AVAILABLE CONSULTANCY WORK

SCOPE OF WORK (SOW) FOR

CONDUCTING A BASELINE STUDY FOR THE REAL FATHERS PROJECT

(4 PAGES)

Release date: March 25, 2014 Deadline for submission of proposals: April 8, 2013

1. Background

Georgetown University’s Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) is collaborating with Save the Children to develop and test the Responsible Engaged and Loving (REAL) Fathers Project- a mentoring program and community awareness campaign that aims to build positive partnerships and parenting practices among young fathers (ages 16-25) in northern Uganda. The intervention will be implemented in Attiak sub-County of Amuru District from July 2013 to January 2014.

The REAL Fathers Project will be evaluated with a Pretest-Postest Control experimental study design in which 340 young fathers will be randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Men who are assigned to the intervention group will participate in the 12 mentoring sessions (six individual and six group), and men assigned to the control group will only be exposed to the community awareness campaign. After endline data have been collected and analyzed, control group members will have the opportunity to receive elements of the intervention proven to be most successful.

Men will be recruited to participate in the intervention who:

a. Reside in the study community;

b. Are married or cohabiting with an intimate partner;

c. Are between the ages of 16 and 25 years old; and

d. Have a child at least one year of age and no children older than three.

All young fathers will be interviewed at baseline (before the start of intervention activities) and endline (four months after intervention activities are complete). The general objective of evaluation study is to measure the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of the REAL Fathers Project.

2. Purpose of this assignment

IRH intends to conduct interviews with participants in the REAL Fathers Project to provide baseline information from which to measure the effectiveness of the intervention in achieving desired outcomes. Page 2 of 4

Specifically, the evaluation will measure whether the intervention was successful in: 1) improving positive parenting techniques among fathers, 2) increasing positive interactions between children and fathers, 3) increasing self-efficacy related to fatherhood, 4) increasing emotional investment by fathers in children’s lives, 5) decreasing incidence of IPV, 6) decreasing utilization of harsh punishment, and 7) increasing participation of fathers in non-traditional parenting roles.

We are looking for a Uganda-based consultant or research organization to conduct the field portion of this baseline study as outlined in section 3 below. This scope of work is only for baseline data collection. A separate request for applications to conduct endline data collection will be released in 2014.

3. Scope of work

All study activities will be undertaken in close supervision by IRH. The scope of work will include, but may not necessarily be limited to, the following activities:

 Reviewing relevant documents including: the project concept note, research protocol, project brief, draft interview instrument, consent forms, and other relevant literature, in order to become familiar with the research and the context.

 Undertaking credible research ethics certification prior to the start of the study (if not already undertaken). The FHI 360 online research ethics certification course is preferred.

 Translating the interview instrument and consent forms into Acholi, then pretesting them in communities having similar population characteristics as those of the targeted study population. Reviewing and finalizing the interview instrument and consent forms prior to the study.

 Overseeing the entire field process including, but not limited to, identifying and hiring data collectors and supervisors, collaborating with IRH to train data collectors and supervisors on research methods and ethics; and conducting/managing data collection activities in 8 parishes in Attiak sub-County, Amuru district.

 Conducting structured individual interviews (as per the research protocol) with 340 young fathers (ages 16-25 years old) across 6 parishes in Attiak. Potential participants will be identified by Save the Children staff who will introduce research staff to the young fathers who have expressed interest in being interviewed.

 Creating data entry screens. The screen can be in a program of choice (such as CSPro or Microsoft Access), but the program must allow for data cleaning and

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dictionary creation, and must be exportable into SPSS (including complete dictionary of variables and values)

 Conducting data entry, using double entry procedures; comparing the two versions and cleaning up the data

 Conducting basic quantitative data analysis such as frequencies and descriptive statistics, based on guidelines provided by IRH

 Submitting a baseline research report and datasets (in SPSS) for review and further analysis. Please note that the report will need to reviewed and approved by IRH and may require multiple rounds of edits by the research consultant/organization before being considered final.

4. Expected outputs

1. An inception report detailing the work plan, providing comments to the baseline data collection instrument & SOW, listing key documents to be reviewed, and outlining the format for final report.

2. Weekly technical report describing the process of data collection: what went well, what didn’t work and why, what are some recommendations of human resources and/or other resources required to better support the data collection during the endline study.

3. Final and cleaned raw data, in SPSS, including complete dictionary of variables and values.

4. A detailed final report of the preliminary analysis, outlining among others: background characteristics of respondents; attitudes and behaviors related to gender roles, parenting, and violence; and respondents’ participation and exposure to intervention components.

5. Methodology

The consultant/research organization will be required to conduct baseline structured individual interviews with 340 young fathers between the ages of 16 and 25 years old. The research protocol details the execution of the methodology, including: sampling and recruitment of study respondents, obtaining informed consent, interview procedures and data collection, research tools, data management and analysis. IRH will provide a draft interview instrument for pre-testing.

6. Time frame for the evaluation

The evaluation study is planned to commence on June 1, 2013 with document review and training; data collection should conclude no later than June 31, 2013; and data analysis and report writing should conclude no later than August 1, 2013.

7. Submission of proposals

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Interested bidders are required to submit a detailed technical and financial proposal in response to this SOW.

The technical proposal needs to clearly illustrate the consultant(s) or organization’s competency in conducting baseline studies and particular knowledge and prior experience in working with similar populations (youth) and on similar topics (GBV, SRH). It should present methodologies and an illustrative work plan narrative for each phase of the baseline process against the timeline given. It should also include the CVs of all proposed key staff (required) and any supporting staff as appendices (not required but desired if you know the person(s) with whom you plan to work).

The financial proposal should be a separate document from the technical proposal and should be easy to read and relate with in terms of monetizing the technical proposal. Please provide a competitive professional fee.

Selection criteria are the following:

 Suitability of qualifications to the assignment and demonstration of relevant experience and thematic expertise.

 Evidence working on previous youth, SRH , and/or GBV-related baseline studies as the lead consultant/organization.

 Demonstrated understanding of the proposed baseline study as illustrated by the technical proposal and the clarity and appropriateness of the methodology/work plan.

 Cost and competitiveness of budget.

An exclusion criterion is an incomplete proposal submission and one not adhering to the above guidance. Please note that costs associated with proposal preparation, submission and/or negotiation cannot be reimbursed as a direct cost of the assignment. All technical questions regarding this SOW should be directed to mka46@georgetown.edu with fmubiru.great.irh@gmail.com, and g.masendi.great.irh@gmail.com on copy.

8. Submission guidelines

The proposals are due 5 pm Uganda time on April 8, 2013. Proposals are to be submitted electronically to mka46@georgetown.edu and fmubiru.great.irh@gmail.com , g.masendi.great.irh@gmail.com and mkg54@georgetown.edu on copy. The successful consultant/firm will be notified within two weeks of the deadline.