Terms of Reference: Life Skills Curriculum Contextualisation

CAMFED is seeking the services of an experienced and qualified consultant to support the contextualisation of CAMFED’s My Better World wellbeing and life skills curriculum to ensure it aligns with the national curriculum of Zambia and that cultural references resonate with learners. The overall objective of the consultancy is to ensure that the My Better World curriculum is aligned with Zambia’s national curriculum and education context, age-appropriate, culturally relevant and practical for delivery in Zambian schools and communities.

1. CAMFED and My Better World Background

The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) is an international non-profit organization tackling poverty and inequality in sub-Saharan Africa by supporting girls to go to school and succeed, and young women to build secure livelihoods and become leaders in their communities. CAMFED's work is driven by the young women leaders within the CAMFED Association (CAMA) - young women educated with CAMFED’s support - who partner with their communities to ensure every child has access to quality education. We work in the following six countries in Africa: Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, with support offices in Australia, Canada, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States of America. A more detailed look at CAMFED can be found here: https://camfed.org/

The My Better World (MBW) wellbeing and life skills curriculum was co-developed by CAMFED, young women and education experts in 2012 and launched in secondary schools in Tanzania and Zimbabwe in 2013, before extending to Zambia, Malawi, Ghana and most recently Kenya. The curriculum is delivered by trained volunteer Learner Guides through weekly sessions over a 12–18-month period and, to date, over 4.5 million children across five countries have been reached with regular MBW sessions. The curriculum complements the academic syllabus and builds deeper learning skills such as confidence and problem-solving in a way that recognises the context of rural students - particularly girls - and the particular challenges they face to remain in school and learn.

The programme is run - to a significant level - as part of sessions timetabled within the school day and is well supported by education ministries, with the programme being seen as both relevant and needed. Since its launch, the My Better World curriculum and Learner Guide programme has scaled and been integrated into national education systems: components of the curriculum, training and delivery already sit outside of CAMFED’s direct programming in nearly every country of operation, and this is set to continue.

This process of scaling and integration was a key driver of a recent curriculum re-design. Originally targeted to 14–17-year-olds, the curriculum has now been re-designed to be delivered to learners at three stages or ‘levels’ of education: upper primary, lower secondary and upper secondary, through a set of Learner Guide led curriculum resources, complemented by student facing teaching and learning materials. The re-design also incorporates a more modular approach, increasing the ease with which the content can be locally adapted to ensure maximum relevance and alignment.

An accompanying ‘Learner Guide Resource’ provides guidance to Learner Guides on child protection, community engagement, the background to My Better World and pedagogical techniques to support delivery of the curriculum.

The curriculum resources will be shared in full with the successful consultant but consist of around 75-80 session plans per Level (three levels in total - upper primary, lower secondary and upper secondary). Each session is designed to last around 30-60 mins and within each level, the sessions are grouped into five themes: Understanding Myself; How I Think and Learn; The World Around Me; Me and Other People; and My Future.

2. My Better World curriculum contextualisation

Further to the core curriculum re-design, CAMFED now seeks to adapt the content to reflect the local delivery context. The chosen consultant will lead the contextualisation process, following the activities set out below, and validate the process with a Technical Working Group, drawing together key government ministries and agencies, to guide the contextualisation process. The Technical Working Group will be convened and supported by CAMFED.

It is not anticipated that the contextualisation will result in a significant change to the content, which has already been developed in close consultation with representatives from each country office, but will instead be a process of prioritisation and contextualisation, encompassing the following activities:

i. Mapping of the themes and topics in My Better World against the content of national life skills curricula, in order to identify overlaps, complementarities and gaps. The resulting matrix will list the main topics of My Better World at each level (Level 1, 2 and 3), and identify which topics are also covered in national life skills curricula. This will help to inform which modules of My Better World should be prioritised for delivery in each context. This mapping will be reviewed by CAMFED and shared with the Technical Working Group in advance of a contextualisation workshop - the agenda for which will be agreed with CAMFED.

ii. Identification of any relevant national guidelines governing age-appropriateness of content and review of content against these guidelines.

iii. Drawing on the mapping matrix developed under i, identification of where MBW content could be usefully connected to other learning experiences that learners have in other parts of the school curriculum to ensure coherence and reinforcement for learners.

iv. Drawing on the mapping matrix developed under i, identification of where MBW language or terms might need to be adapted to reflect the language used in complementary programmes to ensure coherence of approach for learners, including identifying where sessions might benefit from being translated to local languages.

v. Contextualisation of characters, cultural and geographical references across the programme content (MBW curriculum and Teaching and Learning Materials), specifically in the stories and scenarios, to ensure familiarity to learners.

vi. Identification of where spellings or language should be adapted or replaced with local dialect, to ensure relevance and increase learner engagement.

vii. Identification of where it might be necessary or valuable to undertake translation of certain sessions to ensure full understanding

viii. Engagement with CAMFED on the likely timeframe over which each level will be run, and therefore how many learning sessions are feasible to deliver within this timeframe

ix. Drawing on the mapping matrix detailed above, recommendation of which MBW curriculum sessions should be prioritised (‘core’), if necessary, to fit within the anticipated curriculum delivery timeframe, and which sessions should be treated as ‘optional’, should an individual Learner Guide find she/he has the time and resources to run them.

x. A validation workshop with the Technical Working Group, facilitated by the consultant, during which all the elements above (i to ix) will be discussed and agreed.

xi. Updating and finalisation of the MBW curriculum materials and Teaching and Learning Materials content to respond to the outcomes of the Technical Working Group validation workshop.

The consultant will not be required to format or design the materials as part of the contextualisation - these will be designed in-house following completion of the contextualisation process; however ‘sample’ design content will be provided to support discussions.

A MBW review team - drawing together CAMFED staff from the national and global team - will be available to work alongside the consultant.

3. Key Deliverables

a. Inception Report: outlining methodology and workplan

b. Curriculum matrix that compares MBW content/concepts against national life skills curricula content/concepts

c. Relevant national guidelines governing age-appropriateness of content

d. Recommended contextualisation and prioritisation of content

e. Facilitation of validation workshop with relevant ministry and government agency stakeholders to agree recommendations

f. List of approved recommendations resulting from the workshop identifying core and optional MBW sessions, and key contextualisation.

g. Arrangement of the curriculum into ‘core’ and ‘optional’ MBW sessions

h. Contextualised My Better World and Teaching and Learning resources

4. Duration

The consultancy is expected to take around six weeks from the agreement of the inception report to the sharing of the final deliverable.

5. Consultant profile

The ideal consultant (or consulting organisation) will have:

● Proven experience in curriculum development and review

● Proven experience in gender transformative pedagogies

● Deep understanding of girls’ education and issues of gender equality in marginalized contexts

● Experience working in education focussed programming

● Experience in developing teaching and learning resources for use in marginalized contexts

● Strong analytical, facilitation and communication skills

● Experience working with the Zambian education system and national curriculum,

● Experience in life skills, comprehensive sexuality education, guidance and counselling, or related areas

● Experience consulting with government ministries/agencies and education stakeholders.

● Desirable: understanding of the educational and employment context for young people in Africa

6. Management and Reporting

The consultant will report to a MBW review committee consisting of CAMFED’s senior leadership. The Consultant will be offered a fixed-price contract to include all activities and agreed deliverables. The proposed payment schedule, including the initial payment upon signing of the contract and subsequent payments linked to agreed deliverables, will be discussed and mutually agreed with the selected Consultant during contract negotiations and reflected in the final contract.

7. Submission Requirements

Interested consultants should submit:

● A short proposal outlining their approach and methodology

● Organisational profile and or CV(s) of consultant(s)

● Budget estimate in Zambian Kwacha (including professional fees and any expenses)

● Examples of similar work undertaken.

Interested qualified and experienced consultants who have undertaken similar assignments should apply in writing with the detailed proposal and budget to Procurement_Zambia@camfed.org no later than Friday 9^th October 2026 with the title Life Skills Curriculum Contextualisation.

Please note that if any of the information required below is unclear, we encourage you to reach out to Procurement_Zambia@camfed.org who can provide further information and clarity.

CAMFED Zambia

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Life Skills Curriculum Contextualisation Consultant