Senior Consultant to Support the Updating of the MIS Strategy in Burundi - 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. Similarly, 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 carried out. 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 source consolidating the multiple and redundant collections 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 teacher payroll despite the limitations of direct integration with 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 achieve this important objective, the UNESCO Regional Office for Central Africa is recruiting an international consultant to support the Government of Burundi in the current diagnosis of the EMIS on the one hand and on the other hand to support the updating of the EMIS strategy with an operational implementation plan.

The consultant's mission is primarily aimed at updating the SIGE strategy, accompanied by an operational implementation plan over a five-year period.

Specifically, this will involve:

1. Conduct a thorough and multidimensional diagnosis of the current state of the EMIS in Burundi:

• Conduct national-level interviews with key producers and users of school statistics such as the Ministry(ies) of Education, national statistical institutes, technical and financial partners, and any other structures deemed relevant to the purpose of the study;
• Conduct interviews at the decentralized level, primarily with establishments directly involved in the annual school census (i.e. Provincial Directorates of Education (DPE), Municipal Directorates of Education (DCE) and preschool, primary, general and technical secondary schools, higher education institutions, public and private etc.) in order to identify shortcomings in the data collection process from the decentralized level to the central level;
• Analyze the current functional relationship between the SIGE, the Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies of Burundi (ISTEEBU) and the operations of the General Population and Housing Census (RGPH), with a view to proposing protocols for data coordination and synchronization;
• Contribute to filling in the DQAF evaluation grid adapted to the education sector in Burundi, covering the six generic dimensions (integrity, credibility, methodological soundness, relevance, accuracy, and timeliness/accessibility);
• Analyze current data collection processes at the school, municipal and provincial levels, with a view to identifying and eliminating multiple and redundant collections, and defining an architecture that promotes a single source of data;
• Examine the issues of protection and confidentiality of the personal data of students and staff, and assess compliance with any national legal frameworks regarding data protection;
• Prepare the diagnostic report of the statistical system for the education sector;
• Make the necessary modifications and adjustments to the report following the comments provided by the main officials of the various Ministries and structures consulted for the technical validation of the diagnostic report.

2. Development of the national strategy for the development and sustainability of the EMIS

• Provide the necessary technical support to the national team responsible for developing the national strategy document for the development and sustainability of the EMIS, structured around the three pillars: technical, organizational and institutional;
• Support the definition of an inter-institutional governance of the SIGE, including a multi-level steering committee model (national, provincial, municipal) with clear mandates, roles and responsibilities for the MENRS, ISTEEBU, the Civil Service, Finance and technical partners;
• Consult the main national structures in charge of the education sector and the technical and financial partners involved to gather their concerns and information needs on education sector statistics to be taken into account in the national EMIS strategy;
• Provide the necessary technical expertise to the national team to define the orientations and strategic directions for the modernization, decentralization and sustainability of the information system;
• Supporting the explicit definition of the single source of truth principle in the collection and processing of student and HR data, ensuring the elimination of redundancies and strict standardization;
• Support the identification of forward-looking activities in the short, medium and long term, progressively planning the process of modernization, decentralization and sustainability of the SIGE;
•  Define a strategy for the progressive decentralization of the SIGE down to the school level, including the development of dashboards (web/mobile) allowing school principals to manage in real time the numbers, staff and performance indicators at each level;
•  Define a framework for evaluating and monitoring the EMIS including data quality indicators (DQAF), usage, technical performance and coverage, as well as a periodic adjustment protocol;
• Provide the necessary technical support for the work of developing the five-year action plan (2026–2030) to quantify the production costs of education sector statistics;
•  Develop standard operating procedures (SOPs) by key process (collection, entry, validation, transmission, analysis, dissemination) at all levels (school, municipality, province, central), ensuring uniqueness, traceability and DQAF compliance;
• Develop a list of additional information needs to be taken into account in the data collection tools;
• Support the definition of strategic options for harmonizing sources and databases within the education sector;
• Support the definition of options for using ICT for data collection;
• Capitalize on the achievements of previous (PAADESCO) and ongoing (Twige Neza) projects, by extracting lessons learned and good practices to be integrated into the new strategy;
• Support the national team in drafting the national GIS strategy document;
• Facilitate the various workshops (Validation of the diagnostic report, technical validation of the strategy and final validation of the strategy).

3. Expected Results

The following results must be achieved at the end of this mission:

3.1. The EMIS diagnosis with recommendations is available, including:

• A detailed analysis of the SIGE–ISTEEBU–RGPH articulation with proposals for coordination protocols;
• A DQAF assessment adapted to the Burundian education sector;
• A mapping of multiple data sources and proposals for a single source;
• A compliance analysis regarding the protection of personal data;
• Priority recommendations for eliminating redundancies and improving quality.

3.2. The national strategy for the development and sustainability of the GIS, accompanied by a budgeted operational plan for 2026-2030, is available, covering:

• The three pillars (technical, organizational, institutional) with clear objectives, results and actions;
• An interinstitutional governance model with structure, roles and responsibilities;
• A decentralization strategy down to the school level, including dashboards;
• Standard operating procedures (SOPs) by process for all levels;
• An evaluation and monitoring framework with DQAF and performance indicators;
• A budgeted action plan by pillar and by phase (short/medium/long term);
• A proposed legal and institutional framework for anchoring the SIGE.

3.3. The workshop reports validating the diagnostic report and the SIGE strategy are available.

3.4. A monitoring and evaluation framework and performance indicators for the EMIS are documented, specifying the metrics of quality, use and impact of data in decision-making.

4. Methodological approach

The methodological approach will be proposed by the consultant and validated by the SIGE technical team, which will be established within the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research (MENRS). This approach must explicitly cover: (i) a DQAF evaluation methodology adapted to the Burundian context; (ii) participatory diagnostic methods including schools, municipalities, provinces, and statistical institutes; (iii) an iterative process of co-constructing the strategy with stakeholders; (iv) a method for prioritizing activities based on impact and effort; and (v) a budgeting approach based on financial and technical feasibility. The consultant will work closely with this team to carry out their mission.

Deliverables

At the end of this consultancy, five (05) main deliverables are expected:

• A methodology incorporating a detailed mission timeline;
• A diagnostic report on the current state of the EMIS in Burundi including: ISTEEBU–RGPH analysis, mapping of multiple sources, data protection analysis, and priority recommendations;
• A national strategy document for the development and sustainability of the SIGE, accompanied by a budgeted operational plan for 2026-2030 covering the three pillars (technical, organizational, institutional), the governance model, the decentralization strategy with school dashboards, the SOPs for each process, and the monitoring and evaluation framework;
• A set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) detailed by process (collection, entry, validation, transmission, dissemination) and by level (school, municipality, province, central);
• A framework for monitoring, evaluation and management of the EMIS, including quality indicators (DQAF), usage, performance and a periodic adjustment protocol.

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