TERMS OF REFERENCE: MIDTERM REVIEW OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GCE STRATEGIC PLAN (2019-2022)
1. Introduction

Founded in 1999, GCE is the largest movement of civil society organisations working to promote the human right to education. GCE membership comprises over 120 national coalitions, international and regional organisations advocating for quality public education for all. GCE members are from independent organisations united by the commitment to the human right to education, and to achieving change through the mobilisation of citizens and civil society. The civil society coalitions play a particular central role in fostering social accountability for the full delivery of SDG 4. The GCE Movement is a unique platform, merging and echoing education concerns from the countries facing greater development challenges in comparison to the more developed countries.

2. GCE Strategic Plan (2019-2022)

During the World Assembly held in Kathmandu, Nepal in November 2018 – GCE adopted the current strategic plan for the period 2019 – 2022 which outlines four priority areas, namely 1) Education equality and non-discrimination; 2) Transformative education; 3) Education in emergencies and 4) Education financing. Under the supervision and management of the Global Coordinator, the GCE Secretariat is accountable to the Board and is responsible for implementing the strategic vision and coordinating the work of the GCE movement. The implementation of the GCE strategic plan is coordinated by the GCE in partnership with national and regional coalitions to ensure a coherent implementation and impact at all levels. The GCE movement focuses on following four key operational mechanisms to drive the implementation of the strategic plan:

  1. Research: GCE relies on solid research to deliver strong evidence-based advocacy, either fact-based from grassroots knowledge or academic papers. To support its members, GCE’s 2019-2022 research for advocacy activities focus on; (i) Supporting regional and national coalitions in designing and implementing policy-oriented research in line with the GCE strategic areas and national/regional coalitions priorities; and (ii) Support coalitions to conduct research, evaluations and publications in line with their respective areas of focus on education advocacy.
  2. Advocacy & Policy: This links very strongly to the leading role that the GCE Secretariat plays in steering joint advocacy efforts on education advocacy aligned with the priority under GCE’s strategic plan. GCE’s advocacy actions and of its members are delivered at national, regional and global levels and coherently linked to and mutually reinforce change at multiple levels as a unified global education movement.
  3. Campaigns: The GCE Secretariat coordinates global campaigns for massive participation of GCE members, based on common objectives, shared strategies and global impact. GCE at the global level also undertakes activities to build capacity in campaigning for advocacy, along with sharing key knowledge and toolkits on the movement’s four strategic areas of focus.
  4. Movement building mechanisms: To build the global education movement, GCE coordinates and facilitates activities that entails members’ engagement in research, advocacy and campaigns, capacity building, monitoring, evaluation and facilitating learning and sharing across the network, communication and visibility of the movement at national, regional and global levels as following:
    1. Capacity building: GCE organizes webinars, regional workshops, digital trainings and the production of manuals to strengthen capacity and shared learning for advocacy in priority campaign topics, like VNR, spotlight reports on SDG implementation, education financing, privatisation, education in emergencies; strengthen campaigning capacity within the membership through dissemination of supporting materials and best practices, encouraging more linkages with the grassroots and citizens engagement.
    2. Communities of Practice: For each of relevant topics (for example: Youth, Gender, Inclusion, with special emphasis on disability-inclusive education, Financing, Emergencies, etc.), communities of practice are set up, gathering activists from national, regional and INGO members, who share the interest and expertise on these issues.
    3. Membership engagement through ad-hoc Committees and networks: GCE plans and implements specific activities and events, including participatory research, monitoring and evaluation that aim at increasing membership engagement in the work of GCE. This also increase ownership of the work by the members
    4. Communications: GCE set up active communication channels at all level in order to support the strengthening of the movement. GCE uses this very same mechanism to deliver coherent communication strategy for global narrative and offer up-to-date and accessible information to members, by turning the web site into a mobilising and learning tool. In addition, GCE will develop toolkits and will undertake communication-based capacity building workshops to ensure NECs have the same understanding and abilities to effectively communicate on their advocacy campaigns. GCE aims to implement common tools to support NECs and RCs, like a global media monitoring platform.
3. Purpose of Mid Term Review

The objective of the GCE strategic plan mid term review is to assess progress in implementing the strategic plan, document the work that has been undertaken by GCE and its members halfway through the adoption of GCE’s 2019-2022 strategic plan, contributions to each strategic commitment. The review will aim to capture the following:

  1. Highlight relevant actions undertaken by GCE and members contributing towards the four strategic objectives and the progress and achievements in terms of setting up operational processes and systems to implement the proposed strategic plan
  2. Assess GCE’s strategic objectives and approach to implementing the strategic plan, including the feasibility of the timeframe and involvement GCE membership in the implementation of the strategic plan
  3. Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and constraints in the implementation of the current strategic plan to recommend improvements for the remaining period and development of GCE’s future strategic plans.
4. Scope of the GCE Strategic Plan Review

The scope of work for the consultancy will include but not limited to:

  1. Review relevant GCE documents including policy documents, programmes’ reports and all publications, and the GCE strategy and other related documents
  2. Interview GCE Secretariat staff and selected stakeholders including selected Board members
  3. Assess and analyse actions undertaken by GCE and members under each strategic area, identify successes, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for each strategic area
  4. Draft and finalize the strategic plan midterm report; to include the following
    1. Executive Summary
    2. Changes in context
    3. Progress on strategic objectives, actions undertaken, and lessons learned
    4. Challenges/constraints and existing opportunities
    5. Recommendations for improvement
5. Deliverables & Timeframe

GCE seeks short term services of an external consultant to lead the process of reviewing and produce the report with recommendation within the given timeframes:

ReportDurationDeadline
Inceptions report/work plan 15 days 10 December 2020
GCE Strategy (2019-2022) Mid Term Report
6. Budget and Contractual Arrangements

GCE will contract the individual consultant or the consulting firm and ensure the timely provision of all relevant documents. Eligible consultants/consulting firms are invited to apply to conduct the review and produce the report by submitting the following documents by no later than Friday, 6th November 2020.

  1. Brief technical proposal
  2. Financial proposal
  3. Relevant experience of personnel/Previous projects of similar nature

Upon signing of the contract, payments will be made within a day of delivering the milestones as outlined below:

  • Signing of contract: 30% of total contract amount
  • Delivery of the draft SP mid-term report 30% of total contract amount
  • Against final, GCE-approved mid-term report: 40% of total contract amount

Requests for clarification should be made in writing and sent to: the GCE MEL Manager, Khuselwa Mxatule, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a civil society movement that aims to end exclusion in education. Education is a basic human right, and our mission is to make sure that governments act now to deliver the right of everyone to a free, quality, public education.