National Consultant in Support of the International Consultant - UNESCO

1. Context and justification

Burundi developed its latest national strategy for the development and sustainability of its Education Management System (EMS), covering the period 2016-2020, but its implementation suffered from a lack of sufficient and coordinated funding. Indeed, in the medium term, it envisioned the establishment of a single sectoral EMS, the digitization of data collection, the georeferencing of schools, the finalization of the human resources management module, the interconnection of the central EMS with databases on human resources, examinations and competitions, student achievement assessments, and infrastructure, as well as the decentralization of the EMS to the provinces. Similarly, it aimed in the long term to establish a student registration system to ensure better monitoring of their schooling, a decentralization of the SIGE in the municipalities, a biometric census of staff and students, as well as a cross-sectoral interconnection of the SIGE sectoral platform with all the databases of assessments, HR, examinations and competitions.

However, some activities planned in the Strategy have been developed, notably the GIS with the support of PAADESCO. Furthermore, other activities are under development, particularly the GIS-HRM with the support of the Twige Neza project, funded primarily by grants from the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). But overall, many other activities have not yet been implemented. It is in this context that the analysis of enabling factors revealed that the obsolescence of the national strategy for the development and sustainability of the GIS had a negative impact on data quality. Indeed, we note (i) the existence of several data sources on teachers, infrastructure, and teaching materials; (ii) the poor maintenance of school registers, which prevents the correct completion of school census questionnaires; (iii) deficiencies in data processing due to inconsistencies in existing databases, the absence of a sectoral relational database grouping data from all levels of education and training, and the lack of interconnection with human resources (HR), infrastructure, and examinations and competitions databases; (iv) the absence of up-to-date population data, which could call into question the reliability of calculating certain indicators using this data; and (v) the weak technical capacity of the data production chain.

(vi) the absence of a single data source consolidating multiple data collections and avoiding redundancies at the school level; (vii) the absence of a formal data quality assessment framework adapted to the education sector (sectoral DQAF); (viii) the inadequacy of a modern technical architecture supporting the decentralization of the EMIS down to the school level with dashboards; (ix) the absence of standard operating procedures (SOPs) ensuring the uniqueness and conformity of the collection, entry and validation processes; (x) informal functional links between the EMIS, the Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies of Burundi (ISTEEBU) and the General Population and Housing Census (RGPH); (xi) the absence of a critical review and a roadmap for modernizing the StatEduc platform; and (xii) the inadequacy of pragmatic mechanisms for monitoring the teaching payroll despite the limitations of direct integration into payroll files.

It is in this context that the Project to Support the Improvement of Learning in Burundi (PAQABU), funded by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), plans to revise the national strategy for strengthening the Education Management Information System (EMIS). This update of the strategy will identify appropriate actions to correct the shortcomings highlighted in the aforementioned assessment. Furthermore, the revised EMIS strategy will provide the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research (MENRS) with an up-to-date institutional, organizational, and technical tool that more effectively meets the needs for the production, dissemination, and use of quality statistics, thereby improving the efficiency of management and the forward-looking direction of the Burundian education system. The revised document will propose strategic guidelines organized around three pillars (technical, organizational, and institutional), operational areas, standardized implementation procedures, a robust evaluation and monitoring framework, and a detailed, budgeted cost estimate for activities to be implemented between 2026 and 2030.

To carry out this activity, the UNESCO Regional Office for Central Africa is recruiting a national consultant to provide technical and contextual support to an international consultant to assist the Government of Burundi in both conducting a comprehensive diagnosis of the EMIS and updating its strategy, integrating a robust operational implementation plan.

The mission of the national consultant aims to provide technical, contextual and operational support to the international consultant for the success of the mission to update the SIGE strategy.

Specifically, it will involve:

         2.1 Support for carrying out the diagnosis:

• Facilitating contact, organizing interviews and field visits with key stakeholders at the central, provincial, municipal and school levels;
• Provide translation and interpretation as needed (Kirundi/French) during interviews and field visits;
• Collect, compile and synthesize national reference documents (legislative texts, previous reports, PAADESCO project documents, Twige Neza, etc.) for the international consultant;
• Contribute to the analysis of the administrative context and institutional dynamics between the MENRS, ISTEEBU, the Civil Service and other relevant entities;
• Helping to identify and understand informal practices and real constraints of data collection and management at the level of schools and decentralized administrations.  

         2.2 Support for the participatory development of the strategy:

• Actively participate in working meetings and co-construction workshops, providing insight into local realities and constraints;
• Support the contextualization of the technical, organizational and institutional proposals of the international consultant to ensure their alignment with the legal framework and national capacities;
• Contribute to the drafting and formulation of the various sections of the strategy document and operational plan in French, ensuring clarity and precision of the terms used in the Burundian context;
• Participate in the budget estimation by providing information on local costs (labor, equipment, training, etc.).

         2.3 Support for the validation and dissemination of the strategy:

• Contribute to the preparation and facilitation of validation workshops (technical and final), playing a facilitator role;
• Help to incorporate comments and observations from national stakeholders into the final documents;
• Support the drafting of workshop reports and summary notes in French.

3. Expected Results

At the end of the mission, the national consultant will have made a significant contribution to:

• A fluid, comprehensive and representative collection of field information reflecting the reality in Burundi;
• A relevant and contextualized diagnostic analysis;
• A realistic strategy document and operational plan, adapted to the context and easily adopted by national institutions;
• Validation workshops conducted in an inclusive and productive manner.

4. Methodological approach

The national consultant will work closely with and under the technical supervision of the international consultant. They will adopt a proactive and facilitative approach. Their methodology will be based on:

• A targeted documentary review of national texts and reports;
• Ongoing networking and liaison work with the managers/focal points of the various structures involved;
• Active participation in all phases of the consultancy (diagnosis, strategy development, strategy validation);
• Regular and transparent communication with the international consultant and the national SIGE technical team of the MENRS.

5. Deliverables

The national consultant will contribute to the main deliverables of the international consultancy. Their specific deliverables will include:

• Report on contribution to the diagnosis: Synthesis of contextual information collected, translated/synthesized interview notes, analysis of identified administrative constraints;
• Contextual technical notes: summary of documents provided to clarify specific points (legal context, explanation of an administrative process, feedback on a proposal);
• Written contributions to final documents: Drafting or reviewing/adapting parts of the strategy document and action plan, ensuring their suitability to the local context;
• Brief report of the validation workshops (in addition to the official report of the international consultant).

CLICK HERE TO APPLY