RFP for Collaboration Hub Evaluation-Nigeria

Top Line Objective:

Request proposals for a full-service MEL agency to design, run and deliver an evaluation for Girl Effect and Good Business’s Collaboration Hub programme in Nigeria.

Who We Are

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.

About the Collaboration Hub

Girl Effect and Good Business (lead partners of the SKY Girls programme) have launched a new programme called the Collaboration Hub. It is designed to foster and support greater collaboration between partners focused on gender norms change, especially those that focus on young people and use media to achieve their goals.

The Hub was established following research with stakeholders that indicated a strong desire for collaboration but uncertainty around some aspects of managing partnerships and getting the most out of them. Based on the belief that a cross-sectoral approach with multiple channels and players working in a coordinated way is necessary to achieve shifts in social norms, the Hub aims to further collaboration for transformative norms change.

As part of the project, we have developed a Collaboration Framework to act as a practical guide for partnerships. It sets out a process for setting up, managing and promoting partnerships, and provides resources for partners to use at different stages of this process.

The Collaboration Hub will also identify 4-5 programmes in Nigeria which have collaboration at their heart, to receive funding and support. This includes:

• 2-3 enhanced and expanded existing collaborations between diverse stakeholders using media to deliver gender norms change
• 2 new collaborations between diverse stakeholders using media to deliver gender norms change (one led by Girl Effect and one led by Good Business).

All projects will include collaborations between different organisations and will use media to shift gender norms. Projects will span a broad range of media channels, including both digital and traditional media. For digitally connected audiences, it could be social media platforms, podcasts, chatbots, or web platforms, like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. For girls with limited digital access, mass media and offline media could be used e.g. TV, radio, and Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Projects will also include a range of formats from drama series, to chat shows, to educational content.

These projects must be completed by August 2025, with final evaluation reporting to be completed in September 2025. The program is being delivered in Lagos and Kaduna states.

Girl Effect’s project: Working closely with young people in Kaduna, we will establish collaborations with CBOs such as Education as a Vaccine and fashion influencers/content creators; we will design a multi-media behaviour change ecosystem encompassing diverse content formats such as a radio chat show that explores contraception use, supported by social media and on-the-ground activities in targeted areas to increase reach and engagement with the content e.g. screenings of content.

Good Business’s project: We are looking to launch a mother-daughter cooking TV show aimed at mothers and daughters aged 10-24 in Lagos. The process of cooking family meals provides a familiar and “safe” space to encourage intergenerational conversations on sensitive issues without creating immediate resistance. Additionally, cooking is seen as “women’s work,” reinforcing traditional roles. This makes it an ideal starting point for opening up conversations about broader gender dynamics. We will use entertainment media, influencers and brand appeal for large-scale reach through online and traditional media (TV and social media), complemented by on-ground activities (events and workshops).

Key outcomes:

1. Girls and mothers have increased confidence to talk to each other about sexual health and financial management
2. Girls and mothers have increased knowledge of the basics of financial management and sexual health (dispelling misconceptions)

SWAG: GE is also supporting one existing collaboration in the Campus Unites for SRHR (CUFS) project in Zaria, Kaduna state. The project will explore collaborations with theatre arts departments in the schools to deliver community theatre to drive norms change towards access to sexual and reproductive health and rights within the communities. The collaboration will include on the ground CBOs, Campus radios, traditional and religious institutions, campuses etc.

The key outcomes of the programme will be to shift social norms and behaviours related to contraceptive use, including:

1. AGYW believe it’s typical and socially acceptable for them to use any form of contraception
2. Increases in uptake of modern contraception among newly-married couples
3. Increased knowledge of and confidence in using SRHR services.

Football comic: Good Business is also supporting a collaboration based around a football themed comic book for AGYW and ABYM aged 13-19 in Lagos. The comic The comic will use football-themed storylines and relatable characters. It will be co-created with young illustrators, expert storytellers, the target audience, and organisations with expertise in behaviour change messaging for sexual health. It will become part of an existing programme by Grassroots Soccer and Youth Empowerment Development Initiative that engages adolescents through in-person activities to support them in making healthy decisions. It will utilise the existing football-based health curriculum in storyboarding and scriptwriting. Youth coaches will engage the audience in deeper discussion on topics within the comic that address gender norms change.

A 5th and final project may be selected with similar criteria to the four above, however, this is still to be confirmed.

The Scope

Girl Effect is seeking a Monitoring Evaluation and Learning agency/organisation that has worked in Nigeria with experience in Kaduna and Lagos with extensive experience in monitoring and evaluation of youth-centred qualitative and quantitative research to conduct an evaluation of the Collaboration Hub programmes.

The successful partner will help us evaluate these 4-5 projects in Nigeria to:

• Assess if and how greater collaboration can contribute to more pronounced or accelerated shifts in gender norms
• Provide insight into characteristics of collaborations or around the process of collaborating which are particularly effective or ineffective.
• Where possible, work with existing evaluation partners to support or enhance evaluation studies in place, generate additional insight into impact and look for comparability across the projects

The evaluation must align with the objectives outlined below. The successful agency should demonstrate local expertise and apply its experience to assess the impact against specified outcome indicators.

This RFP is primarily focused on the collaboration elements of the 4-5 projects, with additional insight into their impact as a secondary focus. For the 2-3 programmes which are expanded or enhanced versions of existing programmes, it is highly likely that some outcome evaluation processes are in place, and the focus will therefore be on working with these.

For the 2 new programmes (one Girl Effect-led and one Good Business-led) there will be additional outcome evaluation, and we have an RFP out to tender for these evaluations. If you wish to apply for those in addition to this collaboration piece please see the link below:

Outcome Evaluation RFP

We anticipate the final deliverable to be a primarily qualitative evidence narrative, bringing together the collaboration evaluation, along with insights from the outcome evaluation pieces from each of the 4-5 projects; making connections between studies, collaboration and impact.

Evaluation objectives

A few examples of the kind of indicators we are anticipating are detailed below. But as the programme evolves we are looking for a thoughtful agency that will be able to advise us on the best approaches we can apply to measure the impact of collaboration and provide insight into the process of collaborating. We will also look to see if and how partners are using the Collaboration Framework we have developed, which we will share with the chosen evaluation agency upon contracting.

1. To assess the challenges and benefits of collaboration in relation to delivering transformative impact across 4-5 live project examples:
   1. Participants have gained learnings about collaboration with different organisations
   2. Participants believe that collaboration has increased the impact of their programme
   3. Participants believe the benefits of collaboration outweigh the challenges of collaboration
   4. Participants would champion collaborative working going forward
   5. Participants intend to work more collaboratively in future projects
   6. Participants feel like they have a good understanding of the landscape of change and the actors within it
   7. Participants feel like other collaborators have a better understanding of their landscape of change
   8. Participants have a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities
   9. Increased number of organisations from different disciplines included in project delivery (SBCC, Media, Government)
   10. Improved data sharing between the SBCC community and other key actors such as media data owners and government
2. To assess how greater collaboration can contribute to more pronounced or accelerated shifts in gender norms.

Methodology

We strongly support the principles of rigour, reliability, and replicability in research. We welcome recommendations on the best possible approach to deliver against our research objectives and would like to receive your approach design as a core component of the proposal. We encourage agencies to suggest adaptations or additional components that would allow for a robust evaluation of the intervention. The final methodology for this evaluation will be designed with the successful agency after they are commissioned.

1. Internal evaluation of collaboration with contributors

We anticipate a multi-faceted approach, requiring different components to explore collaboration within projects alongside evaluation of improved impact. This may include a combination of:

• Surveys of collaborators before, during and after the project
• In-person workshops between key collaborators
• Regular check-ins for each project providing key moments to reflect on collaboration to date
• A mapping of all organisations involved in the collaboration, their expertise and contribution

1. Outcome evaluation with beneficiaries of each project

Working with each of the projects that make up the Impact Media Accelerator programme, we require research to assess the effectiveness of each intervention and to gather compelling stories of impact. We welcome creative methodological solutions to deliver against this objective. Components may include:

• Firstly a review of the existing evaluations* underway for each project including guidance on alignment for consistent MERL components across projects.
• Secondly, any additional qualitative/quantitative research is required to assess the additional collaboration’s effect on their impact. We envisage additional evaluations to be undertaken through a series of focus group discussions (FGDs) and/or in-depth interviews (IDIs).

*Please note each project has its independent evaluation, which may vary dramatically in scale and design. Insights from these will need to be merged together to provide one combined evidence narrative.

Target Audience for sampling

The sample will be made up of a range of contributors:

• Collaborators from all key organisations for each of the 5 projects.
• Girl Effect SRH project: married males and females aged 18-24 years from Kaduna. The respondents should be a mix of income level, education status, religion, etc.
• Good Business mother-daughter project: daughters aged 10-24 and their mothers in Lagos. The respondents should be a mix of income level, education status, religion, etc.
• SWAG: adolescent girls and young women aged 15-24 in ABU Zaria Kaduna and its environs.
• Football comic: AGYW and ABYM aged 13-19 in Lagos. The respondents should be a mix of income level, education status, religion, etc.
• TBC: Project 5

After commissioning, our final sample breakdowns will be agreed upon with the selected agency.

Tasks

The successful agency will be responsible for the following:

1. Design:

• Design the evaluation to meet all requirements. We anticipate this will likely include the above mentioned component but are open to other recommendations that deliver on objectives.
• Work with Good business and Girl Effect to understand the programmes and outcomes and ensure alignment across research design.
• Agree on the final design with Girl Effect’s and Good Business’s evidence and insight teams.
• Design sample specification to be representative of target audiences
• Achieve required ethical approvals and obtain approval from relevant public entities
• Design research tools based on Girl Effect’s ToC and previous impact evaluations
• Translate (and back translate) and contextualise the data collection tools into local languages

1. Setup:

• Secure all required ethical approvals and local permissions to conduct the study.
• Work closely with all organisations running the 5 projects to ensure high quality alignment across all projects, while bespoke requirements are delivered.
• Recruit a suitable team of researchers and field enumerators for gender-matched interviews with young women and young men.
• Facilitate training for all researchers, including a pre-testing exercise under actual field conditions.
• Complete survey testing and scripting (pilot)
• 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, consent from parents/caregivers, and assent from minors.

1. 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 data collection in the selected districts. All field worker management, logistics, etc, shall be the agency’s responsibility
• Follow strict data quality assurance procedures and ensure high standards of data management

1. Analysis and reporting:

• Provision of raw and clean data sets
• Provide data tables with cross breaks pre-agreed with Girl Effect and Good Business.
• Conduct analysis
• Deliver draft reports for feedback and input from Girl Effect’s and Good Business.
• Deliver final reports for Girl Effect and Good Business with video-call debrief
• The final report will be delivered to ethical approval boards as required.

The agency will coordinate closely with Girl Effect to produce work that delivers on all of Girl Effect’s 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 & GB’s support and input)
• Participant sampling
• Survey tool
• Qualitative interview/focus group tools
• Consent and Assent forms
• Translations of tools into relevant languages and formats
• Risk assessment
• Ethical approval certificates
• Training plan
• Analysis plan
• Raw data files for each stage
• Clean data files for each stage
• Data tables as per GE & GB specification, including sig testing for each stage
• Reports for each stage of the evaluation
• Ethical approvals final report
• Data quality report

Location

The agency must be based or have substantial operations in Nigeria and must be conducive to working with teams in the UK, Sub-Saharan Africa & India. The Assignment is to be carried out in Nigeria (Kaduna & Lagos).

Management

The agency will have a primary point of contact with our Global Evidence and Insights Team and an additional local point of contact based in our Nigeria team. The language of the materials and reports shall be English. The contract supervisor shall approve all deliverables submitted by the agency before any payment is made.

Tentative Project Timelines

• Agency procurement completed – December 2024
• Ethical approval submitted – January 2024
• Ethical approval achieved – February 2025
• Mid programme investigation and reporting – March 2025
• End of programme fieldwork – August 2025
• All final reporting – September 2025 (fixed)

Who You Are

Skills Experience and Expertise:

• Extensive MEL experience in designing and conducting quantitative and qualitative research, ideally with a media focus.
• Experience delivering research with innovative approaches and/or comparative studies.
• 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 that aligns with research ethics principles, and delivering high-quality reporting.
• Experience designing and conducting quantitative studies in Nigeria, especially with youth, preferably in multiple regions.
• Experience conducting sensitive research with hard-to-reach, most vulnerable populations
• Experience in interviewing minors and adolescents and 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 interviews with young women
• 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 surveys/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).
• Initial considerations and first draft proposal for the design to be discussed and finalised with the client.
• 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. The technical proposal must be at most ten pages.

Financial Proposal:

• A breakdown of the financial proposal in NAIRA indicating the daily rate for each of the proposed experts, time input, and all applicable reimbursable expenses
• All applicable taxes should be quoted separately.
• Separate costs for key elements of the proposal, i.e. quantitative and qualitative

Technical and Financial proposals will need to be submitted as separate documents. Financial bids will not be opened until the technical evaluation and only for those proposals deemed qualified and responsive. The Proposals shall be prepared in English Language.

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 have strong feasibility in moving forward with the critical deliverables on schedule? -10%
• Demonstrate geographic experience in Kaduna and Lagos (Nigeria)- 10%
• Clear and Concise Profile/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 November 2024
• Deadline for Questions/Clarifications: 3rd December 2024
• Deadline for responses from GE: 6th December 2024
• Proposal submission: 13th December 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 should be 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)

Tax

Girl Effect Nigeria is obliged by the Nigerian tax authorities to ensure all taxes are charged where applicable. Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position regarding provisions to Nigeria tax legislation when developing their proposals.

Copyright

All materials/documents arising from this consultancy work shall remain the property of Girl Effect.

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.

Please note: We will evaluate only proposals submitted following the application process outlined in the RFP and using our specified email address ([email protected]).

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

Questions/Clarifications

If you have any questions about this RFP, please email [email protected]by 3rd December. All questions will be answered and shared through an FAQ.

How to Apply

Please submit proposals, as described above, to Girl Effect’s procurement team ([email protected]) by the 13th of December 2024. Please mark your email with the subject line, ‘‘Proposal – Collaboration Hub Evaluation-Nigeria.’