ԱՇԽԱՏԱՆՔԻ ՆԿԱՐԱԳԻՐ
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The World Bank seeks services of an individual consultant to support the development of a legal framework for Education through designing the inception phase, including developing Terms of Reference (ToRs), for the creation of an Education Code for the Republic of Armenia. The inception phase will be followed by an elaboration phase to take place at a later date.
The objective of this consultancy is to design the inception phase, including the development of ToRs, for the creation of an Education Code based on the information from active legal documents, policy regulations, strategies and laws in Education in Armenia. The proposed inception phase and ToRs will define the objectives and scope of the assignment of drafting the Code, activities to be performed, responsibilities of the consultants, deliverables, timelines, costs, and feasibility.
During the design of the inception phase, the following elements may be considered:
(i) a gap analysis of the existing legislation in the different fields related to the Education Code and recommendations:
- Definition of the existing legislative framework (classification by thematic elements);
- Situational analysis on the existing legislation, gaps and proposals based on analysis and research, to elaborate the report on the status-quo situation in Armenia;
- Identification and classification of existing legislative gaps and legislative proposals;
- Identification and classification of international donors’ proposals from policy documents (e.g. the World Bank, UNICEF, the Asian Development Bank, and others).
(ii) a coordination process across partners, decision makers, parliament, stakeholders through mechanisms for the identification and formalization of thematic working groups (Preschool education, General Education, Higher/ Tertiary Education, etc.) and the agreement on the policy papers to be produced by the working groups.
(iii) a roadmap for the development of the Education Code (definition of the content of the Education Code, identification of further support/engagements from donors in the process, budgeted work plan). The final version of the Code will include but not limited to laws and regulations about the national general, higher and postgraduate education, on rights and responsibilities of all parties, student wellbeing, school discipline, instructional materials, education agencies, administration of schools, policy and finance, legislation and budget, school expenses and procurement, school property, facilities, health and library services, school personnel and teacher retirement system, etc.
(iv) a communication strategy and the definition of consultation mechanisms:
- Dissemination of information to general population and stakeholders; identification of target groups (stakeholders, social partners, general population);
- Survey of the general population on the knowledge of education and needs;
- Proposal for the use of technical tools for the dissemination of information to general population (website, social networks, mass media).
ՊԱՐՏԱԿԱՆՈւԹՅՈւՆՆԵՐ
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- Define and formulate the statement of the proposed activity, its background, purpose and objectives in the context of the education reforms in the country; indicate a brief overview of the activity to date;
- Describe the process through which the activity will be accomplished (the who and the how);
- Define the milestones, deliverables, and timelines;
- Describe the resources needed to carry out the activity and the role of the stakeholders;
- Detail the number and role of the consultants to be hired for the activity and present costing.
ԱՆՀՐԱԺԵՇՏ ՈՐԱԿԱՎՈՐՈՒՄՆԵՐ
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Qualifications of the Consultant shall include, but are not limited to the following:
- Graduate degree in a relevant field (Legal Studies; Education, Public Policy, etc.);
- At least 10 years of professional work experience;
- Knowledge of relevant legislation/legal acts/ policy regulations/ laws;
- Work experience with educational institutions;
- Professional Armenian and English proficiency;
- Strong user skills in Word, Excel and Adobe Acrobat, and regular, reliable access to the Internet.
ԴԻՄԵԼՈւ ԿԱՐԳԸ
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Qualified candidates are welcome to send their CV and Motivation Letter in English language to:
msahakyan@worldbank.org indicating the position title ("Senior Education Consultant") in the subject line of the email.
Խնդրում ենք Ձեր նամակում հստակ նշել, որ այս աշխատանքի հնարավորության մասին տեղեկացել եք Կարիերայի կենտրոնի վեբ-կայքից և նշեք կայքի հղումը՝ www.careercenter.am։ Շնորհակալություն.
ԾՐԱԳՐԻ ՄԱՍԻՆ
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The Ministry of Education, Science Culture and Sport of the Republic of Armenia (MoESCS) has recently introduced an Education Development Strategy 2022-2030 and is finalizing its implementation plan, which will provide the Ministry with a clear roadmap for investments in important areas to unlock the potential impact of ongoing and future reforms aimed at improving the overall quality of education in the country. The Ministry has made progress in establishing the sector strategy, laws on general education and higher education law, education transformation plan and other important documents. At this stage, the Ministry would like to create an Education Code that regulates all aspects of Education alongside with different strategies, laws, and norms for different areas of education. The Code will play a crucial role in the overall organization and development of the education sector.
ԿԱԶՄԱԿԵՐՊՈւԹՅԱՆ ՄԱՍԻՆ
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After attaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the Republic of Armenia inherited a highly centralized health system skewed towards specialized and hospital care with marked inequality in service provision between rural and urban areas. In this model, provision of health services was essentially free for the entire population. However, because of the political and economic challenges post - independence, the significantly reduced government budget on health care could not sustain the oversized and overstaffed Semashko model health system. Over the past two decades, reforms in primary health care, hospital optimization, purchasing arrangements, and a rise in the standard of living have supported improvements in life expectancy.
However, public expenditure on health care in Armenia is low and the gaps in health financing have been filled by household-level spending. At above 85% of current health expenditure, Armenia has one of the highest levels of out-of-pocket payments (OOPs) in the world, with attendant financial barriers in health care access. For nearly one in five Armenians, the cost of care is the main barrier to using health services when needed. Furthermore, Armenia has lower levels of outpatient health care use than comparator countries in the region. This has implications for population health and productivity. About 3,000 deaths annually could be prevented with improved access to and quality of care. Also, chronic diseases, the management of which is facilitated by high-quality primary health care access, account for 500,000 years of life lost, 280,000 years lived in disability, and 360 billion AMD lost annually.
Hence, in 2019, the Ministry of Health (MoH) launched public discussions on health financing and service delivery reforms to address the challenges to improving access to quality care, including the high levels of OOP health expenditures. The initial proposal was published in draft “Concept Note for the Introduction of Universal Health Insurance” for public review and debate. The proposal includes reforms in domestic resource mobilization, strategic purchasing, and service delivery, encompassing the introduction of earmarked taxes for health, an increase in prioritization of health services in the state budget, establishing a new and independent purchaser, introduction of selective contracting of providers that meet defined service standards, performance-based payments that reward improvements in quality of care, and adopting a systematic process for reviewing the benefits package.
The reform proposal is under revision to address comments from national stakeholders and international experts, and to further tailor the reform components to the health system challenges. At the request of the Ministry of Health, a multidisciplinary World Bank team has undertaken rigorous analysis to inform the reform design and facilitated knowledge exchanges with other countries. Reports capturing the findings of these analyses have been published under the “Technical Support for Universal Health Coverage in Armenia” series. Pending completion are the revised actuarial costing of the benefits package led by the Ministry of Health, a comprehensive assessment of the performance of primary health care and integration of service delivery, and an operational roadmap for hospital quality assurance developed with support from the Korean Health Insurance and Review Assessment Service.