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
Over the last 15 years, Girl Effect has pivoted several times to serve the needs of adolescent girls. From advocacy groups to donors, we've played different roles in fighting for gender equality at different times. Girl Effect is evolving to become an expert in digital media and the leading driver of demand for services, products and opportunities amongst adolescent girls in Africa and Asia. Through our portfolio of brands and digital products, we tackle issues that girls and young women face by equipping them to adopt and maintain new behaviours that will improve their mental well-being, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and economic empowerment.
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, we can help shape behaviours and choices of young people that affect the rest of their lives and the future generation of South Africans. Jik'izinto has three core objectives that are spread across sexual health, mental well-being and economic empowerment.
The economic empowerment vertical intends to equip young people for employment by helping them to 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.
Mental health as an area of intervention in the programme is closely related to sexual health, and it aims to normalise behaviours that lead to seeking services for mental health concerns. It also wants to support girls in differentiating between mental health (MH) and mental well-being (MWB) and breaking down the stigma around the subject. With the goal of enhancing their mental well-being and overall agency.
Context of the Assignment
Girl Effect seeks a full-service agency to conduct qualitative research on the outlined mental health and economic empowerment research objectives with young girls. In this research study, we want to dive deep into the enablers and barriers that girls experience while seeking mental health services and how girls' identity interplays in accessing mental health services, as well as girls' enablers and barriers to employability and employment opportunities.
The agency would be responsible from beginning to end for everything, including:
- Research design
- Tool development
- Ethical approval (if required)
- Recruitment of respondents to have a reflective cohort from the target audience (including consent from girls and parents/guardians)
- Conducting fieldwork (e.g. facilitating focus groups discussions/interviews, audios from these interviews)
- Data analysis following fieldwork (please provide your analysis plan in proposals)
- Report of all findings (PowerPoint, plus presentation to Jik'izinto team)
- What are girls' current access points to mental health (MH) conversations and behaviours?
- How do girls currently deal with MH issues (who do they speak to, what services do they use, if any, coping mechanisms)
- What is the role of peers, parents and partners in enabling or restricting girls understanding /uptake of MH services
- How do each of Girl Effect's drivers affect one's intent to access care?
- What are the social norms amongst friends/peers and self-identity that affect girls' perceptions of MH and Mental well-being (MWB)?
- What are the most crucial barriers that inhibit girls' motivation to discuss their MWB and access counseling services for support? Exploring Girl Effect's drivers)
- How race (black, white, coloured) affects access to and experience of mental health services? (we are also interested in soft touch analysis of other social groups, such as disability, economic status, education etc.)
Sampling Frame
The broad sample framework for this research is outlined as follows.
- Primary audience: Girls in South Africa, ages 17-19, across a range of black and coloured girls.
- Secondary audience: girls' support networks, e.g. parents, partners, boys, teachers, community leaders or teachers. (This will be finessed, and scope tightened with Girl Effect and the successful agency. For now, please provide examples and ideas with costing included)
- Beyond this, we would like to thoroughly understand two target groups
- a high-fi audience, those with access to the internet, and regular phone use.
- No-fi audience, those with extremely limited or no access to online and digital media.
- We are interested in a breakdown of intersectional demographics of those spoken to (e.g. capturing data on young girls with disabilities from semi-urban and urban areas, mixed religions, ethnicity, class, partnership statuses etc.). This should be captured but not quoted for in the framework.
- Western Cape
- Gauteng
- Kwazulu-Natal
- North West
Research Approach
We anticipate this taking the form of focus group discussions with girls.
However, we would be open to other qualitative methodological recommendations that factor in the complexities and sensitivities of these topics amongst these groups.
It is also important for us to speak to the support networks for girls, such as parents, boys, teachers, community leaders etc. So please include imaginative and cost-effective suggestions of how we can include some perspectives from support networks in this research.
Scope of work
Girl Effect wants to commission an agency with vast experience running successful girl-centered formative research. The successful agency will deliver a full-service formative research project, working closely with Girl Effect's in-house research team. The successful agency will be responsible for the following:
- Designing a compelling and youth-friendly discussion guide discussion guide, for girls and one for their support network.
- 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.
- Advising on sample design within specification and agreeing on the final design with Girl Effect
- Gaining ethical approval for this study from the required bodies
- Recruiting participants according to the provided purposive sampling criteria
- Testing and refined tools
- Obtaining informed consent from all participants
- Providing experienced moderators for all groups/interviews
- Ensuring quality control and data management
- Full data analysis
- Maintain a database of respondents for future research re-contact
- Cleaned, labeled, securely stored and correctly coded datasets and full transcripts of qualitative data. Agency to provide details on what will be available.
- Final report answering the research questions.
- 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 team on findings.
- Girl Effect will be responsible for the final sign-off of all steps involved in the above process.
Who You Are
In addition to providing evidence against the scope and methods selected above, agencies that submit proposals for this work must demonstrate the following competencies to be considered for this project:
- Experience designing, conducting and analysing qualitative interview methodologies with adolescent girls and young women in South Africa and the specific locations recommended in the proposal.
- Experience identifying and engaging with adolescent girls and young women on sensitive subjects, ideally Mental health and Economic empowerment experience
- Capacity to deliver all areas expected of this research, including methodology and tool design, leading the recruitment and fieldwork, data analysis, quality assurance and working in line with research ethics principles
- Experience gaining ethical approval from the relevant bodies for similar studies
- Ability to work in relevant local languages
- Excellent and demonstrated understanding of ethical issues in market research/ interviews, and willingness to align with GE's SG policy standards and Code of Conduct
- Excellent fieldwork supervision and data quality control strategies
- A fieldwork team with adequate gender balance to carry out this work
- Ability to conduct risk assessment and mitigation plans for research
- Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstration of effectively managing relationships with research partners
- Exceptional communication and organisational skills
- Ability to respond to comments and questions in a timely, appropriate manner
- Experience in delivering outputs on time and on budget
- Ability to write and communicate clearly and concisely in English
- The reputation of the responding agencies and previous similar experience will be taken into account
We would like to begin fieldwork for the study in August 2023, with reporting completed by mid-October 2023, so that it can feed into programmatic content for our mental well-being campaign.
Further details of the timelines and major milestones should be delivered by the agency as part of the proposal.
Procurement Timelines
- Terms of reference published: 18th July
- Questions/Clarification Deadline: 24th July
- Deadline for proposal submission: 3rd August
- Project commencement: Early August
- Project end: Mid-October
The research agency must be based in South Africa or have significant experience conducting similar studies in South Africa with local moderators and recruiters. Ideally, with experience working in the recommended locations put forward in the proposal and must be comfortable working with teams based internationally.
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 girl-centered research methods, along with how you plan to include support networks, and a detailed sample recommendation with 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 as per template 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;
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 South Africa- 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 - 5%
- Demonstrated experience in carrying out research involving relevant stakeholders - 20%
- Value for money/proposed budget breakdown - 30%
The successful agency will report to Girl Effect's Senior Evidence and Insights Manager and work closely with the Jik'izinto team.
How To Apply
To apply for this opportunity, please submit a proposal by email with the subject line "SA Research Agency" to suppliers@girleffect.org by the end of day 3rd August 2023.
Questions/Clarifications
If you have any questions about this RFP, please email suppliers@girleffect.org by 24th July, 5 pm EAT latest. All questions will be answered and shared with all agencies that have received the RFP for fairness.
Tax
Applicants are advised to ensure that they clearly understand their tax position with regard to provisions of the 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 the 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 Services is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, 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.
