job Description
UNICEF Zimbabwe is inviting applications for a national individual consultant to provide Capacity support to Education Sector Coordination providing Secretariat services for Education Coordination Group and the Education Partners Steering Committee.
PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT;
The purpose of this assignment is to provide support and capacity to MoPSE coordination role in the Education Coordination Group and Education Partners Steering Committees.
BACKGROUND;
The education sector in Zimbabwe operates under a structured governance framework designed to enhance coordination, policy dialogue, and effective implementation of key programmes. At the core of this framework is the Education Coordination Group (ECG), which serves as the primary national platform for multi-stakeholder engagement on strategic and policy issues in the education sector. The ECG is supported by technical working groups that feed into policy discussions, the Education Partners Steering Committee (formerly the GPE/TEACH Steering Committee), and the Implementation Committees for both the TEACH and GPE grants.
This governance structure is instrumental in reducing transaction costs by promoting harmonized planning, ensuring that meetings are well-prepared, and that relevant, up-to-date information is shared efficiently. Additionally, the system facilitates the timely preparation and dissemination of meeting minutes to all stakeholders, contributing to transparency and accountability.
While the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) is mandated to lead and coordinate this governance structure, some challenges have been identified—particularly in secretariat functions and overall coordination. To fill this gap, UNICEF has assumed a de facto secretarial role. However, this arrangement presents a conflict of interest, as UNICEF also serves as the Grant Agent for GPE funding and the Fund Manager for the TEACH grant. As a result, there is a recognized need to disaggregate UNICEF’s operational and coordination roles to preserve the integrity of governance processes and ensure impartial facilitation.
The ECG, chaired by the Honourable Minister of Education, brings together a broad and diverse group of stakeholders, including MoPSE senior management, civil society organizations, private sector partners such as the Higher life Foundation and the Roger Federer Foundation, and development partners including the FCDO, World Bank, and UN agencies like UNICEF and UNESCO. This inclusive structure provides a sector-wide framework that aligns external support with national education priorities and strengthens collective accountability and ownership.3.2 The GPE/TEACH Steering Committees (SC) are responsible for making key decisions for each programme. Further, the SC will provide technical advice regarding practical implementation of the GPE and TEACH programme.
As the GPE and TEACH programmes have different mechanisms and reporting requirements, the SC will be held as ONE meeting to reduce transaction costs but will be done in two parts. The GPE SC will focus on GPE issues, decisions, reviews, and approvals and the TEACH SC will focus on TEACH issues, decisions, reviews, and approvals.
The meeting will alternate starting with either GPE or TEACH and in the subsequent quarter the order will be reversed. Full details are available in the Governance structure document for sector dialogue in MOPSE
Through the System Capacity Grant of the GPE, the sector can develop the capacity of the MoPSE in coordination. The main purpose of the System Capacity Grant is to ensure that the education system is reinforced and provides an equity-focused leadership which creates conducive environment to facilitate the achievements of equitable access to relevant and competence driven primary, secondary, and non-formal quality learning opportunities and to ensure the GPE grants in Zimbabwe can be robustly and effectively supported and monitored.
Duties and Responsibilities
The SCG sub-objectives is to
i) To provide support capacity strengthening to MoPSE, especially regarding factors that enable system transformation.
ii) To enhance, as part of the GPE 2025 operating model, enabling factors for strong education systems: (1) volume, equity, and efficiency of domestic finance; (2) gender responsive sector planning, policy, and monitoring; (3) data and evidence; and (4) sector coordination.
iii) To provide support on activities that include the enabling factor of volume, equity, and efficiency of domestic finance so that it moves from being high to medium as identified in the ITAP assessment.
iv) To provide support to make progress in these critical areas, according to their unique needs and context.
The SCG is focusing on upstream work in education sector, and not on service delivery as it could be under outcome 2 and 3 of Partnership Compact, to ensure the fundamental strategic work on data, planning, management monitoring and financing in education are covered in an inclusive and gender-responsive way for systemwide impact. It has three windows, and this assignment relates to window three: Strengthen capacity, adapt, and learn, to implement and drive results at scale and specifically to 3.3 Capacity support to MoPSE coordination role in the Education Coordination Group and sector steering committees for TEACH and GPE programmes.
SCOPE of Work
-Under the guidance of the ECG and Co-chairs the consultant performs the following duties:
Secretariat services:
-Act as the focal point for the ECG and Education Partners Steering Committee (EPSC)
-Maintain updated contact lists of all ECG members and (EPSC)
-Manage correspondence, meeting notices and internal communications
-Support in the planning and monitoring and review processes
-Coordinate feedback and input from members for sector documents and policies
Meeting coordination
-Coordinate ECG and EPSC meetings including logistics( physical or virtual), scheduling, invitationsand participant follow-up
-Draft meeting agendas in consultation with chair and core leads, ensuring alignment with sector priorities and emerging issues
-Prepare and circualte meeting documenation ahead of time (e.g., background notes, minutes from previous meetings and reports)
-Record and produce accurate,concise minutes of each meeting, capturing key decisions, actions and recomendations.
-Track and support follow-up on agreed action points arising from meetings.
-Maintain a structured digital archive of agendas, minutes, attendance and action trackers.
Annual meeting calendar and plan of activities;
-Develop and maintain a consolidated calendar for ECG and partner meetings and key education sector events
-Ensure regular updates to the calendar based on consultations
-Provide support to the Joint Monitoring and Joint sector review coordination and minuting
Capacity building
-Train of the MoPSE staff to perform the sector secretarial roles.
-Carry out in conjunction with the MOPSE, any induction of new members and training of staff to take minutes.
-Assist Chair/co-chairs with identifying training, proper induction and orientation required.
Other Jobs
