UNICEF contributes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Nigeria with a mandate to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF’s Nigeria country programme: Aims to accelerate the realization of the rights of all children and women to survival, development, protection and participation. Promotes efforts to reduce infant, child and maternal mortality; expand access to quality basic education; and strengthen social and child protection systems. Uses a rights-based and gender-sensitive approach Plays a catalytic role in supporting federal, state and local governments in identifying key bottlenecks that hinder realization of the rights of disadvantaged children, supported by equity-focused, inclusive advocacy, planning, action and monitoring at all levels. Supports adolescent development.
Background
- Nigeria is home to an estimated 237 million people, 49.7 per cent of whom are children aged 0–18.
- The child population is growing at 1.5 percent per year.
- The rapid child population growth places significant pressure on the delivery of social services, while it creates potential to reap dividends from the impending youth bulge if the country successfully invests in children’s education and skilling.
- Nigeria has striven to provide quality education, learning and skills development opportunities to the increasing number of children, but it has fallen short of the goal.
- Although basic education is free and compulsory, 10.2 million children of primary school age and 8.1 million children of junior secondary school age remain out of school.
- Due to the limited access to schooling and poor quality of education, about 75 per cent of children aged 7–14 do not develop foundational literacy and numeracy skills , which are building blocks for continued learning and acquisition of advanced skills.
How can you make a difference?
Purpose of the Assignment:
- Nigeria decided to harness the Girls’ Education and Skills Partnership (GESP) to address the skills gaps. The GESP is a public–private partnership between the Government of the UK government and major global businesses to empower young women with skills and opportunities in developing countries. It aims to provide 1 million young women aged 13–24 years with high-quality and market-relevant skills to enable them to become employable and entrepreneurial in local labour markets. The UK government partnered with UNICEF Generation Unlimited (GenU) to deliver the GESP
The tracer study aims to:
- Assess the effectiveness of GESP in increasing girls’ skills and attitudes to work as well as the programme impact on transition to work (i.e., employment and entrepreneurship) and income generation.
- Assess the extent to which the GESP interventions are gender-transformative (e.g., sense of agency; self-esteem; self-efficacy) and addressing barriers faced by adolescent girls and young women.
- Examine the social impacts of the programme on parental and community attitudes toward girls’ education and employment.
- Identify enabling and constraining factors by examining how various factors (e.g., programme designs; characteristics of girls; skills and practice of trainers and employers; attitudes of parents and community) are associated with the outcomes
Scope of work
Activity 1:
- Preparation for data collection. The national consultant will support the development of survey instruments and survey protocols under the guidance provided by the international consultant. The national consultant will conduct pilot testing of data collection, collect lessons learned, and support finalization of survey instruments and protocols. Based on the sampling of beneficiary girls and other target personnel, the national consultant will work with the international consultant and GESP partners to develop and finalize a survey plan and schedule
Activity 2:
- Data collection. The national consultant will conduct data collection from January to August 2026. Most quantitative data is expected to be collected through digital tools (e.g., sending a link to questionnaire to girls and personnel). However, field visits will be also conducted to collect quantitative data from some target girls and personnel (e.g., those with disabilities). Qualitative data will be collected through field visits and remote interviews. As data is collected, the national consultant will conduct data entry and cleaning to get the datasets ready for analysis.
Activity 3:
- Follow-up to data collection. Upon request from the international consultant, the national consultant will support verification and quality assurance of data collected. This may include follow-up surveys with select girls and personnel.
Work Assignment Overview
Preparation for data collection:
- Support the development of survey instruments/protocol
- Conduct pilot testing of survey instruments
- Finalize survey instruments and protocols.
- Support the development of survey plans
Deliverables / Outputs:
- Draft and final survey instruments and protocols.
- Pilot testing report.
Data collection:
- Collect data
- Conduct data entry and cleaning
Deliverables / Outputs:
- Cleaned datasets for 1st round data collection
- Cleaned datasets for 2nd round data collection
Follow-up to data collection:
- Conduct data verification and quality assurance
- Conduct follow-up survey as needed
Deliverables / Outputs:
- Data verified
- Reports on follow up survey
To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…
Minimum requirements:
- Advanced university degree in education, international development, social sciences or other relevant fields.
- A minimum of 3 years of experience in data collection.
- Experience in supporting the development of survey instruments/protocols.
- Experience in entering data in excel or other digital systems.
- Experience in using digital tools to collect data.
- Experience in conducting surveys in the education sector.
- Experience working with UN agencies or other international development agencies.
- Working knowledge of local languages in Lagos or Kano state.
- Understanding of gender-sensitive approaches including protection from sextual exploitation and abuse (PSEA).
- Fluency in English.
Method of Application
Signup to view application details.
Signup Now
