Facilitator Guide Development – Aga Khan Foundation (AKF)

Introduction

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), established by His Highness the Aga Khan in Switzerland in 1967, is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). In East Africa, since 1974, AKF works with partners to improve the quality of life by promoting and developing innovative solutions to challenges of development. AKFEA responds to local and regional priorities by developing and implementing effective programming, measuring and documenting results and sharing its lessons with governments, donors and development actors to influence policy and practice. Reflecting the complex and multi-faceted nature of development, AKFEA programmes in the region encompasses Education, Health, Early Childhood Development, Economic Inclusion, Civil Society Strengthening, Agriculture and Food Security.

About AKF’s Education Programme

As a development agency, AKF partners with a global network of local government schools, government education actors and systems, and civil society actors within Education systems to co-develop and test affordable and scalable evidence-based models about how best to create quality, equitable learning environments and improve holistic learning outcomes for the most marginalized children. In Kenya , AKF delivers the Education Improvement Programme in the Coast Region.

About Tuku Project

Currently the Kenyan education system is shifting from a content-based to a competency-based curriculum (CBC). However, teachers and schools lack a deeper understanding of CBC and the knowledge and skills to effectively deliver a competency approach through child-centred playful pedagogies. With learning outcomes across Kenya, and specifically in Mombasa and Lamu counties, below age standards – less than a third of Grade 3 children can read a Grade 2 level text – it is critical to enable teachers and schools to apply playful pedagogies in the classroom to improve learning of primary-age students.

Drawing on over 100 years of learning experiences in education across 15 countries in Asia and Africa, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) shares LEGO Foundation’s belief in the transformational power of play to advance learning for all. AKF in partnership with the LEGO Foundation will transform primary education in Kenya through our programme: ‘Tucheza Kujifunza (TuKu)’ or We Play To Learn.

TuKu offers a responsive systems approach to increase the ability of the education ecosystem to be more adaptive to:

1. Enable 120,000 primary school-aged learners to access playful learning environments that are more social, iterative, engaging, joyful and fun.
2. Equip 3,000 primary school teachers with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to incorporate playful pedagogies in their classrooms and schools.
3. Mainstream playful pedagogies into in-service primary school teacher professional development systems.
4. Encourage 6,000 community and family stakeholders to adopt and adapt playful pedagogies from the classroom into their learning environments at home.
5. Create a cadre of 200 Master Facilitators to ensure continued adoption and implementation of playful pedagogies in classrooms.

Purpose of the Assignment

Aga Khan Foundation has for the last 4 years been supporting facilitators to deliver training to the project participants on AKF EIP deliverables, including on Value Based education. The programme currently adopts facilitator guides for the technical content on the trainings conducted. Based on feedback from mentoring sessions with the team, the programme has learnt that the current (and incoming facilitators) lack the basic facilitation skills required for adult learning. The programme therefore plans to engage a consultant to co-develop a facilitators’ guide with the programme team and youth currently engaged as facilitators. This co-development approach with adopt principles of Human Centered Design to ensure AKF develops a facilitator guide that has been informed by the end user.

Programme Scope

AKF has signed an MoU with the Ministry of Education to work with 200 schools in both Lamu and Mombasa Counties, supporting all teachers in the schools and six members of the Board of Management (BOM). At the community level, AKF has identified and partnered with two Civil Society Organization (CSOs) namely Dream Achievers Youth Organization(DAYO) and Likoni Community Development Programme( LICODEP) to deliver household visits, community dialogue sessions, and a community event to understand the positive value structures and inculcate these positive values more broadly. The programme draws facilitators from these partners, MoE and CSOs, and their engagement in this assignment will be critical.

The main objective of the development of the facilitator guide is to equip facilitators with knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values in order to support the project participants more effectively.

Specific Activities:

The technical consultant will focus on the following specific activities:

1. With the support of the AKF programme team and facilitators reflect on the current process and identify gaps to address.
2. The consultant will conduct design research on what exists by connecting with the stakeholders to better understand their experiences with the current process and validate the gaps and challenges identified.
3. The consultant will then design the facilitators guide based on the insights gathered during the reflection session and design research.
4. The consultant will test the guide with a group of facilitators to ascertain how well it works in meeting the needs of the facilitators.
5. The consultant will iterate (make revisions) to the guide based on the test conducted and revise the guide accordingly.
6. The consultant will conduct a training for the programme facilitators using the guide developed.

Deliverables

The consultant will be expected to achieve the following deliverables.:

1. Conduct collaborative reflection sessions with AKF programme team and facilitators.
2. Conduct research sessions to support the development of a user-centered facilitator guide.
3. Test and iterate the guide.
4. Develop the facilitators’ guide by May 2024.
5. Train facilitators using the developed guide.

Qualifications Required

The consultant or organization is required to demonstrate evidence and experience of:

• Relevant working experience in developing communication materials in Education
• Prior experience with Human Centered Design principles
• Work with Media Agencies, International Organizations, NGOs an asset
• Availability and willingness to travel to different villages in selected locations where the project sites are.

Payment Terms

• Payment is linked to receipt and satisfactory acceptance of deliverables;
• Payment will be done in instalments with 40% paid upon signing of the contract; and the remaining upon agreement with consultant based on deliverables. Payment will be based upon completion of the deliverable(s) and subject to approval County Coordinator- TUKU, communication officer and AKF Programme Manager.

Criteria for selection

All submissions will be assessed on the following criteria:

• Technical proposal 40%
• Technical experience 30%
• Value for Money 30%

Timelines

The engagement will take a total of 90 days and should be completed by 30th May 2024.