1. Background

Over the past two decades, Africa has made significant strides in improving access to education and completion rates at various levels. Sub-Saharan Africa’s primary completion rate rose from 46% in 2000 to 68% in 2024, and net primary enrolment grew from 60% to 79% over roughly the same period (UNESCO GEM Report/UIS, 2026; UNICEF, 2019). Despite these considerable educational investments, many African countries still face poor learning outcomes: UNESCO’s GEM Report spotlights Africa, finding that only 10.8% of children achieve the minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics by the end of primary school (UNESCO GEM Report, 2025). Challenges in early literacy, numeracy, and social and emotional skills hamper the impact and scaling of these positive gains in access, while also creating opportunities to improve the education landscape at the foundational level in Africa. These skills are essential for learners’ future educational attainment and success.

The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) continues to facilitate dialogue and policy advocacy on education among Africa’s countries and development partners. ADEA is working with the Hempel Foundation to support six countries in strengthening evidence-based Foundational Learning (FL) delivery in basic literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills that children acquire in the early years of primary school. Across the six participating countries, the challenge is not a shortage of foundational learning data — it is what happens to that data after it is collected. Data stalls at the national level, reaches district offices in formats too complex to act on, or arrives without guidance for policy and sub-national decision-making. The feedback loop from data collection to action is broken at one or more points in every country.

This engagement aligns with other ADEA-led data initiatives to strengthen data collection, analysis, and use in decision- and policymaking in foundational learning. The goal is to help policymakers change behaviour and insist on credible, unbiased data to support their daily policy decisions.

2. Specific Objectives of the Consultancy

ADEA is seeking a consultant or institution to provide Technical Assistance (TA) to the six participating countries to:

1. Diagnose how foundational learning data currently flows from collection to classroom-, district-, and national-level decisions.
2. Co-develop a practical, country-specific Foundational Learning Data Dissemination and Accountability Framework for each of the six countries.
3. Support countries to obtain political endorsement of the framework.

3. Scope of Work

The consultancy covers work in the six countries participating in the ADEA–Hempel Initiative: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda, and Zambia. Across all six countries, the assignment will deliver:

1. Virtual country alignment calls; country diagnostic work; production of country data-flow maps and diagnostic summaries.
2. A virtual co-development workshop with Ministry officials in each country, and a draft (3–5 pages) and final (4–5 pages) country-specific FL Data-use, Dissemination and Accountability Framework per country, with the draft validated by Ministry focal points before finalization.
3. Review and alignment of the country diagnostic and workshop methodology with the country-level data-use assessment exercise under the Tackling Education and Skills Data Challenge in Africa (ESDC) initiative, in the four countries where that initiative is active: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia — to ensure complementarity and avoid duplication of effort.

4. Delivery Approach and Team Composition

One lead consultant or firm will deliver the consultancy, supported by an in-country Country Lead in each of the six participating countries. The lead consultant/firm is responsible for the methodology, diagnostic tools, workshop design, and quality control across all six countries, and for engaging and managing the six Country Leads. Country Leads deliver the in-country diagnostic work on the ground and facilitate the virtual co-development workshops with Ministry officials, and must work closely with the ADEA-nominated country focal point in their respective country throughout the assignment.

Bidders must propose a team to support implementation of this work across the six countries.

5. Specific Tasks and Deliverables

Table 1: Tasks and deliverables

6. Indicative Level of Effort

The table below splits indicative effort between the lead consultant (remote) and the Country Leads (in-country, per country). It is indicative only, bidders can propose their own LOE and day rates.

Table 2: Indicative Level of Effort, by role

7. Timeline

Table 3: Indicative implementation timeline

8. Payment Schedule

Table 4: Payment schedule

9. Qualifications and Eligibility

For the lead consultant (individual applicants, or team lead within an institutional bid)

• Advanced degree in education, education policy, statistics, public administration, or a related field.
• At least 10 years’ experience working with Ministries of Education in Africa on education management information systems (EMIS), learning assessment, or data use.
• Demonstrated experience designing or implementing data dissemination frameworks or data-use protocols in low-income country contexts.
• Strong facilitation skills and a track record of co-designing frameworks with government counterparts.
• Excellent written and spoken English or French and a working knowledge of the other.

For institutional bidders (firms/organizations)

• At least 7 years’ institutional track record supporting Ministries of Education in Africa on EMIS, learning assessment, or education data use.
• A named lead consultant meeting the criteria above.
• Named Country Leads for each of the six participating countries, based in or with demonstrated recent working experience in their assigned country.
• Prior experience managing multi-country technical assistance assignments with government counterparts, delivered to comparable timelines and budgets.

For Country Leads (proposed by individual or institutional bidders)

• Relevant experience in education data, EMIS, or foundational learning programming in their assigned country.
• Working relationships with, or credibility to engage, Ministry of Education counterparts at national and sub-national level.
• Working proficiency in the country’s language of government business.

11. Application Process

Interested individual consultants and institutions should submit the following:

1. A technical proposal (maximum 8 pages, excluding annexes) outlining understanding of the assignment, proposed methodology, delivery approach, team composition (lead consultant and 6 named Country Leads), and workplan.
2. CV(s) of the proposed lead consultant and all six Country Leads.
3. A financial proposal, itemized by the phases in Table 2, inclusive of all professional fees and any incidental costs.
4. Evidence of at least two similar prior assignments (references or sample outputs) submitted separately and not counted toward the 8-page limit.

Applications should be submitted to adea-applications@afdb.org by 30th November 2026, with the email subject line: “Application – Foundational Learning Data Dissemination and Accountability Framework Consultancy”. ADEA will not consider late or incomplete submissions.

Evaluation criteria

Table 5: Evaluation criteria (technical/financial weighting)