UNITED NATION CHILDREN'S FUND has floated a tender for Cost Analysis of Early Childhood Education Service Provision. The project location is Angola and the tender is closing on 21 Jun 2019. The tender notice number is , while the TOT Ref Number is 33888741. Bidders can have further information about the Tender and can request the complete Tender document by Registering on the site.

Expired Tender

Procurement Summary

Country : Angola

Summary : Cost Analysis of Early Childhood Education Service Provision

Deadline : 21 Jun 2019

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 33888741

Document Ref. No. :

Competition : ICB

Financier : United Nations Secretariat

Purchaser Ownership : -

Tender Value : Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Purchaser : UNITED NATION CHILDREN'S FUND
Angola
Angola
Email :mamanuel@unicef.org

Tender Details

Request for proposals are invited for Angola: Cost Analysis of Early Childhood Education Service Provision in Angola.

Background and Justification

Introduction:

Over the past 10 years the Government of Angola (GoA) has consistently identified early childhood education (ECE) as a development priority. The provision of quality ECE, also known as preschool or pre-primary education, was outlined as one of the Angolan government’s 11 Commitments to Children in 2008. This commitment was reinforced in 2012 with the enactment of the Law on the Protection and Integral Development of Children, which states that Angolan children from three months to five years of age have the right to free, quality ECE services. Furthermore, the 2018-2022 National Development Plan[3] and the 2030 National Development Plan for Education both identify the provision and expansion of ECE as a priority.

Despite these commitments, access to quality ECE services for children in Angola remains limited. In particular, public funding for preschool education remains low. In 2018 the preschool subsystem was allocated 134 million kwanzas, which works out to approximately 0.02% of the total education budget, or 22 kwanzas for every child between 0 and 5 years of age. A key challenge hampering the Angolan government’s ability to increase access to preschool services is the lack of clarity surrounding public finance and costs in the ECE sector. This consultancy aims to address this gap by examining public ECE expenditures and by unearthing and analysing the real costs of providing services at ECE centres (public, community, private, NGO and faith-based) to breakdown the per child costs of centre-based ECE in Angola.

Background:

Three types of ECE exist in the Angolan education system: creche, from 3 months to 3 years of age; jardim de infância for children aged 3 and 4; and iniciação (year 0 or kindergarten) for children aged 5 years old[6]. Creche and jardim de infância services are offered at preschools, while iniciação classes can take place at both preschools and schools. Until recently, preschools were under the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Action (MINARS) while the Ministry of Education (MED) supervised iniciação in schools. However, in 2017 the responsibility for preschool ECE was formally transferred from the Ministry for Social Action, Family and the Promotion of Women (MASFAMU, formerly MINARS) to municipal education directorates, under the technical guidance of MED[7]. The 2016 Education Law identified preschool education as one of the six sub-systems of the national education system, falling under the newly established National Directorate of Early Learning. Despite this, at the provincial, municipal and preschool level there remains confusion about which ministry is responsible for ECE.

Despite these efforts the GoA has faced challenges translating its commitment to ECE into accessible educational services for pre-primary students across the country. The 2014 census estimates that that ECE coverage for children aged 0-5 is approximately 9%. Other estimates put the figure at 2% (MINARS, 2013) and 4.9% (MED, 2016). The 2015-2016 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) estimates that 11% of children 3-5 are enrolled in some form of schooling. In addition, as these figures include students aged five who are attending iniciação (year 0) at primary schools, the percentage of Angolan children under five who are accessing ECE is likely much lower.

This limited access to ECE has been attributed to several factors. One key constraint identified by MASFAMU and MED is the limited number of ECE Centres in Angola. Data from MASFAMU suggests that in 2017 there were only 41 Public ECE centres receiving financial support from the government. In addition, there were 177 centres supported by communities, religious institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and 300 privately-managed ECE centres. Other constraints identified in a study conducted of the ECE sector conducted with the technical and financial support of UNICEF in 2015 include a lack of supplies, equipment and learning materials, a shortage of qualified ECE educators, and the absence of public funding to support the operating costs of existing ECE centres.

Importantly, these bottlenecks are extremely difficult to address because of a lack of clarity around the costs to fund preschool education. Currently, there is little-to-no research or information on how much it costs to educate a child at an ECE centre, or how these costs are broken down. As the responsibility for ECE is divided among national, provincial and municipal governments, the budgeting process is complex an understanding the make-up of ECE sector costs is challenging. Quite simply, it is currently difficult for decision makers to easily understand how much is currently being spent on ECE, what these funds are being spent on, and how much these expenses work out to per child.

Rationale:

To better understand the diverse range costs and accompanying budget allocations and expenditures associated with ECE in Angola, the Directorate for Early Learning has solicited technical and financial support from UNICEF to undertake a cost analysis of the preschool sector (not including iniciação classes offered at primary school). Currently, there is a lack of information on the costs of providing ECE services to Angolan children. This is compounded by the fact that ECE is not identified as a line item in the national budget (costs are distributed along different lines and cost centres, making analysis difficult). This means it is difficult to understand the investments needed to scale-up ECE coverage. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the per child cost of ECE service provision. A more comprehensive of examination of the budgeting process and ECE expenses is needed to understand the costs of providing quality ECE. In addition, many of the costs of providing ECE are borne by parents and caregivers, religious institutions and community-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs); these costs should be examined and included in the analysis of ECE sector costs.

The reports of this consultancy will be used as follows:

To inform planning, implementation and assessment of ECE services in Angola, including identifying possible areas to increase efficiency, allocating resources more equitably, and improving modelling around ECE expansion;

To advocate for increased public budget allocation to ECE at the national, provincial and municipal levels;

To leverage resources among national actors such as line ministries, civil society organisations and the private sector to strengthen the provision of ECE services;

To improve budgeting and financial planning practices at the national, provincial and local level.

Scope of Work

Goal:

This cost analysis is being conducted to examine and better understand the total cost (both public and private) of providing educational services to children 0-5 attending preschools in Angola (i.e., the scope of the study does not include an analysis of the costs of iniciação classes taught at primary schools).

Objectives:

General Objective:

To better understand the total cost per child of providing ECE services to children in a representative sample of Angolan provinces and municipalities (both rural and urban).

(Note: This includes the four types of ECE centres that currently exist in Angola: public centres (centros infantis)*, community-run centres* (centro infantis comunitários [CICs]), privately-run centres, and centres run by faith-based groups and community service organisations (CSOs).)

Specific Objectives:

The analysis has the following main objectives:

1) To develop a model to analyse the total cost per student for providing centre-based ECE in Angola. This model would:

a. incorporate both fixed/capital costs (including a justified methodology for amortizing construction/capital costs over time) and variable/ongoing costs associated with providing ECE services. In other words, separate capital costs from recurrent unit costs. Examples of types of costs that may be integrated into the model include, but are not limited to: construction costs (according to government minimum standards), maintenance and rehabilitation costs, utility costs, staffing costs, training and professional development costs, equipment and learning materials costs;

b. identify the current costs of providing oversight to ECE service provision at the national, provincial and municipal levels, as well as the estimated costs of providing minimum levels of oversight if they do not currently exist;

c. identify the current costs of early childhood development governance at the national, provincial and municipal levels (i.e. to outline and examine the structures in place to ensure that preschool aged children develop cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically);

d. Identify the private cost attributed to parents outside of public expenditure

e. incorporate an estimation of pre-service ECE educator training costs

2) To identify and estimate the level of non-government funds being invested in ECE services (by families, religious organisations, NGOs) at publicly funded and non-public ECE centres;

3) To analyse how variables (such as geographic distribution [location] and type of ECE centre [public, community, private, religious, or NGO]) affect the cost of providing ECE services in Angola;

4) To understand the cost implications of expanding or scaling ECE activities within the current/projected fiscal environment in Angola.

Research Questions:

The main research question that this study aims to answer is:

What is the cost of providing ECE services in Angola?

This research question is supported by the following sub-questions:

a) What are the total per student costs (including both private costs and public costs at national, provincial and municipal levels) of providing ECE services in Angola?

b) What are the most significant variables that affect the cost of ECE service provision in Angola? (I.e., what are the most important factors that contribute to ECE costs in Angola?)

c) What differences exist in the cost of providing ECE services across geographic locations (provincial, municipal and possibly at the commune level) and across different types of centres?

d) What is the cost of providing pre-service training and in-service professional development for ECE educators, and what is the breakdown of these costs on an annual per student basis?

e) Based on the cost variables of ECE service provision identified above, how much would it cost to improve and/or increase or scale-up ECE service provision? (based on a scale of 2 – 4 options ranging from minimal investment to significant investment [every child in Angola can access ECE])

f) What fiscal space does the government currently have, or is projected to have in the next five years, to implement these investments in ECE?

Issues outside the Scope of this Study:

While intersectoral ECD interventions in complementary areas such as health services, birth registration, nutrition, parenting programmes, etc are integral to the healthy physical, cognitive, social and emotional health of children, they are outside the scope of this study. This study is interested in narrowly focusing on the costs of early learning. However, the costs of ECD governance and coordination will be included in this study (see specific objective 1.c above). In addition, if school canteens are present at ECE centres these will be included in the cost analysis.

In addition, as mentioned above, the costs of providing iniciação to public and private primary schools will not be examined.

Methodology:

To fully understand cost for ECE service provision in Angola, all programs and actors providing ECE will need to be included in the analysis. Thus, this study should include five key steps accurately understand cost ECE services:

Step 1 ? Identify, describe and analyse programs and actors providing ECE services in Angola

Step 2 ? Specify financial and human resource inputs (the “ingredients” of ECE service provision)

Step 3 ? Establish the cost for each input/ingredient

Step 4 ? Calculate total cost of ECE service provision (per centre, municipality, province and at the national level) and cost per student

Step 5 ? Analyse which constituencies bear these costs

To undertake these steps and to answer the research questions, UNICEF expects the study to use a mixed methods approach that draws on both qualitative and quantitative data, and which includes both desk and field research.

Desk Research

Preliminary desk research should review the international literature on cost and budget analysis that will help guide the development of an analysis model of the cost of ECE service provision in Angola. This will help to identify the information and data needed to develop and feed into the costing model.

A significant portion of this proposed fiscal analysis of the Angolan ECE sector will require a detailed financial analysis of current and past ECE-related budgets and expenditures, an analysis of education statistics, and desk research on the policy and regulatory framework guiding and underpinning preschool education in Angola.

This analysis and desk review may include but is not limited to: national and provincial education sector budgets and allocations, budget analyses and briefs, audits and financial assessments, education statistics, education sector plans, official statutes and presidential decrees, research studies, policy documents, household surveys, monitoring reports, construction reports, teacher statutes and regulations, evaluation reports, the 2014 census and the 2015-2016 DHS.

Field Research

The field research will include interviews with officials at MED, MASFAMU, staff working in the provincial offices of education and social action, municipal government and education staff, preschool centre directors and teachers, parents, community leaders and other stakeholders involved in the provision of ECE services. The consulting team is expected to design and outline the strategy for selecting stakeholders for interviews in the inception report. If a sample of ECE centres are to be visited rather than each centre in the selected provinces and municipalities, the sampling strategy must be clearly outlined and correspond with accepting principles of research design.

The cost analysis should examine data at the national, provincial, municipal, implementation (ECE centre) and community level. The consulting team should present a sampling strategy which outlines the rationale for selecting the selected provinces and municipalities to examine.

Activities and Tasks:

The following tasks are to be completed:

1) Conduct a preliminary desk review on the ECE sector in Angola and literature on costing models and analysis. This desk review should examine the following documents:

o International literature on models to cost projects, programmes, interventions and the provision of public and private services;

o Legal and policy frameworks outlining MED’s responsibilities for MED;

o Preliminary analysis of ECE budget allocations in the OGE;

The results of this desk review should feed into the inception report and develop the costing analysis tool and should be reflected in the final report.

2) Complete the inception report summarizing the findings from the desk review and clearly outlining the research plan, chronogram/work plan, travel dates, and methodology. The methodology should clearly identify the units of information (i.e. the stakeholders to be interviewed), data collection techniques to be used and the sampling strategy to be employed.

3) Hold a briefing workshop with government officials to explain the objectives and methodology of the study and to validate the research plan for the study.

4) Develop the methodology for the costing model/tool for to determine the per student costs of ECE service provision in Angola. This model can be used for the following purposes:

i) To calculate the actual per student costs of state-funded ECE provision (including both public and private costs);

ii) To calculate the actual per student costs of non-public ECE provision (including both public and private costs);

iii) To calculate and analyse the effect(s) that changing cost variables (such as increasing inspections and oversight, decreasing school fees or augmenting teacher training and pay) has on the public per student costs of ECE provision.

5) Develop and adapt survey, interview, and other data collection tools to examine ECE sector expenditures at ECE centres; examine ECE sector oversight expenditures at the national, provincial and municipal levels; analyse the parental costs of subsidising preschool education; collect data on the geographic variations of ECE costs.

6) Collect quantitative and qualitative data from key stakeholders at the national, provincial, and levels to feed into the costing analysis model. This could include but is not limited to: staff in the Directorate of Early Learning and the Office of Planning at MED; officials from MASFAMU working in early learning and ECD; staff from the ministries of Finance and Planning responsible for the development of the budget; officials in the provincial departments of education and social action; and officials from selected municipal governments.

7) Collect quantitative and qualitative data from ECE centres to obtain information on the real costs of implementing ECE services at preschools and centres. This could include, but is not limited to, reviewing documents to determine ECE centre costs and student fees; and interviewing and/or surveying ECE centre directors, educators and parents.

8) Analyse the collected data using the ECE costing analysis model.

9) Conduct a fiscal space analysis to better understand the fiscal room the government has to increase funding to ECE services

10) Prepare, present and receive feedback on the preliminary research findings on the costs of pre-primary school in Angola at a one-day data validation workshop with government counterparts and other stakeholders.

11) Produce a preliminary report on the main research findings after the data has been validated at the workshop with government partners outlined in point#9 above.

12) Finalize the report based on feedback received and present findings to key stakeholders.

Unless otherwise agreed upon, the final report should follow the following structure:

a. Executive summary

b. Introduction

c. Literature review (cost analysis models, costing in the ECE sector)

d. Methodology

i. Sampling strategy

ii. Data collection strategies and rationale*Quantitative methods:*

o An outline of the methodology and quantitative data used in the costing model, as well as a clear explanation behind the rationale for using these sources of data;

o A clear explanation of how this data was collected (secondary sources, surveys, etc)*Qualitative methods:*

o An outline of the qualitative data used to inform and triangulate the quantitative data

iii. Data analysis strategy

Quantitative (cleaning, quality control, SPSS, etc)

Qualitative (inductive/deductive coding, use of analysis software

e. Findings

Outline of the costs per student for ECE provision (for Angola on average and disaggregated by province and municipality), including a clear breakdown of the different variables/components contributing to the per student costs
f. Analysis

Examination of the costs of different variables, as well as differences across different locations (provinces and municipalities) and centre types (public, private, community, etc)
Using the model, analysis of projections to increase/expand ECE provision or to alter costs of input variables
Fiscal space analysis using ECE projections
g. Conclusion

h. Annexes, including:

i. List of works cited;

ii. Survey protocols;

iii. Chronograms and data collection timelines

13) Hold a one-day workshop with key stakeholder to present the finalized cost analysis model and the findings of the report.

In addition, a brief monthly progress report will be submitted at the end of every month to summarize completed activities, outline planned activities for the next month, and identify any bottlenecks and challenges.

Work relationships*:*

The consulting firm/contracted party will work with closely with relevant government partners, in particular the National Early Learning Directorate, the National Institute of Children/MASFAMU, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning, selected Provincial Education Directorates, Directors of selected ECE centres, Escola Nacional de Formação de Técnicos do Serviço Social (to understand how ECE educators and assistants were have been trained), INE (Instituto Nacional de Estatística) and education stakeholders in selected municipalities. During this assignment, the consultant will focus specifically on the tasks detailed above. However, as detailed under the “Conditions” sections below, UNICEF will facilitate communication and contact between the consulting firm and key stakeholders and will help the contracted institution have access to any relevant data or documentation needed to successfully execute this consultancy.

Outputs/Deliverables: (See below)

Deliverables

1) Inception report including outline for the cost analysis model submitted and approved.

2 weeks; 20% of agreed amount
2) Research plan including draft analysis model, sample, set of data collection tools for cost and budget analysis, timetable, organization of team, etc. submitted and approved;

4 weeks; 20% of agreed amount
3) Validation report regarding research findings discussed in the workshop submitted and approved.

8 weeks; 20% of agreed amount
4) First draft report (according to the structure outlined above); it must contain detailed information on costs, as well as a finalized model/methodology for estimating the cost/student for ECE services

12 weeks; 20% of agreed amount
5) Final draft of report

16 weeks; 20% of agreed amount
Desired competencies, technical background and experience

The consulting firm/ team leader should demonstrate the following qualifications:

a) Masters’ degree in economics/public financing systems, finance, statistics, education or related field;

b) Minimum of 8 years of relevant experience, including a proven track record working with international organisations, national governments, and international non-governmental organisations on public sector finance;

c) Extensive experience in carrying out cost analyses, expenditure reviews, public finance analyses, and feasibility studies in the fields of Education or Early Childhood Education in developing countries;

d) Demonstrated technical capacity to develop costing/data analysis toolkits with a clear methodological approach and user-friendly tools/instruments.

e) Spoken and written fluency in Portuguese and English. Knowledge of English would be an asset;

f) Experience of working with Ministries in other developing countries on similar issues;

g) Excellent analytical, communication and, report writing skills;

h) Experience in political and social analysis;

i) Knowledge of the social, political, economic, and educational realities of Angola, including the multiple overlapping deprivations that characterize the actual situation of many Angolan children;

j) Sound mastery of research and evaluation methodologies, including research design (sampling strategy), quantitative analysis (survey design and analysis, financial analysis and efficiency), qualitative research (interview and focus groups), and mixed methods (triangulation of data).

k) Prior work experience with UNICEF and/or with the Angolan public administration would be an asset.

Conditions

All international and domestic travel costs, including ground travel, will be included in the fee and borne by the service provider;
No subsistence allowance (DSA) will be paid to the service provider;
The selected service provider will not be provided with lodging or meals for its staff;
UNICEF will facilitate the contact between the service provider and key stakeholders/informants to help ensure access to key data and information needed for this assignment;
As per UNICEF DFAM policy, payment to the service provider/consultant will be made against approved deliverables as outlined in the Table of Deliverables. Note that the selected service provider will receive their final payment only after submission and approval cost analysis.
The service provider will be governed by and subject to UNICEF’s General Terms and Conditions for institutional contracts.

How to apply:
Interested service providers should submit a statement of interest (5-10 pages) including:

A 1-2-page summary of how their experience and qualifications match those outlined in this ToR;
A brief technical proposal (3-6 pages) outlining how the service provider would undertake the study (including proposed methodology and implementation plan);
A financial proposal including all associated costs and expenses to complete the study (including flights, accommodation, and domestic transport) (1-2 pages)
The technical proposal will be weighted at 65% (financial criteria 35%) and it will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Technical Criteria

Overall Response

Completeness of response (5)

Overall alignment between RFPS requirements and proposal (10)

Company and Key Personnel

Range and depth of experience with similar projects (10)

Number of customers, size of projects, number of staff per project (5)

Client references (5)

Key personnel: relevant experience and qualifications (5)

Proposed Project Methodology and Approach

Quality and rationale of proposed study methodology (including sampling, data collection methods, data collection tools, data analysis, development of costing model) (15)

Clarity, rationale and feasibility of proposed project activities and implementation timeline (10)

Total Maximum obtained for Technical Criteria -- 65

Minimum score for technical compliance -- 45

Shortlisted candidates will then be contacted for interviews and further information relating to the technical and financial proposals may be requested.

Interested service providers are requested to email their applications to mamanuel@unicef.org by June 21, 2019.

Documents

 Tender Notice