7981 (7860): Support to Reaching All Children through Education II (RACE II) Formal Education Programme - Technical Assistance to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education

DFID is seeking a supplier to deliver DFID Lebanon’s Support to RACE II Formal Education Programme (SR2). As a result of the crisis in Syria, Lebanon hosts 1.02 million Syrian registered refugees within its borders.[1] Of these, 488,000 are children of school and pre-school age (3-18 years old). The population of Syrian refugees into Lebanon has dramatically increased the demand on the public education system. The system was limited even prior to the crisis, with only 30 per cent of Lebanese children (275,000) estimated to be attending public schools, and the remainder mainly attending private schools. In this context, the Government of Lebanon (GoL) initially launched the ‘Reaching All Children with Education’ (RACE) plan (2014-2016) to provide Syrian refugee and vulnerable Lebanese school-aged children (3-18 years) affected by the Syria crisis with access to quality learning opportunities in safe and protective environments. GoL has shown exceptional political leadership on integrating refugees into the national education system through the RACE plan, and achieved strong results on the ground in the 2015/16 enrolment campaign with almost 200,000 Syrian children enrolled in formal schools (of which 149,000 were supported by donors). This was achieved while increasing enrolment of vulnerable Lebanese by making public education fully fee-free for the first time. The SR2 programme, recently approved by DFID Ministers, will support public sector education service delivery and the strengthening of the formal education system in line with the Government of Lebanon’s second Reaching All Children with Education (RACE II) strategy, which focuses on equitable access, enhanced quality and strengthened systems. One component of this programme will be a demand driven technical assistance package for the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE). DFID will procure a supplier capable of delivering strategic, politically astute, macro-level technical and delivery advice. DFID is looking for a lean team of best in class international and national experts with a track record in tackling barriers to system level change in education. DFID expects this to comprise of national and international experts with proficiency in Arabic, English and French. The team will need to support MEHE across RACE II delivery needs, providing ongoing technical expertise on areas such as: • Education strategic planning and scenario planning (short, medium and long-term) • Institutional development and governance • Public financial management • Data performance systems • Managing partnerships with the private sector and non-state actors and identifying viable opportunities for innovation in the sector. In addition, the supplier will also need to be able to procure and manage more discrete, specialist areas of technical assistance, with an ability to flex to meet the demands of MEHE and emerging priorities in the sector. Examples of discrete specialist needs include key aspects of curriculum reform and teacher workforce management.