South Africa: Request for Proposal for Jik’izinto Programme Evaluation

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.

The Programme: 

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 young 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 leverage the existing Big Sis chatbot.

The program will promote rights-basedSRH practices and aim to increase the uptake of modern contraceptives and regular STI and HIV 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 Scope: 

Girl Effect is looking to commission a research agency in South Africa with experience in girl-centred quantitative research to run an evaluation of Jik’izinto, a 3-year programme. The evaluation should deliver against the evaluation objectives below. The successful agency will be able to provide local expertise and apply their experience to design, run and report on the impact of Jik’izinto against the outcome indicators for each area of intervention.

Evaluation Objectives: 

1. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Jik’izinto programme in shifting the behaviours of young women. 

• Access a health service for contraception uptake
• Use contraception during sex at each sexual encounter
• Access mental health services and information as and when they need to
• Effectively manage their mental wellbeing with healthy coping mechanisms
• Economic empowerment behaviours to be confirmed

2. To evaluate the effectiveness of the Jik’izinto programme in shifting the psychological drivers that contribute towards building invention to act and contribute towards behavioural change (as outlined by Girl Effect’s theory of change).

• Knowledge
• Attitude
• Outcome Expectation
• Perceived control
• Perceived support
• Intent

3. To measure the Jik’izinto brand resonance amongst consumers, as trustworthy, relevant and inspiring.

4. To assess the additional value of on-the-ground interventions when run alongside our media products and content.

We anticipate that the evaluation will have two quantitative cross sectional research rounds - baseline and endline. We expect this to be cross-sectional but recruiting based on Jik’izinto consumption to be able to compare consumers and non-consumers of our content at the endline stage. However, we are open to recommendations on approach and methodology to be included in detail in agency proposals.

Please note that Girl Effect is planning a phased rollout of the programme, which means SRH and mental health content will be rolled out in the first year, whereas Economic Empowerment is planned for the second year. For this reason, there may be additional questions on Economic Empowerment may be introduced in the endline that are not featured in the baseline. We are also open to suggestive approaches by the agency to flesh out rigorous methodologies for economic empowerment measurement.

Methodology: 

Girl Effect strongly supports rigour, reliability and replicability in its research. Therefore, we anticipate methodologies such as cross-sectional or quasi-experimental design to understand the effectiveness of programme within consumers and a comparative analysis of consumers and non-consumers on the outcome indicators at the endline. We are looking for sample recommendations that can provide representative samples across consumers and non-consumers to allow for meaningful comparisons between these two groups to ascertain causality. We encourage the agencies to propose evaluation methodologies based on this.

Please note that a longitudinal panel will also run alongside this study. The qualitative panel will be designed to gain user feedback and to understand Jik’izinto’s impact stories from AGYW. If you wish to submit a proposal for this as well as the quantitative evaluation, please contact the Girl Effect team for more information.

Sampling Frame: 

The respondents of the evaluation must be members of Jik’izinto’s target audience: females in the age group of 18-24 years from the respective locations 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.

The respondents should be a mix of ethnicities, education status, employment status, etc. We recommend matching techniques to be used to have a similar profile of consumers and non-consumers of Jik’izinto. Since this will be a large scale quantitative data collection, we would like the agencies to advise best suited sampling methods such as multi-stage sampling, cluster sampling, random stratified sampling, etc. and a suitable design effect for the same. Along with consideration on how to make consumers and non-consumer groups as comparable as possible.

We will also recommend using sample formulas with power and a 95% confidence interval along with a Design effect to arrive at the sample size. Please provide information on how you will ensure we reach the required sample and any plans to recruit additional samples to ensure completions and quality interviews are completed at the scale set out.

Tasks

The successful agency will be responsible for the following:

Design:

• Design the evaluation to meet Girl Effect’s requirements. We anticipate this is likely to be baseline, and endline cross-sectional study but are open to other recommendations that deliver on objectives.
• Work with the Girl Effect programmes team to identify the required locations for evaluation.
• Agree the final design with Girl Effect’s evidence and insight team
• Design sample specification to be representative of target audiences
• Achieve required ethical approvals and obtain approval from district level public entities
• Design survey tool based on Girl Effect’s ToC and previous impact evaluations
• Translate (and back translate) and contextualising the data collection tools into local languages

Setup: 

• Recruit a suitable team of female quantitative researchers and field enumerators for gender-matched interviews with young women and girls.
• Facilitate training for all researchers, including a pre-testing exercise under actual field conditions.
• Complete survey testing and scripting
• A post-pilot debrief and working sessions to refine and adapt the data collection following the pre-testing
• Sample and recruit communities and participants according to the provided purposive sampling criteria
• Obtain informed consent from all participants as well as consent from parents/caregivers of participants and assent from minors.

Fieldwork: 

• Capture and store all survey data using digital devices.
• Compile and submit field summaries with a breakdown per locality on agreed-upon frequency.
• Ensure all work is conducted according to the Girl Effect Girl Safeguarding Policy and an agreed safeguarding agreement.
• Conduct quantitative data collection in the selected districts, following strict quality assurance procedures and ensuring high data management standards. All field worker management, logistics, etc, shall be the agency's responsibility.

Analysis and Reporting: 

• Provision of raw and clean data sets
• Provide data tables with cross breaks pre-agreed with the Girl Effect
• Conduct analysis
• Deliver draft reports for Girl Effect’s feedback and input (baseline and endline)
• Deliver final reports for Girl Effect with video-call debrief (baseline and endline)
• Final report delivered to ethical approval boards as required

The agency will coordinate closely with Girl Effect to deliver work that delivers on all Girl Effect and Jik’izinto reporting requirements. The Girl Effect Teams will conduct quality assurance during the fieldwork implementation. And review and agree on all major stages of the design and delivery.

Deliverables: 

• Evaluation Design (with GE’s support and input)
• Participant sampling
• Survey tool
• Consent and Assent forms
• Translations of survey tools into relevant languages and formats
• Risk assessment
• Ethical approval certificates
• Training plan
• Raw data files for each stage (baseline,and endline)
• Clean data files for each stage (baseline,and endline)
• Data tables as per GE specification, including sig testing for each stage (baseline, and endline)
• Baseline report
• Endline report
• Ethical approvals final report

Location: 

The agency must 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 global manager, especially for tool translation and fieldwork components.

Project Timelines:

• Agency procurement completed - November 2023
• Ethical approval submitted - November 2023
• Ethical approval achieved - December 2023
• Baseline fieldwork - January (Feb latest) 2024
• Baseline reporting - March-April 2024
• Branded content running from March 2024 to September 2025
• Endline fieldwork - October 2025
• All final reporting - December 2025

Who You Are: 

Skills and Expertise:

• Extensive experience in designing and conducting quantitative 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 quantitative studies in South Africa, especially with adolescent girls, preferably in multiple regions.
• Experience conducting sensitive research with hard to reach, most vulnerable populations
• Experience in interviewing minors and 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 interviewers
• 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 agencies 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
• Workplan 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.

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%

Procurement Timeframe: 

• Terms of reference published: 27th October
• Deadline for Questions/Clarifications: 3rd November 2023
• Deadline for responses from GE: 7th November 2023
• Proposal submission: 13th November 2023
• Supplier selection, contracting, and briefing: November 2023
• Project commencement: 1st December 2023

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 3rd November. All questions will be answered and shared through an FAQ.

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 13th of November, at midnight latest. Please mark your email with the subject line, ‘‘Proposal - Jik’izinto Programme Evaluation.’