South Africa: Jik’izinto Qualitative Longitudinal Panel

Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust and need. From chatbots to chat shows and TV dramas to tech, our content helps adolescent girls in Africa and Asia make choices and changes in their lives.

We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, and relationships, empowering girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible “for a girl”.

Our reach is 50 million and counting. And we’re using technology to reach girls at scale so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, her health, her learning and her livelihood.

Because when a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that change her life, it inspires others to do so too. She starts a ripple effect that impacts her family, community, and country.

That’s the Girl Effect.

Background: 

Girl Effect’s new programme in South Africa, called Jik’izinto [in Zulu, ‘things are changing for the better’], is designed to inspire and equip young people with the information and tools to make positive life choices. By meeting people where they are, online and offline, we can help young people to make choices and uptake behaviours that will have a positive and sustained impact on their lives. Jik’izinto has three core objectives that are spread across sexual health, mental well being and economic empowerment.

The program will promote rights-basedSRH practices and aim to increase the uptake of modern contraceptives and regular STI testing. We will encourage young people to access health services and products when needed.

As a complement to content focussed on sexual and reproductive health and rights, the program will also address young people’s mental health concerns and aim to normalise behaviours that lead to the uptake of mental health services. It will also work to break down the stigma around the subject to enhance young people’s mental well-being and overall agency.

The economic empowerment vertical of Jik’izinto intends to equip young people for employment by helping them access high-quality information on education, training and employment opportunities. Economic empowerment is a new area for the intervention and Girl Effect’s work in South Africa, so this will be built out over the coming months based on internal literature reviews (that will be shared with the successful agency) and this research.

The Brief - In Summary:

Girl Effect wishes to commission a full service agency to conduct a qualitative longitudinal panel with young women, featuring interviews with young men and parents in South Africa. This panel will be designed to gather individual impact stories from consumers of Jik’izinto: unpacking and tracking the individual journey of approx 50 adolescents across all Jiki’zinto locations. to understand their personal shifts in behaviour and psychological drivers, as well as digging into their reactions to our youth brand and content within Jik’izinto.

In your proposal, please include details of your proposed sample and how to plan to manage any attrition throughout the period. We definitely want the insights from 50 adolescents, at least. We suggest that the agency develop a retention plan and further recruitment to compensate for attrition. While designing the retention, please consider that the adolescents should still fall into the age group of 18-24 years. For instance - we might not want to recruit 24 year olds, in the first phase of recruitment because, after 18 months, they will exceed the 18-24 year old bracket.

We anticipate that this longitudinal panel will run approximately for 18 months and will be based on self-reported outcomes and stories from girls, with occasional activities in which they interview boys, friends and/or parents.

Please note that a quantitative evaluation will also run alongside this qualitative study. The quantitative evaluation will be designed to collect statistical differences before and after the programme duration and will complement this study.

Research Objectives: 

• Tracking reactions to the Jik’izinto brand
  1. Understanding how trustworthy, relevant and inspiring the brand is considered by the target audience
  2. Understanding how the Jik’izinto brand compares to other youth focused brands
• Understanding how girls are engaging with the Jik’izinto content
  1. Unpick which formats or messages resonate most and least
  2. Explore which formats or messages are most ‘sticky’ and memorable
  3. Understanding what key messages girls are learning from the content and what questions still remain unanswered
• Impact stories/case studies — Exploring and tracking individual’s shifts in drivers (e.g. knowledge, attitude, outcome expectation, etc.) and behaviours
  1. What are young women’s experiences and stories around Jik’izinto and its influence on knowledge/attitudes/perceived control/outcome expectations and self-efficacy about sexual and mental health and economic empowerment?
  2. What are young women’s experiences and stories around Jik’izinto and its influence on the uptake of the behaviours of accessing sexual and mental health services and economic empowerment behaviours that will be further detailed during programme development?

Research Approach: 

Girl Effect would like to hire a full-service agency for this research project, and the commissioned agency will be leading on research design, methodology, tool design, translation into local language (with colloquial terms), securing ethical approvals, recruitment, moderation of the fieldwork elements, analysis and reporting.

Anticipated Methodology of Longitudinal Panel Approach: 

• A long-term (approx 18 months) panel with our target population of young women aged 18-24 years and potential additional interviews with their parents and young men of a similar age.
• The study format could be a mix of FGDs / IDIs/ self-completed/online interviews and much more. We are happy for the agency to suggest other effective participatory methods in working with young people, especially girls. These discussions/interviews should be hosted by a professional moderator from the agency we commission for this piece of work.
• Time Intervals /Frequency of touch base with girls: The girls in the longitudinal panel will be contacted at various times throughout the 18-month campaign (from March 2024 to October 2025). We imagine that engagement from the community will take a range of activities, which may include a package of activities such as 1 regular tracking survey per month with the same questions asked each time, individual activities that may be consuming content, interviewing their parents or interviewing friends, brothers, etc.
• Girl Effect would like to recruit something in the region of 50 young women/households. However, the sample size is suggestive, and the agencies are recommended to think about the optimum sample size based on the locations and target population and provide justification for their proposal.
• The longitudinal panels will happen across at least 4 provinces, which will be representative of Jik’izinto locations. These are likely to be City of Cape Town (in Western Cape), City of Johannesburg (in Gauteng) and, Capricorn (in Limpopo) and eThekwini (in Kwazulu-Natal). Final locations will be agreed upon with the successful agency upon contacting.
• We suggest recruiting an equal distribution of the 50 young women across the provinces. However, welcome recommendations in your proposal based on the different characteristics of each province. Please keep in mind that GE will want a reflective cohort from the SA youth population of the four provinces, so the agency is requested to think of a sample size with that lens.
• The Jik'izinto team will create a product mix of both online and offline, such as radio, youth groups, chatbot content, etc. Therefore, we would like to have a mix of participants with hi-fi and lo-fi access. We will recruit across various ethnicities, education status, employment status, etc. Please note that the recruited young people should be reflective of the Jik’izinto’s target audience.

Context of the Assignment: 

The successful agency will be responsible for the following deliverables:

• Research design (with GE’s support and input)
• Tool development
• Translations of the tools into relevant languages and formats
• Consent and Assent forms
• Risk assessments
• Ethical approval certificates
• Recruitment of respondents to have a reflective cohort from the target audience (including consent from respondents)
• Moderators training plan
• Conducting fieldwork (e.g. facilitating focus groups discussions/interviews, audios from these interviews)
• Keeping respondents engaged throughout the 18-month study and recruiting additional respondents at launch to ensure sample is maintained through to completion despite attrition rates
• All data outputs, such as transcripts and audio recordings
• Sharing data at the end of each phase of the panel, including survey results, and topline narrative from each activity
• Data analysis following fieldwork (please provide your analysis plan in proposals)
• Deliver draft reports for Girl Effect’s feedback and input
• Report of all findings (PowerPoint, plus presentation to Jik’izinto team)
• Ensure all work is conducted according to the Girl Effect Girl Safeguarding Policy and an agreed safeguarding agreement

Procurement Timeframe: 

• Terms of reference published: 27th October
• Deadline for Questions/Clarifications: 20th November 2023
• Deadline for responses from GE: 25th November 2023
• Proposal submission: 30th November 2023
• Supplier selection, contracting, and briefing: December 2023
• Project commencement: 1st February 2024

Ethics: 

The successful agency must adhere to Girl Effect protocols and safeguarding measures during all stages of research. This will ensure all girls’ participation will be conducted safely and securely. Ethical approval must be submitted to the relevant ethical board to ensure the research takes place with the proper permissions.

Consent must be obtained from girls with consent forms that clearly state that at any time, research participants are free to decide to leave the research should they feel a reason to do so.

Care also should be taken by the successful agency to maintain the confidentiality of the information provided by the respondents during the community. Informed voluntary consent should be taken before starting from the community, and parent/caregiver consent obtained for a minor. If an individual refuses to participate, they should not be compelled to participate or demoralized by any means. These cases will be treated as no-response under this survey. The research team must all undergo safeguarding training per Girl Effect’s safeguarding procedures and sign the Girl Effect safeguarding policy.

All data must be stored in password-protected electronic files and shared with Girl Effect via a secure file transfer protocol (FTP)

Questions/Clarifications: If you have any questions about this RFP, please email suppliers@girleffect.org by the 20th of November, 2023. All questions will be answered and shared through an FAQ on our website.

Location: The consultant will be based in South Africa and must be conducive to working with teams in the UK, USA, Sub-Saharan Africa & India.

Reporting: The agency will have a primary point of contact in our Global Evidence and Insights Senior Manager but will work closely with the local managers and senior managers, especially for tool translation and fieldwork components.

Project Timelines:

• Agency procurement completed - December 2023
• Ethical approval submitted - December 2023
• Ethical approval achieved - January 2024
• First round fieldwork - February 2024
• First round reporting - March 2024
• Multiple rounds of fieldwork & reporting - April 2024 - September 2025
• Final round of fieldwork - October/November 2025
• All final reporting - December 2025

Who You Are: 

Skills and Expertise:

• Extensive experience in designing and conducting qualitative research
• Capacity to deliver all areas expected of this research from design, through recruiting and training researchers, to leading the data collection process in target field locations, ensuring quality assurance and working in line with research ethics principles and delivering high-quality reporting.
• Experience designing and conducting qualitative studies in South Africa, especially with children/girls, preferably in multiple regions.
• Experience conducting sensitive research with hard to reach, most vulnerable populations
• Experience in interviewing adolescents within safeguarding policies and procedures
• Excellent and demonstrated understanding of Child Protection/ Safeguarding and ethical issues in research
• Excellent fieldwork supervision and data quality control strategies
• Ability to conduct a risk assessment and mitigation plans for research
• A fieldwork team of female interviewers for girls and young women interviews
• Proven record of effectively managing relationships with research partners
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstration of effectively managing relationships with research partners
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstration of effectively managing relationships with research partners
• Exceptional communication and organisation skills
• Ability to respond to comments and questions in a timely, appropriate manner
• Experience in delivering outputs on time and budget
• Ability to write clearly and concisely in English
• The reputation of the responding agencies and any previous experience in similar survey/research will also be considered.

Proposal Submission: 

Interested consultants are asked to submit the following to support their candidature (Max 10 pages):

Technical Proposal: 

• Your understanding of the brief and why you feel you are well-placed to advise us on this
• Credentials - Please showcase any previous work that you consider relevant to what we are trying to achieve, how we approach our work and the audience we cater to. Describe the qualifications, experience, and capabilities of the firm or consultant in providing the requested services (CV/Profile).
• An initial proposal for design
• Work Plan with Clear Timelines
• Reference - Provide at least three references for similar contracts with a description of the service provided, the value of the contract, and the contract periods of performance

In their technical proposal, the bidder must demonstrate an understanding of the requirements described in the RFP and demonstrate how the bidder will meet the requirements of the evaluation criteria. The technical proposal must not exceed ten pages.

Financial Proposal: 

• A breakdown of the financial proposal in USD indicating the daily rate for each of the proposed experts, time input and all applicable reimbursable expenses
• All applicable taxes should be quoted separately;

Technical and Financial proposals will need to be submitted as separate documents. Financial bids will not be opened until the technical evaluation and then only for those proposals deemed qualified and responsive.

GE is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of GE.

The proposal's VALIDITY shall be 90 days from the bid closure date.

Evaluation Criteria: 

The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are listed below.

Technical Evaluation: 

• A well-written capability statement clearly outlines your experience in delivering the Scope of Work and how you meet the ‘Who You Are’ requirements above - 20%
• An initial proposal for design (to be finessed with the GE team upon contracting) - 20%
• Ability to achieve project goals/deliverables, i.e. does the proposal clearly have strong feasibility to move forward the critical deliverables on schedule? -10%
• Demonstrate geographic experience in South Africa - 10%
• Clear and Concise CV demonstrating relevant expertise - 10%
• Evidence of a minimum of three contactable references - 10%

Financial Evaluation: 

• Value for money/proposed budget breakdown - 20%

Tax: When developing their proposals, applicants are advised to ensure that they clearly understand their tax position regarding local jurisdiction tax legislation provisions.

Disclaimer: GE reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party. GE shall inform ONLY successful applicant(s). The process of negotiation and signing of the contract with the successful applicant(s) will follow.

Safeguarding: You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. Shortlisted consultants will be assessed on our organisational values at the interview stage. The successful consultant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding policy. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found here. We have zero tolerance for violence against children, beneficiaries, and staff.

Equal Opportunities: Girl Effect Services is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity, or expression. We are proud to be an equal-opportunity workplace.

We are committed to building an increasingly representative organisation that works extensively with the communities we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy service organisations and individuals with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.

How to Apply: 

Please submit proposals, as described above, to Girl Effect’s procurement team (suppliers@girleffect.org) by the 30th of November, 2023, at midnight latest. Please mark your email with the subject line, ‘‘Proposal - Jik’izinto Longitudinal Panel.’