Consultancy-Education Management Information System (EMIS) Vacancy-Job Ref: WJNAUNICEF/2605/2025802

Consultancy-Education Management Information System (EMIS) Vacancy-Job Ref: WJNAUNICEF/2605/2025802

Windhoek (Namibia)

Job Description
UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, education

Background:

EMIS is integral to the effective governance of education systems, facilitating data-driven decision-making, policy formulation, and strategic planning. In Namibia, the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts, and Culture (MEIYSAC) has undertaken efforts to modernize its EMIS to meet evolving education management demands. As part of this initiative, the Ministry seeks to develop a live EMIS system to ensuring a more comprehensive and integrated approach to education data management, going beyond only collecting school data.

To achieve this objective, the Ministry aims to implement UNESCO’s EMIS Progress Assessment Tool for Transformation (PATT) to systematically assess institutional capacities, identify strengths and gaps, and determine the necessary investments and reforms needed to optimize data management, analysis, reporting, and utilization for policy and planning. EMIS PATT evaluates national education system management based on four key dimensions and twelve sub-dimensions:

Governance: Examines the policy ecosystem, strategic frameworks, multi-stakeholder and multisectoral collaboration, and financial resources essential for effective EMIS operation and alignment with national education priorities.
Management: Assesses organizational structures, institutional processes, human resource capacity, and stakeholder engagement critical for sustainable EMIS operations.
Technical Architecture: Evaluates the availability, reliability, and accessibility of technical infrastructure (hardware, software, connectivity/networks), including standards of operations, and digital services required for data management and reporting.
Data and Information Services: Focuses on data coverage and quality, data collection methodologies, validation, timeliness, and usability to ensure informed decision-making and effective education planning.

How can you make a difference?

Scope of Work:
The individual consultant will undertake the following key responsibilities:

Lead the country-level EMIS diagnostic process, providing technical and policy guidance, and capacity-building support based on the EMIS PATT framework.
Conduct field missions to engage directly with national education stakeholders, assess EMIS needs and challenges, and offer on-site technical assistance for system enhancement.
Undertake research and data collection, producing evidence-based analyses to inform decision-making processes on EMIS transformation.

Prioritizing these responsibilities, the individual consultant will focus on delivering concrete outputs to support evidence-based decision-making and strategic EMIS enhancement.

Conduct a full-scale EMIS PATT assessment to evaluate Namibia’s EMIS across all relevant dimensions and subdimensions. The EMIS system should include an integration of ECD-MIS data, which is currently housed under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, the existing census based EMIS system which covers pre-primary, primary as well as secondary education, and youth data hosted under the directorate of Youth development.

The assessment should also look at all existing relevant online data systems in use within the Ministry such as the school feeding database, School link, OpenEMIS, higher education, and others with a view to the development of one single comprehensive EMIS system that meets the comprehensive data needs of the Ministry and which includes unique identifiers for learners.
Prepare an Analytical Country Report, presenting an in-depth assessment of the EMIS landscape and identifying strategic areas for improvement.

Formulate a costed operational plan, outlining a structured and actionable framework for enhancing EMIS functionality, integration and sustainability. The costed plan should show the full cost of comprehensive development of the EMIS system over time and should be sequenced in phases to ensure feasibility and affordability. The costing should also include short, medium and longer term capacity strengthening for sustainable system management and ownership within the Ministry.

Work Assignment Overview Deliverables/Outputs Delivery Deadline Estimated Budget
Stage 1: Inception Phase (10 working days )
The Consultant will develop and submit an Inception Report which will include the following.

a) Clear outline of the EMIS PATT conceptual framework and methodology and its use in the Namibian context.

b) Reviews the provided documents, contextualize the tools, verify the questionnaire against available evidence, and utilized these information to inform the Inception Report

c) Develop a detailed work plan and timelines.

d) Present the Inception Report including the EMIS PATT conceptual framework and methodology, to the DATA Transformation Steering Committee at the kick-off meeting, for discussion and endorsement.

e) Incorporate inputs from the DATA Transformation Steering Committee in the final Inception report and its work plan and resubmit.

Inception and Presentation to the DATA Transformation Steering Committee (DTSC) 10 working days 20%
Stage 2: Conducting the On-site EMIS Assessment (30 Working days)

a) Conduct a series of in-person technical working sessions over an onsite mission, collaborating with the DATA Transformation Steering Committee and stakeholders to review scores and indicative questions across the four dimensions of the EMIS assessment, identifying key improvement areas for each sub-dimension and potential activities for system strengthening per improvement areas.

b) Develop a slide deck summarizing the draft analysis and strategic improvement areas for discussion with the DATA Transformation Steering Committee and the Ministry leadership. This will be presented on the final day of the technical working sessions.

a) Preliminary assessment report outlining strategic improvement areas.

b) Conducting and moderating the in-person technical working sessions
35 working days 30%
Stage 3: Developing Assessment Report and Costed Operational Plan (20 working days)

a) Analyze the mission findings, verifies the evidence collected during the technical sessions, and prepares an initial draft Analytical Report (findings and recommendations) and the Costed Operational Plan (per activity).

b) Present the draft Analytical Report (findings and recommendations) and the Costed Operational Plan (per activity) to the DATA Transformation Steering Committee (meeting) for quality assurance.

c) Incorporate all inputs from the DATA Transformation Steering Committee (DTSC).

d) Present the Analytical Report (findings and recommendations) and the Costed Operational Plan to the wider stakeholders and (DTSC) for validation (1 day Workshop).

e) Incorporate all inputs from the wider consultation.

f) DATA Transformation Steering Committee present the Analytical Report (findings and recommendations) and the Costed Operational Plan (per activity) to the Ministry Management Team for review and feedback.

g) The consultant incorporates feedback from the Ministry Management Team and finalize the Analytical Report (findings and recommendations) and the Costed Operational Plan (per activity for submission and endorsement.

h) Develop a concise advocacy report (5-10 pages).

Developing Assessment Report and Costed Operational Plan (4 Weeks – 20 working days)

a) The Analytical Country Report with strategic improvement areas recommendations.

b) The costed operational plan
20 working days 45%
Stage 4: Develop a concise advocacy report (2-3 pages) (5 working days)

a) Developed a short summary document that can be used for advocacy at a high level – highlighting a short background, key findings and recommendations.

Develop a concise advocacy report (2-3 pages) 5 working days 5%
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

An advanced university degree (Master’s) in Statistics, Economics or related discipline.
*A first University Degree in a relevant field combined with 2 additional years of professional experience may be accepted in lieu of an Advanced University Degree.
A minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience in Statistics, Economics or related discipline.
Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of a local language is an asset.
Knowledge/Expertise/Skills required:

Required experience:

Previous experience on EMIS or similar platforms.
At least 7 years of experience in data management, data analytics for education system strengthening, education statistics and EMIS.
Strong understanding of lifecycle management processes for data, particularly in education.
Previous experience to collaborate with government agencies.
Previous experience delivering training programs and conducting workshops.
Desirable professional experience:

Relevant experience working with UNICEF/UNESCO or other international organizations on similar assignments and knowledge would be an asset.
Required skills/competencies:

EMIS diagnostic assessments
Lifecycle management processes for education data
Data analytics
Data quality assessment
Policy consultation, review and stakeholder engagement
Data visualization
Demonstrated understanding of socio-economic context of Namibia, including human and institutional capacities for data systems in education
Evaluation Criteria

A) Technical Evaluation (e.g. maximum 75 Points)

B) Financial Proposal (e.g. maximum of 25 Points)

Costs indicated are estimated. Final rate shall follow the “best value for money” principle, i.e., achieving the desired outcome at the lowest possible fee. Consultants will be asked to stipulate all-inclusive fees, including professional fee, travel and living allowance costs, as applicable.

Payment of professional fees will be based on submission of agreed deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold payment in case the deliverables submitted are not up to the required standard or in case of delays in submitting the deliverables on the part of the consultant.

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