Education Information Management Support UNHCR Geneva

Improving UNHCR’s management of education information will allow for increased ability at country level to monitor quality and efficiency of the education provided to refugees and most importantly to adapt programmes to respond to arising issues; evidenced-based policy decisions; streamlined country operation reporting; regularly updated information to support advocacy in-county for improved response to refugee needs; and capacity to report to specific donor requirements. In many cases, much valuable education information is already being collected, but it is not being used as effectively as it might be. The information that is currently collected and stored institutionally within UNHCR is spread between field and headquarters locations and across databases (Focus, SIR, proGres, etc.). Vast amounts of information are stored in schools, but are not transmitted in a timely way to facilitate analysis and response to problems. Currently, there is a need for basic data on school access, retention and achievement, which is needed several times a year to inform education programming, identify gaps and problems and address them before it is too late. Key areas of focus are whether enrolled children are attending school throughout the school year, and whether they are learning what they are supposed to learn. Managing UNHCR’s education information starts with standardizing the information that is collected, giving thought to the purposes and use of the information, and developing a means for pooling, organizing, analyzing and presenting the information.

Background:
Relevant, accurate and timely information management of UNHCR education operations is essential for monitoring achievements, evaluating outcomes, and adjusting methods to ensure desired goals are reached. In 2011 UNHCR conducted a review of its education program. One of the findings of this review was low relevance of collected education data, limited availability of data across operations and between the field and HQ, and short organizational memory concerning education. An organization/ institute with extensive expertise in education information management and education in emergencies will be recruited to conduct a process of strengthening education information management for UNHCR operations.

Responsibilities:
The following tasks will be conducted:
1. Generate baseline data (2012) for the 13 education priority countries. This must be a fast track initiative that collects the needed information, even by ad hoc means if necessary, for all 13 priority countries. Accurate information for education programming, management and donor reporting is needed urgently in these countries. Specific sites within countries may be prioritized in 2012, rather than covering all sites within each country, in order to meet the tight timeline. Although separate from the objectives outlined below, the baseline collection process will help inform the other objectives.
2. Identify what information on education is being collected and by which means. What information does UNHCR have? How is it collected? By whom? How often? Where is it stored? Who has access to it? Does the composite picture tell us everything we need to know in order to support the UNHCR Education Strategy 2012-2016? Are there any gaps? If so, what are they?
3. Define the parameters and the standards for needed information. What information does UNHCR (and partners) require in order to effectively manage education programmes and ensure quality? What are the key indicators? What are the units of measure? What are the sources of this information? How shall it be collected? How often? Will all operations/locations need to collect the same information? How shall specificity and comparability be balanced?
4. Ensure that all necessary information is captured, stored and usable. Taking into consideration the identified existing sources of education information, assess the capturing process (is the information collected consistently? Is it accurate?), the storage location (is information all found in one place? Or many? Is information repeated? Or missing? Can information be easily transferred from one location to another?), and usability (can the information be searched, collated, disaggregated, analyzed and turned into reports for different purposes and users?). Is the information available on a frequent basis to enable it to be used to identify problems and improve programming during the course of the school year? What tools are available for data storage and management? If some of these areas are weak, then identify methods to improve.
5. Create guidance, tools and teaching materials for UNHCR staff and partners. Having assessed, analyzed and improved how UNHCR manages information on education, the lessons learned and good practice can be transferred to UNHCR staff and partners through guidance, trainings and training tools. Developing these is important as their use will help build the capacity and knowledge that will entrench good information management habits.
6. Conduct a workshop to share the results of the previous 4 objectives. A workshop is an opportunity to not only disseminate the results of the process so far, but also to engage key stakeholders in testing, validation and refinement of the outcomes. Do the participants have any feedback or additional input regarding education information collection, storage and use? Do the guidance notes, tools and training materials make sense? Are they useful? Does the assessment of UNHCR’s existing use of education information fit with the participants’ own experience? Do the proposed methods for managing education information appeal to the participants? Do they seem efficient, realistic and useful? How might they be further refined or altered? Revise according to input.
7. Rollout information management support for education in UNHCR Education Strategy 2012-2016 priority countries. The rollout will be strategic, considering school year start dates, geographic location, and level of support needed. The rollout will target users who are involved in both generating and using education information, UNHCR staff and partners (including Ministries of Education).

Requirements:
The organization/ institute recruited will include staff with extensive experience in the following areas:
- Refugee education and education in emergencies - Information management (in particular from the field of education)
- Statistical analysis
- Needs assessments
- Assessing learning achievements
- Fluency in written and spoken English required, French an advantage

Timeline & Start Date:
7 months and 3 weeks with expected extension from January 1st to Oct. 1st 2013

Application Procedure:
Please send an updated CV, P11 form and cover letter to Terra MacKinnon at mackinno@unhcr.org by the closure date, June 13.