Education Research Consultant Opportunity with IOM in Nigeria

Terms of Reference Established in 1951, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners. IOM is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It does so by providing services and advice to governments. 1. Background IOM Nigeria is implementing a project funded by the European Union which aims at promoting better management of migration in Nigeria
. The overall objective of the project is to enhance the capacity of the Government of Nigeria to
manage migration in order to maximize its development potential. With diaspora mobilization being a key component of the project, IOM is providing technical support to the Nigeria. National Volunteer Service (NNVS) to strengthen its capacity to fulfill its mandate of mobilizing the Nigerian Diaspora for national development. With its capacity enhanced, NNVS will be able to further beyond the scope of this project engage and mobilize diaspora for development through diaspora investment schemes and temporary return of highly qualified diaspora members. In addition, IOM is supporting NNVS to develop an online portal which will provide a system for registration of Nigerians in the diaspora to enable NNVS secure substantial information on socio-demographic characteristics, geographic location and professional profiles as well as gauge their willingness to invest in Nigeria. While registration is intended to create a data base of all Nigerians in the diaspora, mapping targets Nigerians in the health and education sectors in 3 pilot countries-United Kingdom, South Africa and the USA. 

To complement the outcome of the mapping exercise, there is the need to conduct a needs assessment to identify the skills gap in the same sectors in Nigeria. The outcome of this process will provide government with the necessary information of the existing skills gaps in order to support NNVS to develop their outreach capacity to identify the Nigerians who are willing to contribute their competencies and skills towards national development. The process of encouraging skills and knowledge flow from the diaspora to the country of origin for national development otherwise called brain gain is in recognition of the presence of relevant skills and competencies in the diaspora that could be harnessed for national development alongside remittances sent by her nationals. Consultations with relevant stake holders in the education sector as well as available reports indicate that capacity audits have been conducted in the past. This needs 2 assessment will therefore build on the previous assessment and identify areas where gaps have not been addressed in the sector. 

2. Purpose and objectives: The purpose of the needs assessment is to identify skills and competency gaps in the education sector and provide government with recommendations on how the gaps can be addressed. The information gathered will assist the government to establish a matching system to mobilize diaspora for national development through a pilot scheme to encourage the temporary or permanent return of highly skilled diaspora members particularly in the education sector. 

3. Specific activities to be performed: • Develop the assessment tool and work plan and for the needs assessment exercise. • Develop a questionnaire to gather data on the number, composition, qualifications of personnel in the health and education sector. • Visit stake holders implementing similar programme like National Universities Commission. • Identify strengths, challenges and weaknesses of existing skills and competency exchange programmes with the Nigerian diaspora. • Briefing and debriefing meetings with IOM throughout the period of the consultancy. 

4. Methodology: A combination of methodologies will be employed to achieve the objectives of the needs assessment. This may include, but is not limited to a comprehensive desk review of relevant needs assessment documents and implementation frameworks,, group discussions, one-on-one interviews (both semi-structured and in-depth interviews) Deliverables and timeframe:  The whole assessment will take a total of 30 working days • Inception report after 1 week • Draft report • PowerPoint presentation to IOM of assessment process, summary of results and recommendations from the report • Final report to be submitted The Consultant: 

The Consultancy shall be carried out by a qualified and experienced consultant or consulting firm. The following is proposed as profile: Qualifications • University degree in social science or development studies is desirable. • Minimum of 10 years professional work experience with at least three of these spent designing and conducting education related research and assessments including primary research and policy analysis. • Previous work experience conducting research or working on migration and/or development issues. 3 • Previous experience working in Nigeria and familiarity with Nigerian diaspora context is desirable. • Strong English writing skills, with demonstrated capacity to write and edit technical health documents. • Fully proficient in MS Office, with capacity desired in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis.

How to apply:

Application, CV and report of previous work should be addressed to The Chief of Mission, International Organization for Migration (IOM) and forwarded to iomnigeriahr(at)iom.int on or before 19th November 2013. Subject line of the email should read Consultancy Needs Assessment in the Education Sector-Abuja. All applications should include a functional e-mail address, mobile number(s) and detailed curriculum vitae (CV). Please note that only applications sent by email will be accepted.Candidates are also expected to propose consultancy fee which should be based on a daily rate.

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