Foreign economic-aid-related services

Tender description

DFID wishes to appoint a service provider to manage implementation of PLANE which is to run for 8 years. PLANE aims to support improved learning outcomes in Nigeria and enable a stronger and more efficient education system which better leverages resources from the Government of Nigeria to tackle some of the worst education indicators globally. The intended results are: 1) Evidence based teaching and learning approaches in use; 2) Improved state systems; 3) Improved non-state systems; 4) Improved use of evidence. The technical assistance programme will support relevant government agencies and non-state groups in the education sector in Nigeria, to improve the quality of management and delivery of basic foundational skills, to enable children to learn, drawing on evidence of what works. Geographic areas to be supported are at the Federal level; Kano, Kaduna and Jigawa states in the North West and through a regional approach - the South West and South East regions of Nigeria. Nigeria faces a learning crisis — Literacy rates are very low and lower still for marginalised children, and teacher competency levels are very low. The literacy rate in 2015 was just 48 % for 6 to 16 years old, and just 14 % for the poorest quintile. Overall the lowest literacy rates are in the North of the country and are lower in rural compared with urban areas. Studies in Nigeria have shown that many teachers lack the competencies needed to teach, sometimes even when they have the required qualifications. State and non-state systems to deliver basic education face a range of challenges that affect their efficiency and effectiveness including institutional and financing challenges, limited monitoring and weak accountability for results. In a context of a large and growing population, it is critical that children and young people, including marginalised groups, benefit from having basic foundational skills (literacy and numeracy) to enhance their life opportunities and enable Nigeria benefit from a demographic dividend. The UK Government, through DFID Nigeria’s Partnership for Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE) programme, 2019-2027, seeks to procure an organisation(s) to manage a large technical assistance programme to: 1) Support more focused teaching and learning in schools and colleges; 2) Improve governance of state systems; 3) Improve governance of non-state systems; and 4) Support better use of data and evidence — to enable state and non-state systems to be more effective at delivering basic foundational skills, in geographic regions aligned with DFID Nigeria’s Geographic footprint. The programme will build on lessons learned from the last 10 years of previous DFIDN programming in basic education in Nigeria, as well as lessons emerging from the global evidence base on what works to address the learning crisis in low resource contexts. It will work to support and further catalyse reforms currently underway in Nigeria, in alignment with the efforts of other bilateral and multilateral partners in basic education. DFID is looking for suppliers with proven expertise, to deliver on each of the 4 output areas listed above. DFID expects that the value of niche technical expertise (national and international) in each output will be maximised, and there will be appropriate coordination and management where a consortium is proposed. A payment by results mechanism will be utilised by DFID and suppliers will be expected to work in flexible and adaptive ways. To be confirmed.