Parent Sector : Education Sector (ED)
Duty Station: Amman
Job Family: Education
Type of contract : Non Staff
Duration of contract : From 1 to 6 months
Recruitment open to : External candidates
Application Deadline (Midnight Duty Station Time) : 01-04-2025
UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism
1 BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVES AND JUSTIFICATION
UNESCO is the United Nations agency entrusted with the mandate on education. As part of this role, it is the custodian of SDG4 at the global level, with prominent and extensive experience, knowledge and expertise in this field. Over the years, with the support of its specialized institutes (e.g. the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning – UNESCO-IIEP), the Organization has also positioned itself as a global pioneer in Education Sector Plan (ESP) development and monitoring processes.
Since 2019, UNESCO has been implementing the System Strengthening Partnership programme (SSP) with Jordan’s Ministry of Education (MoE) under a Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) with the support of Canada, Italy, Norway, and Switzerland. The programme aims to improve evidence-based strategic policymaking, planning and coordination at the MoE. UNESCO is also the technical advisor for the Policy, Planning and Coordination Committee (PPCC).
Following the extension of the SSP programme until 2025, to align with the Jordan’s extended Education Sector Plan (ESP), Jordan’s MoE requested UNESCO’s support through the SSP programme for the preparation of a new ESP starting in 2025. This request for support also included the development of Jordan’s first comprehensive Education Sector Analysis (ESA) following the internationally recognized and widely used UNESCO/IIEP methodology. The inclusion of the ESA and development of new ESP in the SSP workplan for 2023-2025 has already been endorsed by the SSP Steering Committee in November 2023, which is the legal body governing the MPTF-funded programme comprising of all four donors, MoE and UNESCO.
In December 2023, Jordan became eligible to join the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). It subsequently became a member of GPE in the Spring of 2024, making it eligible for funds under the System Capacity Grant and the Multiplier.
Following a consultative process, UNESCO was assigned as the grant agent by the Policy, which is Jordan’s equivalent structure to the Local Education Group (LEG) to support the Ministry of Education to finalize the ongoing Education Sector Analysis, prepare the new ESP, and develop a partnership compact.
2. PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT
Based on the above-mentioned context, UNESCO has been mandated to support the MoE with the development of the Jordan Partnership Compact under the GPE grant. The process will be led by the MoE, in collaboration with the PPCC, and will follow the
The Partnership Compact development process is expected to take up to six months. It will be aligned to the planning processes that will be taking place for both the new Education Strategic Plan (ESP) and the new Executive Programme of the Economic Modernization Vision (EMV).
Long Description
The compact development process as well as the new ESP will be aligned to the Economic Modernization Vision and be guided by the education sector reform process that is currently taking place in Jordan, which will also define the structure of the new education Ministry and help in identifying the urgent priority reforms.
The partnership compact development will also be done in a participatory, consultative and inclusive approach, to ensure the involvement, commitment, and ownership of the process of all education stakeholders in Jordan.
The priority reform identification for the GPE funding is expected to be done through the preparation of workshops and PPCC meetings that will take place alongside the ESP development. This will ensure that the identified reform priority is fully aligned with the ESP, and results of the ESA and has the needed flexibility to contribute to improving education service delivery at scale and is backed with the needed political will and measures to address all possible obstacles and risks.
UNESCO, as the technical advisor to the PPCC, will also support the MoE in forming the Task Team (TT) that is needed for the development process of the Partnership Compact. As previously agreed by the PPCC, the TT will rely on existing structures through the PPCC Advisory Group which is led by the MoE and includes representatives from the education development partners, the education sector working group and UNESCO. This group will be expanded to ensure the inclusion of experts on gender, disability and refugees as well as expertise on the chosen reform area.
The MoE, supported by UNESCO, and the TT will then lead a collaborative analytical process which starts with the Enabling Factors Analysis (EFA) focusing on the four enabling factors identified by GPE for system transformation.
The TT will do the first screening questionnaire assessing the enabling factors and then will support the PPCC in doing the full EFA based on the chosen priority reform.
The EFA will be done through a series of PPCC meetings (including ad-hoc meetings), and workshops and will build heavily on the results of the Education Sector Analysis that the MoE would have finalized by Spring of 2025 as well as the MoE Financial Diagnostic which took place in 2023-2024.
These documents will also serve as the basis for the development of the new ESP as well as will inform the development of the new executive program of Jordan’s EMV.
UNESCO, with the TT, will then conduct an EFA review, further analysing the strength and bottlenecks to the four enabling factor areas in relation to the chosen priority reform and will finalize the drafting of the compact following GPE’s revision and comments on the EFA. The draft version will be revised by the PPCC and upon endorsement shared with GPE.
As per the GPE Guidelines for the Development of the Partnership Compact , the tentative outline of the Jordan Partnership Compact document will follow the below structure (to be confirmed with PPCC during the drafting):
I. Introduction (approximately 500 words)
Partners and government counterparts involved; processes and consultations undertaken to ensure that the reform was identified through inclusive dialogue; existing policy frameworks, evidence, sector plans and dialogues that helped to identify the priority reform; summary of enabling factors analysis.
II. Priority Reform Overview (approximately 2,000 words)
Description of the selected priority reform, highlighting its gender equality and inclusion aspects; rationale for the priority reform, including identification of the specific barriers to improved delivery, root causes and their interconnectedness with other sectors; explanation for how the priority reform advances system transformation, including its impact on advancing gender equality and its potential to leverage large-scale change.
III. Enabling Factors Analysis (approximately 1,000 words)
Brief overview of the four enabling factors based on country dialogue and inputs from the Independent Technical Advisory Panel; actions to be taken to address gaps in the enabling factors, in particular those rated high-priority and strengthen them to support the achievement of the selected priority reform.
IV. Delivering Education System Transformation (approximately 1,000 words)
Alignment of partner resources and GPE support; roles and responsibilities of country partners; GPE grants and other assets to be mobilized in support of the priority reform.
V. Monitoring and Evaluation (approximately 1,500 words)
Theory of Change; selected indicators to measure key milestones along delivery pathways; description of evaluations or reviews that will
