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The international Catholic congregation of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) operates a total of 113 vocational training centres in 35 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, just under half of which are in the Francophone, about a third in the Anglophone and about a fifth in the Lusophone part of the continent. The presence of the SDB-Order is divided into fifteen canonical administrative units (so-called Order Provinces). Here, more than 1,500 Don Bosco priests and brothers work in more than 150 communities and support marginalised youth, mainly with vocational education.
In addition to the technical aspect of training, the unique selling point of training in the Don Bosco institutions is the holistic "Salesian" vocational training delivered through a system known as the Preventive System. This also teaches the rights and duties of an active citizen as well as life skills. In 2017, the SDB established Don Bosco Tech Africa (DBTA) as an international NGO in Kenya. DBTA aims to contribute to improving the living conditions of marginalised youth by improving the quality of SDB vocational education and training. Don Bosco Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) aims to enrich national, regional and international debates on the topic and influence national policies in the context of the target group. In this, DBTA acts as a continental coordination and networking office for the congregation’s 113 TVET centres in sub-Saharan Africa with around 35,000 trainees annually.
A low labour market orientation, outdated offers and infrastructures, a low degree of networking or even the lack of well-qualified personnel are some of the SDB’s challenges. At the same time, even in times of climate change and over-use of natural resources, the cross-cutting issue of sustainability, which is important for TVET, is only slowly incorporated into the Salesian TVET offer. The quality and relevance of Salesian vocational education and training are thus at great risk. Capacity development at the structural, infrastructural and personnel levels is intended to significantly improve the quality of the facilities' services in the direction of labour market orientation. Another central task is to promote cooperation with governmental and non-governmental actors such as other vocational training providers or the private sector.
The Global Program (GP) is a program designed to empower the Salesian TVET offer in 11 countries of the Africa-Madagascar region in order to contribute to enhancing the political, administrative and legal framework conditions of TVET in Africa. It is co-funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and coordinated and co-funded by the German NGO Don Bosco Mondo. The aim of the GP is to improve the quality and relevance of vocational training opportunities for marginalised young people in the respective countries. Capacity development and infrastructural investments are to be used to make offers to the modern requirements of the labour market, as well as the performance of the facilities in administration and apprenticeship. Job placement services should help young people to find work with good conditions. Through the thematic integration of crisis and environmental aspects, global challenges are addressed.
According to the BMZ, Global programmes should achieve higher and structure-building impacts through synergy and complementarity effects of the individual programme modules.These effects result from cross-country and cross-thematic networking and cooperation with a focus on advocacy and capacity development. In terms of content, global programmes are increasingly dedicated to global and supra-regional challenges (such as limited scope for action for civil society, human rights violations, social injustice, disaster risks, climate change, consequences of war violence, etc.). TVET is one of the sectors that play a crucial role in overcoming these challenges.
The second phase of the GP is kicking off in 2024. Building on the foundations laid in phaseI (see Annex), this second phase should take the SDB TVET to a new level and address root causes for underperforming TVET systems rather than symptoms through following a system approach.
The objective of the feasibility study is to provide Don Bosco Tech Africa with a well-founded basisfor the further development of the program concept by clarifying the pre-requisites, opportunitiesand risks and providing information on how to improve/optimize the program. The study will assessthe technical, economic, financial, environmental, social, and institutional feasibility of theproposed programmatic approach and systematically check the extent to which the programapproach can plausibly achieve the planned changes under the existing framework conditions.
The study will assess the current situation of technical vocational education and training in the 11 target countries. Further, the study will explore existing national and regional policies and programs of governments related to TVET, with a special focus on digitalization, green skills, networking, employment services and cross-cutting issues like gender, inclusivity, quality management.Overall, the study should analyse the situation and context, the problems resulting thereof and the target groups and stakeholders, at micro, meso and macro (national) level elaborating specific recommendations for the design of the program. The feasibility study will be used by DBTA team and Don Bosco Mondo as well as the identified implementing partner’s as an important tool for drafting the program proposal for the second phase, thus close consultation with DBTA, Don Bosco Mondo and the partner’s at every step is required.
Temporal reach
The maximum duration of the consultancy shall not exceed 45 (input) days and should be completed by 22.01.2024.
Geographical reach
The program is implemented in 11 African countries: Angola, Malawi, Kenya, Rwanda,Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, South Sudan andMadagascar. The feasibility study shall select a representative sample of institutions benefitting from the intervention, which later on informs the geographical reach.
The consultancy team is expected to work in close cooperation with DBTA. The following products are expected from the consultancy team:
Independent team of consultants, experienced with OECD/DAC criteria, working experience as consultants in Africa with sound experiences of at least five years and proven references in:
The expert team should be gender balanced and take into consideration local customs and religious beliefs. The experts will not act as representatives of any party and must remain independent and impartial.
Other experiences include the understanding of Church structures and inside-experiences of the socio-economic context of Sub-Saharan Africa. The consultants should speak fluent English and French. Portuguese would be an asset. It would furthermore be an asset if the consultancy offers a network of consultants or branches to facilitate the fieldwork.
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