National Consultant (Education)

UNESCO

The Government of Liberia recognizes Early Childhood Education (ECE) as a critical component of children’s holistic development, supporting their cognitive, physical, language, social, and emotional growth while laying a strong foundation for school readiness, lifelong learning, and well-being. Quality ECE can also contribute to improved learning outcomes throughout the education cycle when supported by inclusive provision, effective teaching, and continuity of learning.

Liberia has made significant progress in expanding access to education following years of disruption caused by civil conflict, disease outbreaks, and other emergencies. However, the ECE sub-sector continues to face several challenges that affect both access and quality. These include disparities in access between urban and rural areas, inadequate learning facilities and teaching materials, insufficient numbers of trained ECE teachers, weak quality assurance mechanisms, limited financing, and inadequate coordination among institutions responsible for early childhood development and education services. Additionally, existing policy and regulatory frameworks require strengthening to respond to emerging priorities, ensure coherence across interventions, and provide clear guidance for stakeholders involved in the provision of ECE services.

The Ministry of Education has identified the need to develop a comprehensive Early Childhood

Education

• Policy that will provide a clear strategic framework for the growth and development of the sub-sector. The policy is expected to articulate a national vision for ECE, establish standards and quality benchmarks, clarify institutional roles and responsibilities, strengthen governance and accountability mechanisms, promote inclusion and equity, and guide investments and partnerships in support of quality early learning opportunities for all children in Liberia.

• The development of the policy is particularly important as Liberia continues to implement education sector reforms aimed at improving foundational learning. Evidence from national and international assessments highlights the importance of investing in early learning as a means of addressing learning deficits and improving educational outcomes at later stages. A dedicated ECE policy will therefore support the integration of early learning priorities into broader education sector planning and ensure that interventions are aligned with the needs of Liberian children and communities.

• Long Description

• To support this process, UNESCO, in collaboration with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education and other key stakeholders, seeks to engage a National Consultant to provide technical assistance in the development of the ECE Policy. The consultant will facilitate a participatory and evidence-based policy development process, including a review of existing legislation, policies, strategies, and research; stakeholder consultations at national and sub-national levels; analysis of challenges and opportunities within the ECE sub-sector; and preparation of policy drafts and validation materials.

• The consultancy will ensure that the policy development process reflects international good practices while remaining responsive to Liberia's unique social, economic, cultural, and educational context. The resulting ECE Policy and Implementation Framework will provide a roadmap for improving access, quality, equity, governance, financing, and monitoring of ECE services and will contribute to ensuring that every Liberian child has the opportunity to benefit from quality early learning experiences and succeed throughout their educational journey and beyond.

• Under the overall authority of the Director of UNESCO’s Regional Office for West Africa in Dakar and in coordination with the UNESCO technical team, the consultant will provide technical assistance for the development of Liberia’s national ECE Policy, aligned with the wider education policy. The consultant will work under the technical guidance of the Bureau of Early Childhood Education (BECE), Ministry of Education of Liberia, and support the preparation of an accompanying three-year implementation plan for 2027–2029.

The consultant shall provide technical assistance in the following areas:

• Inception phase: Preparing an inception report with a detailed, Liberia-contextualized work plan for developing the ECE Policy and its three-year implementation plan, specifying the methodology, activities, stakeholder-engagement approach, timelines, responsibilities, dependencies, and deliverables.

• Situation analysis: Participating in the conduct of a quantitative and qualitative situation analysis of ECE issues in Liberia and in the preparation of a situation analysis report;

• Policy document preparation and cost simulation:

• Policy framing and cost simulation: The consultant will contribute to the development of a framing document outlining the proposed policy orientations and contextualize the existing sector-wide simulation model to reflect Liberia’s ECE context. The consultant will also develop cost projections and alternative implementation scenarios to inform a costed three-year implementation plan accompanying the ECE Policy.

• Drafting and revising an ECE policy and a three-year implementation plan for Liberia in relation to the overall education policy, based on the results of the situation analysis and stakeholder consultations.

• SCOPE OF WORK

• SCOPE OF WORK

• The consultant will work closely with UNESCO’s technical team, the Ministry of Education, and relevant stakeholders to support the review, drafting, validation, and finalization of the National Early Childhood Education (ECE) Policy and its implementation framework.

• Inception phase

• The consultant shall prepare an inception report that contains a detailed, contextualized workplan on the development of ECE policy and three-year implementation plan for Liberia highlighting the methodology, timelines and key deliverables. The work will be conducted in consultation with the focal point for this project of the Ministry of Education and UNESCO technical team.

• Situation analysis

• The situation analysis will use ECCE-PATT and UNESCO’s

Education

• Sector Analysis (ESA) methodological guidelines. The analysis should combine stakeholder-based assessment with quantitative evidence to examine policy and governance, access and participation, quality and relevance, and the ECE workforce. The inception report should specify the data sources, indicators, county-level and urban–rural disaggregation where data permit, analytical methods, stakeholder coverage, limitations, and how findings will inform policy priorities, cost scenarios, and the monitoring framework.

• Long Description

To this effect, the consultant will:

• Familiarize her/himself with the ECCE-PATT and ESA tools

• Collect reference documents (e.g. legal frameworks, policies, guidelines, statistical reports, studies) and databases (EMIS, financial data, etc.) that will be needed for the analysis.

• Support BECE in organizing the process of the situation analysis (e.g. setting up four thematic working groups composed of relevant stakeholders), including the organization of the ECCE-PATT workshop that will take place back-to-back with the launch event with the presence of the UNESCO mission.

• Lead and facilitate the situation analysis workshop, together with the UNESCO mission; and ensure the collection and compilation of the results of the thematic group work and plenary discussions.

• Prepare a draft ECE analysis report (approximately 40 pages without annexes) based on the results of the above-mentioned workshop and in line with the report outline proposed by UNESCO.

• Support BECE in preparing the agenda for the workshop to finalize the ECE situation analysis report, including the presentation of findings, discussion of recommendations, and validation of the report. BECE will determine the participants, and the consultant will facilitate the discussions and document agreed revisions.

• Finalise the ECE analysis report integrating final comments and recommendations generated from the above-mentioned workshop.

• Long Description

• Policy document preparation and cost simulation

• Draft a framing document that will provide broad orientations for developing an ECE policy, based on the findings, recommendations and priority actions identified through the ECE situation analysis and consultation with national team. UNESCO technical team will provide guidance and support for undertaking this task.

• Discuss the draft fram