Research Agency Job: Online Community Research

Organization

• Girl Effect

  Posted27 Jul 2023  Closing date9 Aug 2023

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.

Background

With the support of MSD for Mothers, Girl Effect will design, launch, and implement an 18-month project (Binti Stawi) to develop a new digital product and service that will help connect young women in Kenya to sexual and reproductive health services and products (pep, prep, oral contraception, IUDs, implants, consultations with gynaecologist and more). Digital technologies have opened up new ways for women to access these products and services online. However, too many barriers still prevent young women from taking advantage of these options.

Girl Effect aims to bring together young women, service providers, and other key stakeholders to co-create and test prototypes for a new digital product that will work with existing platforms to expand access to healthcare across Kenya.

Research Brief

Girl Effect wants to commission an agency with vast experience running successful online communities and girl-centred research. The successful agency will deliver a full-service online community research project, with a baseline and endline survey before and after the community to capture changes from beginning to end. The platform being used for hosting the online community should allow for moderator-led group discussions as well as closed-ended questions.

In addition to the online communities, we are also interested in speaking to a small group of girls (approx 20/30 in numbers) who are not regularly online (off-line) and hence not accessible through the online communities. We expect the agency to suggest a method to assess impact on this subset of girls. The intervention for such girls is a USSD with contents similar to the chatbot. Please provide the budget for this activity separately.

A chatbot and USSD are at the centre of this project; however, a website, radio spots, social media posts, and small videos on social media will be other channels directed towards mobilizing users and raising awareness. We expect the agency to propose ways to expose the participants to all the relevant content to assess its effectiveness.

The Scope

For both components of the study, the successful agency will be responsible for:

• Designing a compelling and youth-friendly online community, including baseline, endline and tools for the offline component.
• Translate and back-translate the tools.
• Ensuring the sampled girls get exposed to the intervention (a WhatsApp-based chatbot, USSD service, and other modes of content – radio, social media, website) through fun and engaging tasks and activities.
• Providing an inception report, including the plans for tool design, final sampling strategy, agreed research plan and timeline, data quality and management, research ethics and safeguarding processes.
• Gaining ethical approval for this study from the required bodies
• Advising on sample design within specification and agreeing on the final design with Girl Effect
• Recruiting communities and participants according to the provided purposive sampling criteria
• Piloting of tools, including debriefing and working sessions with Girl Effect to refine and finalise the tools before the research
• Any testing and scripting required for the community, baseline/endline surveys and off-line component
• Obtaining informed consent from all participants
• Managing the online community for the duration of the research
• Facilitating any off-line FGDs or methodologies proposed
• Ensuring quality control and data management
• Full data analysis
• Maintaining a database of respondents for future research re-contact
• Cleaned, labelled, securely stored, and correctly coded datasets in English for any quantitative data and complete qualitative data transcripts. Agency to provide details on what will be available.
• Final evaluation report of the differences between baseline and endline surveys.
• Final qualitative report sharing user feedback and qualitative user impact stories.
• To ensure all work is conducted according to the Girl Effect Girl Safeguarding Policy and an agreed safeguarding agreement.
• A wrap-up session with Girl Effect to debrief the online community.

Girl Effect will be responsible for the final sign-off of all steps involved in the above process.

Research objectives

• Primary: To evaluate the effectiveness of Binti Stawi content to shift psychological drivers and intention to complete the target behaviour (accessing SRH services).
• Secondary: To collect detailed user responses to the content experience and products available (chatbot, USSD, radio, website, social media etc), including qualitative impact stories.
• Additional: We would also like to check our USSD feedback from online communities with low-fi audiences, i.e. those without access to the internet.

Methodological Approach

Girl Effect welcomes 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 imagine this may take the form of a 6-8 weeks long online research community and must include the following:

• A baseline survey, in which participants will be questioned on their knowledge, outcome expectations and intention to access service before interacting with the chatbot or USSD.
• Participants will engage with the chatbot, USSD, radio, website, social media etc, through a range of online community activities/tasks. The research will explore likes and dislikes, the relevance of content etc.
• An endline survey would be run after participants have had enough time to engage with content. Participants will repeat the baseline survey to measure the impact of the content.

Additionally, while the majority of this study will be conducted online with users who have regular internet access, we would like to integrate a light touch boost with a small number of “low-fi audiences”, e.g. those without internet access. The purpose of this component will be to sense check the feedback on USSD from the online community with low-fi audiences but might use a USSD service. This should be a minor and cost-effective component alongside the major online community, and please provide costs for this separately from the online community component.

We encourage recommendations from the agencies to suggest research nuances which would allow for a robust evaluation of the products. We will look for details in proposals on considerations and recommendations for:

Number of Research activities

To be discussed

Duration

We envision a 6-8 week activity but are open to suggestions

Sample

We anticipate approximately 250 participants for the online community to ensure significant differences between baseline and end-line surveys can be measured. But welcome recommendations here. Please share any sample calculations/considerations.

An additional sample of off-line respondents for the low-fi component (approximately 20-30).

Recruitment and Target Audience

Gender

Female

Age

18-24

Socio-Economic Class

Spread across the various socio-economic groups in Kenya, High, Middle and low income.

Locations

Nairobi and Migori counties

Digital Access

1. Online audiences, who can access the online community (with their own or borrowed devices) regularly over the 6-8 week period.
2. Additional: A small additional group of respondents who have low/no internet access would be more likely to use a USSD platform than go online.

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 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)

Procurement Timelines:

• Terms of reference published: 26th July
• Questions/Clarification Deadline: 31st July
• Deadline for responses: 9th August
• Supplier selection, contracting and briefing: Mid-August
• Project commencement: End August

>>Targeting commencement of fieldwork by the last week of September [approximate]. Please note that the evaluation is tied to the product launch. Unexpected delays in the product launch will accordingly push research dates. Please provide timelines with your proposal detailing activities before and after fieldwork.

Who You Are

Skills and Expertise

• Experience in designing and conducting online communities
• Access to a suitable online community platform
• Capacity to deliver all areas expected of this research, from recruiting to our sampling criteria to developing and managing the online community, ensuring quality assurance and working in line with research ethics principles
• Experience in designing and conducting online communities in Kenya, especially with children/girls, preferably in multiple regions
• Experience in research with minors and adolescents and in safeguarding policies and procedures
• Excellent and demonstrated understanding of Child Protection/ Safeguarding and ethical issues in research
• Excellent online community management and data quality control strategies
• Ability to conduct a risk assessment and mitigation plans for research
• Proven record of effectively managing relationships with research partners
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstration of effectively managing relationships with research partners
• Exceptional communication and organization skills
• Ability to respond to comments and questions in a timely, appropriate manner
• Experience in delivering outputs on time and on budget

Proposal Submission

Your proposal, should you be interested (Max 10 pages), should cover:

• Your understanding of the brief and why you feel you are well-placed to advise us on this
• Credentials/Profile/CV – Please showcase any previous work that you consider relevant to what we are trying to achieve and 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.
• Methodology and Workplan – including your proposal for the research methods and a detailed sample recommendation with an explanation.
• 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.
• Breakdown of Costs provided with applicable taxes and other charges clearly identified in USD. Consultants should provide their daily or hourly billing rate or their proposed fixed fee for the requested deliverables.
  • All applicable taxes should be quoted separately;

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

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.

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.

VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for 90 days from the date of bid closure.

Evaluation Criteria

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

Technical Evaluation

• Demonstrate the capability and capacity to meet the requirements of this RFP – 10%
• Staff with relevant experience as demonstrated by references and the strength of the proposal – 10%
• Geographical experience in Kenya- 10%
• Methodology and approach in implementing the project- 10%
• Evidence of a minimum of three contactable references signed – 5%
• Clarity of work plan and specific project activities – 10%
• Demonstrated experience in carrying out research involving relevant stakeholders – 15%

Financial Evaluation

• Value for money/proposed budget breakdown – 30%

Reporting

The successful agency will report to Girl Effect’s Senior Evidence and Insights Manager and work closely with the Kenya program team.

Tax

Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position with regard to provisions of Kenya’s local jurisdiction tax legislation when developing their proposals.

Disclaimer

GE reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, the 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 agencies will be assessed on our organizational values at the interview stage. The successful agency 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 all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries and staff.

Equal Opportunities

Girl Effect 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 organization that is increasingly representative of and works extensively with the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy service organizations and individuals with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.

How to apply

Please submit proposals, as described above, tosuppliers@girleffect.org by August 9th 2023, 5:00 pm EAT latest. Please clearly mark your email with the subject “‘Online Community Testing-Kenya ”’

Questions/Clarifications

If you have any questions about this RFP, please email suppliers@girleffect.org by 31st July, 5 pm EAT latest. All questions will be answered and shared with all agencies that have received the RFP for fairness.