

At least 5 years of experience in research, especially in desk reviews; ethnographic studies, including conducting interviews and proven experience mega data gathering and analysis skills;

Familiarity with Rwanda’s policies, legal and development frameworks for Early Childhood Development and other related children issues;

Proficiency in written and spoken English and Kinyarwanda; knowledge of French is an advantage

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Computer literacy (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Internet and other mapping packages would be an added advantage)

Note: One or two members must be from University in Rwanda, a research institute in Rwanda, a social research consultancy firm based in Rwanda, a development NGO operating in Rwanda or any such related institutions

Evaluation process and methods

The key components of evaluation will be two:1. Technical Proposal: Highlighting a summary of how the tasks are

understood; the proposed outline for the report; methodology of data collection and analysis; description of tools to be used and their appropriateness; activitity-based timelines; interpretation and presentation of findings.

2. Financial Proposal: Highlighting the individual cost areas; demonstrating cost effectiveness (value for money) and presentation of the aggregated budget

The weighting of the proposal will be 30 points Financial and 70 points Technical

The sum of technical and commercial is equal 100 points. Technical evaluation criteria. Please refer to Annex 4 for an example on

technical criteria and relative points.Administrative issues All applying entities must observe given deadline for submission of bids

UNICEF reserves the right to cross check references and information from C.V’s of participating firms

All bidders are requested to provide an all-inclusive cost in the financial proposal.

Bidders are reminded to factor in all cost implications for the required service / assignment as part of the bidding process

When travel is expected as part of the assignment, it shall be clearly specified (e.g. location, duration, number of journeys …etc.) in the bid.

Bidders shall be expected to include the estimate cost of travel in the financial proposal.

Travel cost shall be calculated based on most economicy travel mode Costs for accommodation, meals and incidentals shall be inclusive of

the bid Resources and facilities to be provided by successful bidder; e.g. access

to printer, office space…etc.Project management

The Office of the ECD National Programme coordinator and UNICEF ECD programme section will be responsible for the overall management of the consultancy and for receiving progress reports and providing technical feedback. UNICEF will administer all contractual obligations including payments using applicable UN rules and regulations.

Payment Schedule

1. After submission of the acceptable inception report: 30% down payment will be made;

2. At the submission of the second draft parenting curriculum report for final validation by stakeholders: 40% payment will be made and;

3. At the submission of the final acceptable National Parenting Curriculum in English and a translated version in Kinyarwanda with relevant annexes, the 30% final instalment will be made.

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Any other information

Application process Interested consultancy firms will submit the following application documents:

a) Letter of expression of interestb) Technical Proposal: highlighting the proposed outline for the

report-key aspects of a typical parenting curriculum; methodology of data collection and analysis; description of tools to be used and their appropriateness; interpretation and the presentation of findings (10 pages maximum, font theme: Times New Roman; font size 12). The inception report should include a work plan showing outputs and expected progress of the team by activity on a fortnightly basis for the whole period of the consultancy submitted to NECDP and UNICEF as an annex

c) All inclusive Financial Proposal: Highlighting the individual cost areas; demonstrating cost effectiveness (value for money) and presentation of of the aggregated budget of all elegible expenditure areas.

How to Apply

1. Application letters must be addressed to the Human Resource Specialist, UNICEF. PO Box 381 Kigali

2. Completed Personal History form (P11) for each of the Team Members which can be down loaded from http:/www.unicef.org/about/employ/files/P11.doc

3. Completed resume for each team member4. Certified photocopies of degrees, diplomas and certificates5. Two notified certificates of good completion for previous

consultancies in same of related field6. Certified International/domestic consultancy firm registration

issued by relevant authorities7. Tax Payment record for the last financial year (summary)8. Audited financial statement or income declarations

completedwithin last 24 months9. Submission deadline: Friday 13th April 2018 at 12:00pm10. Please apply online to: rwasupply@unicef.org or submit your

application and related documents at UNICEF reception

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