Survey Design Consultant

1. About ARC International

American Refugee Committee International (ARCI) is an International Not-for-Profit humanitarian and development organization working globally for last 30 years. The ARCI commenced its work in Pakistan in 2002 through providing humanitarian assistance to Afghan refugees and the host communities. 

The ARCI responded to 2005 deadly earthquake that affected districts of Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.  The ARCI also responded to 2010 floods that affected people across four provinces, Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.  Since 2015, ARCI has reinvented its program strategy in Pakistan. ARCI is now both a trusted provider of emergency and relief services and also a front runner in tackling the most pressing development challenges in the country. 

Focused on innovation, high-quality delivery and geographic diversification, ARC is bringing new value to the people of Pakistan. Today ARC stands amongst the leading partners of Government of Pakistan that are contributing to education, health and socio-economic empowerment through social innovation. The ARCI believes that something incredible will result as long as we begin the journey with the amazing people, agree on a destination and move together towards it transparently and open to possibility. In recognition of the social impact ARC has contributed to across Pakistan. 

2.  Educate A Child Project

In 2018, the ARCI and the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, Government of Pakistan launched a country wide project “Access to Education for One Million Out of School Children(OOSCs)in Pakistan” with the collaboration of Education Above All (EAA) Qatar to enroll 1,050,000 Out of School Children with formal and non-formal schools in Pakistan.  The ARCI is implementing the project in 55 districts of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh.  The target districts are selected on the basis of the children who are out-of-school as informed by the baseline report, and where interventions are required to bring children to the schools. Educate A Child (EAC) Program key objective are: 

Objective 1:  To provide equitable access to 1,050,000 children of 6-16 years of age through formal and alternative education in Pakistan. 

Objective 2: Strengthen community based systems and increase the capacity of stakeholders for effective local governance and advocacy to operationalize enrolment, retention and continuing education of targeted children in Pakistan.

Objective 3: Build capacity of national, provincial and district level education departments to plan, implement and monitoring formal and alternative education programs for 1,050,000 children in all four provinces, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Islamabad Capital Territory and Gilgit Baltistan. 

 

3. Project Implementation Model

EAC project is implemented through a collaborative approach in which all the willing partners leverage each other resources to generate an optimum impact to bring out-of-school children to the school.  ARCI collaboration partners include public sector, not-for-profit, semi-private and private entities who share the goal of ending out-of-school children crisis in Pakistan. The ARCI employs its technical and financial resources to address critical demand and supply side gaps in addressing out-of-school children crisis in Pakistan. The project’s key interventions are:

 

Enrollment campaigns to mobilize parents, communities and stakeholders to enroll out-of-school children with formal and non-formal schools.

Establishing new non-formal schools.

Infrastructure improvement, and provision of equipment/material to existing formal and non-formal schools.

Teachers and education staff capacity building.

Strengthening community representative forums and school management committees.

Advocacy for the children’s right to an education in a safe and conducive learning environment.

Development of provincial  and district education plans.

Development and implementation of school development plans.

Adopting technology-based solutions to track newly  enrolled  children in the schools.

 

3.1         Program Data Handling Regime 

Each program partners include federal and provincial governments, autonomous bodies and civil society organizations to enroll children with the school.  The partners identify OOSC against an already agreed criteria. Once the children are enrolled they are reported to ARC through partners reporting channel.  ARC puts in place many data validation & control measures from data collection, reporting to digitization to ensure data quality control. Also, ARC independently verifies reported data to ensure authenticity of the information. 

 4.            Data Validation and Child Tracking in the Schools

ARC intends to validate children against OOSC criteria and regularity in the non-formal schools.  The results of validation will help ARC report progress made towards the program’s goal. ARC intends to hire the services of an Islamabad based statistician to help in devising validation and tracking strategy. The purpose of the assignment is to devise a robust survey design for reliable validation and tracking results.

 4.1.       Scope of Work 

Assignment is desk based work that involves review of the program’s proposal, reporting requirements, project’s geographic map, and non-formal partners’ modalities. Assignment planning will also involve meeting with ARC M&E staff.  The assignment will not involve any travel outside Islamabad. 

4.2.     Key tasks and Level of Effort

Task	Description	Level of Effort
Meeting  with ARC Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Team	To discuss about: 1.    Scope of the assignment in detail. 2.    Assignment timeline. 3.    Data reporting requirements. 4.    Survey design.	2 Hours
Review of the program documents	Consultant will review in details following documents: Project’s proposal. Project’s Monitoring and Evaluation(M&E) System guidelines. Project’s Reporting requirements. Project’s Performance Management Plan. Project’s geographic map. Project’s partnership modalities.	1 Days
Debrief Meeting with MER team	Discussion on possible survey design  and financial implications.	2 Hours
Survey Design	Complete survey design on the template provided after ARC feedback.	4  Days

 

4.3.     Duration

Total duration of the assignment is 6 days from inception meeting onward.

 

4.4.     Reporting

The consultant will report to Sr. Manager MER ARC, Islamabad

5.    Deliverable

Survey design on a prescribed format provided by ARC Pakistan.

6.    Roles and Responsibilities

6.1.         ARC

1. To provide project documents and other required information to the consultant.
2. To facilitate with the provision of information as when required by the consultant.
3. To facilitate meeting with ARC team at ARC offices in Islamabad.
4. Quality review of the proposed survey design and feedback.
5. Approval of survey design.

 6.2.         Consultant

1. Meeting and coordination with ARC team.
2. Review of the project documents.
3. Debrief meeting with ARC team to inform different possible survey designs and their limitations and cost implications.
4. Responding to ARC feedback on survey design.
5. Submitting final design after ARC approval.
6. Keeping all the information and documents shared by ARC confidential unless otherwise allowed by ARC on case to case basis. 

6.3.         General Provision

1. Consultant will be responsible to complete the work with the desired level quality on time. Delays will be dealt according to ARC’s relevant policies.
2. In financial terms consultant will be entitled to agreed enumeration only. There will be no other benefit in term of medical & life insurance, travel, boarding and lodging etc.
3. Local travel within Islamabad will be consultant’s own responsibility.
4. ARC relevant policies and provision will be applicable on the consultant. In case of any breach ARC will be liable to take action accordingly.

 7.    Required Qualification and Skills

1. 1. Master in Statistics from an HEC recognized university.
   2. Minimum 8 years’ experience in research and survey design & supervision.
   3. Proven record in survey design for large set of population with multiple stage sampling for complex contexts.
   4. Experience in survey design for institutional donors and UN is a plus.
   5. Understanding of Pakistan education context will be a plus.
   6. Strong commitment to quality of work and accountability.
   7. Open and responsive in communication.

 8.    Remuneration and Tax Deduction

ARC will pay a market compatible fee for this assignment that will be inclusive of tax. ARC will deduct tax at source.

Please note: Cover letter is mandatory with your CV

American Refugee Committee is an Equal Opportunity Employer offering employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, citizenship, physical or mental disability, or protected veteran status.  American Refugee Committee complies with all applicable laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.