Jordan: Technical Advisory Services for the Rationalization of the Government of Jordan Education Financing and Expenditure Framework

Summary

SOFRECO is in charge for provision of technical advisory services to the Ministry of Education in Jordan. SOFRECO won the contract and is looking for an expert responsible of Technical Advisory Services for the Rationalization of the Government of Jordan Education Financing and Expenditure Framework.

SOFRECO is looking for an expert available for short term missions during 9 months. The first mission should begin in February, 2016.

Background

The Jordan Ministry of Education aspires to achieve the highest degree of quality and excellence in the provision of educational services for beneficiaries. To reach that stage, the Ministry expects to invest in a rationalized and sustainable manner across the education sector using the best possible and cost-effective combination of learning inputs, teaching resources, infrastructural assets and the most effective decentralized administrative structure that would ensure: i) higher learning achievements of students at both national (NafKE) and/or internationally standardized tests (PISA and TIMSS, ERGA, EGMA etc.), ii) higher employability of its trainees in the knowledge economy; and iii) higher societal perception of public resources being well spent by all stakeholders including parents, employers, parliamentarians, donors, communities in general and the highest authorities. In spite of tremendous investments that Jordan and its partners continue to make in the education sector, it has been acknowledged that the above goals can only be achieved realistically if the MoE can be provided with solid capacities and practical analytical tools that:

• allow the ministry to have a better projection of sustainable budgetary requirements for its policy options that are equally in line with its noble ambitions but commensurate with the country’s internal fiscal capacity and its resource mobilization as well as its absorption capacity

• assist the ministry in rationalizing its investment choices so that the limited resources that it can afford to secure, are allocated where they are most needed and where evidences resulting from cost-effectiveness analytical tools seem to suggest greater impact on the learning outcomes and/or future employability of the students or trainees

It is clear therefore that the MoE needs to be better aware of who is financing what, for how much, to which sectorial priority and for whose ultimate benefits or for which final impact across the entire education sector. In addition, tools and state-of-art methodologies exist today allowing MoEs to link expenditures or resources allocations by central, local governments and schools to sector performance targets and indicators in a way that provides sound evidence to policy-makers to discern system-wide inequities and identify areas that require changes in policy leading to improved access, participation and better student outcomes.

It is also widely known that such tools and methodologies provide the ministries of education with solid ground to reinforce their bargaining power with their ministries of finance, parliamentarians, and donors. To date in Jordan, the piloting and/or full scale operationalization of many policy recommendations made in the past (e.g. teacher policy reform, school block grants, decentralization of MoE’s organizational structure, TVET reform etc.) are taken time to materialize because the ministry has not been always in the position to simulate ‘scientifically’ the long term cost implications of a number such recommendations or when they have the cost simulations, they may lack the robustness of the techniques and tools to simulate possibilities of trade-offs inside the existing budget structures allowing them to have in mind the full picture of the benefits versus the costs before any final decision can be made either to move ahead with a reform or change the course of action.

Purpose and Specific Objectives:

The main purpose of this Service Area is to equip the Ministry with technical capacities and tools to be able to make informed policy reform choices while knowing upfront with significant level of confidence that specific combination of resources allocation are likely to yield desired or anticipated learning outcomes or expected benefits. More specifically, the MoE should be capacitated with sound methodology and system to:

• map comprehensively all funding tracks to the education sector (covering all subsectors under the purview of the MoE and covering both central and decentralized entities down to school levels), including capital and recurrent expenditure from national budgetary tracks both governmental and non-governmental expenditure sources (public, private and community contributions), and also international development assistance tracks

• perform cost-benefits or impact analysis by estimating the costs related to a range of policy options while maintaining the focus on quality of educational service delivery priorities and also while pursuing the ultimate goal of strengthening school governance and accountability

• apply scenarios building techniques in order to simulate or to ‘forecast’ short, medium and long terms cost implications that might result from the adoption of new education sector policy reform choices and to use analytical tools allowing the MoE to judge the long-term sustainability and affordability issues and to examine possibilities/options for trade-offs through making more efficient use of existing resources, and/or revising budgeting strategies while trying simultaneously to identify possible sources of local, national, and international financing for its reform choice(s)

Responsibilities

Under the overall authority of the Director General of UNESCO delegated to Head of the UNESCO Amman Office, the technical oversight of the Team Leader of the UNESCO Amman Office Education Sector and the direct joint-supervision of the MoE SG for Administration and Finance, the Consultant will undertake the following Duties and Responsibilities:

• Map the overall Jordan’s macro-level multi-annual budgets and expenditures structure in order to identify patterns of inter-sectorial allocations while zooming on MoE budgets in relation to stated country priorities;

• Assess the adequacy of existing financial resources for education, taking account of international norms and levels of comparison with other countries with similar profile as Jordan;

• Collect extensive data in order to build a detailed education expenditure tracking system using a methodology compatible with a National Satellite Account for Education to map exhaustively how resources from all possible sources (public, private corporations, households/communities, donors) are allocated across all education sub-sectors under the purview of the MoE in order to pay for which types of educational inputs or services and for what performance and outcomes;

• Review the consistency in the level and structure of financial inflows towards the MoE at central and decentralized levels up to schools’ levels in order to analyse alignment between stated policy priorities and funding allocations to various cost centres system-wide;

• Undertake an analysis of the major cost drivers within the education sector and generate new baseline unit costs at different levels and perform a comparative analysis with major performance driving cost centres or cost items;

• Analyse current trend in the linkage between budgetary and policy priorities along with sector performance (equitable access to quality learning across levels of education and across all geographical layers) and also in relation to evidence of the sector’s absorption capacity in order to provide recommendations for future improvement;

• Review the current MoE financial management processes (planning, budgeting, procurement, disbursement, accounting and reporting) and discuss their effectiveness for the delivery of outstanding quality educational services in relation to the MoE stated decentralization and accountability principles and recommend modalities for improving their rationalization;

• Produce a robust but flexible education sector-wide cost simulation model for the MoE allowing for trade-offs and sensitivity analysis building initially on the latest policy reform agenda, and including but not restricted to:

• the cost of a new Organizational Reform

• the cost of a new TVET Strategy

• the cost of a new Teachers Professional Development Policy

• the cost of implementing a sector-wide accountability system

• the cost (including opportunity benefits) of rationalizing the schools’ network; etc.

• Ensure that the proposed education cost simulation model provides the MoE staff with analytical skills to perform financial feasibility assessment of new reform policies in order to identify and opt for options or alternatives that are affordable and cost-effective.

Expected Output/Deliverables:

• An Inception Report delivered portraying the scope of current trend in financing Jordan’s education sector vis-à-vis other sectors and intra-sectorial ones in light with stated policy priorities along with analysis of cost-effectiveness of current pattern of resources allocation mechanism and recommendations for an improved performance-driven approach;

• A comprehensive and well-designed National Satellite Account for Education compatible with Jordan specifies and MoE staff trained on its use;

• A robust and adaptable cost simulation model delivered for MoE to cost ongoing and future policy choices and staff trained to plug-in new parameters reflecting policy alternatives and trade-offs to better informed policy-makers decisions.

Expert Qualification and Eligibility Requirements:

• An advanced degree (PhD) in Economics of Education, Public Policy, Sociology or related discipline.

-. A minimum of fifteen (15) years of relevant experience in education costing and finance, in cost and simulation model design, in education sector policy and performance analysis.

• Successful undertaking of at least one previous project of similar scope and nature.

• Excellent quantitative and IT skills

• Experience in reform of education systems’ governance and accountability (all sub-sectors included) with strong analytical capacity for public expenditure pattern analysis and simulate cost implications.

• Demonstrated ability to coordinating work with multidisciplinary teams of experts and competence to train ministries’ staff.

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (written and oral) in English, demonstrated ability to work cooperatively with country counterparts, and ability to liaise tactfully as a member of a multicultural team.

• Understanding of cultural and political context of Jordan is an asset.

• Working fluency in Arabic is an asset.

Candidates are requested to send their CV before January 6, 2016 to Caroline ABSI (caroline.absi@sofreco.com) and Marine ROY (marine.roy@sofreco.com). Please include the position title in the email subject line.