TORS -CONDUCT A REVIEW OF EDUCATION AND SKILLS SECTOR 2017 – 2019 NATIONAL BUDGET ALLOCATIONS AND ALIGNMENT TO ESSP TARGETS AND IMPACT OF LOW FUNDING ON SERVICE DELIVERY

1.0 BACKGROUND

The Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC)’s core mandate is to conduct evidence-based advocacy for quality education for all Zambians. The organization is specifically involve in conducting research as well as in policy analysis, monitoring and influencing. ZANEC is also known for mobilising education Civil Society Organisations and communities to promote access to quality education for all through its Member Organisations located in various parts of the country.

ZANEC, with support from Counter Part International (CPI), is implementing a project entitled “Effecting and Influencing Governance of Education and Skills Sector processes in Eastern and Lusaka Provinces of Zambia”. The project aims at mobilizing the civil society voice to hold government accountable to the efficient implementation of the Education and Skills Sector Plan (ESSP) which is the main guiding document for service delivery in the Education and Skills Sector. Although this document is important in defining the Country’s short and medium term education priorities, the process of developing this document took close to three years. The government only finalized this document at the end of December, 2018 despite the timeline for the plan being 2017 to 2021, meaning that technically the implementation of the plan started in 2017. Given that the ESSP in now place, ZANEC would like to focus on influencing the successful financing and implementation of the Plan. This is because ZANEC believes that the effectiveness of the ESSP in delivering access to quality education to every Zambian is dependent on the availability of adequate finances.

2.0 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

The education sector is key in achieving national and international strategic goals such as the Seventh National Development Plan (SNDP), Vision 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals respectively. For Zambia to achieve the aspirations contained in the above national and international policies, there is need to have adequate financing of the sector Plans. Currently, Zambia is at risk of not being able to achieve the projected education targets mainly due to the declining resource envelope allocated to Education and Skills Sector over the last 5 years. Despite the national budgetary allocations having been on increase in nominal terms from about ZMW47 Billion in 2015 to ZMW87 billion by 2019 (almost doubling in this period) this has not resulted in the corresponding increase in the share of the Education Sector Budget. To the contrary, the share of the education budget has reduced from 20.2% to 15.3% over the same period.

It is against this background that ZANEC seeks to commission a study to review national budget allocations to the Education and Skills Sector for the period 2017 – 2019 and how education financing has been aligning to the achievement of ESSP targets and outcomes. ZANEC intends to identify a Consultant who will conduct a time bound research and provide a report that shows the gap between the financing and implementation of the Education and Skills Sector Plan.

The process will focus on reviewing government’s financial investment and commitment actualized through sector budgets for the implementation period of the ESSP so far. The research will respond to some provocative questions, which, when answered through the research, will solidify civil society positions, such as: What impact does the sector budgets have on the sector performance? What has been the progress achieved towards service delivery in the Education and Skills Sector so far amidst the prevailing low and erratic funding?

2.1 Objective

To assess the financial investment and impact of the national budget allocations to the Education and Skills Sector on the realization of the ESSP targets during the period 2017 – 2019.

2.2 Specific Objectives:

To assess the trends and perform a gap analysis in allocations and releases of the Education and Skills Sector Budgets.
To assess the impact of education financing on service delivery in the Education and Skills Sector
To distill some key recommendations for advocacy on the need for the adequate financing in the Education and Skills Sector.

3.0 SCOPE OF WORK

The consultant is expected to gather information to provide the following:

Conduct an assessment of the allocations and releases to the Education and Skills Sector between 2017 – 2019 and review the corresponding impact on service delivery
Perform a gap analysis by comparing the 2017 – 2019 period with the recommended 20 per cent budget target set by the Dakar framework for Education for All allocated to the education sector.

Conduct field visits to selected areas to generate official and public opinion on the impact of the ESSP on education service delivery;

Consult diverse groups that make up the Education and Skills Sector on the impact of the ESSP in the delivery of education services.
Produce and present the final report to education stakeholders at a meeting to be organised by the ZANEC Secretariat.

4.0 DELIVERABLES AND DURATION OF CONSULTANCY

The assignment is expected to be completed within 9 working days to be jointly agreed between the ZANEC Secretariat and the Consultant, with the following deliverables.

Inception report with proposed data collection methodologies and proposed time frames for deliverables.
First and second draft of the research report for review.
Present the second draft report to a stakeholders’ meeting.

5.0 REQUIRED COMPETENCIES