Consultancy Opportunity: Research Firm for Scope Project – World Relief Kenya

World Relief’s (WR) Strengthening Community Health Outcomes through Positive Engagement (SCOPE) project is a five-year (October 2019-September 2024) reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) New Partnerships Initiative (NPI) cooperative agreement funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The project aims to address key drivers of child and maternal morbidity and mortality at the community level in four priority countries (Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, and South Sudan) to contribute to the reduction of preventable maternal and child mortality and morbidity. In Kenya, SCOPE is being implemented in Kajiado County and Turkana County.

RESEARCH STUDY OVERVIEW

Couples-focused interventions have been recognized by public health experts as having great potential to facilitate health behaviors and foster gender-equitable relationships. SCOPE is conducting a study to evaluate the impact of WR’s Families Together (FT) program on couples’ family planning (FP) decisions and couple functioning in Kajiado and Turkana.

FT is a couples’ strengthening curriculum which is designed to create an enabling environment for social norm change for FP by engaging men and women in participatory group sessions (Couples’ groups). The Couples’ groups are taken through ten participatory sessions, structured around story-telling, role-plays, games, and facilitated discussion. Topics discussed include inequality, power and status (at the family and society levels); friendship, trust, mutual sexual pleasure, family planning (contraception methods and decision-making around contraceptive use); communicating with youth, causes and consequences of gender-based violence; and gender roles (division of labor and household decision-making).

This is a matched-pairs cluster-randomized program evaluation which will employ mixed methods: quantitative surveys at baseline and endline, and qualitative survey via in-depth interviews (IDIs), and key informant interviews (KIIs) at endline only. The study will be carried out in 20 sites (clusters) in Kajiado and Turkana.

This evaluation will provide valuable data regarding the potential of couples’ interventions to increase FP uptake and gender-equitable decision-making within the couple and decrease intimate partner violence (IPV). The research will contribute to the small but growing body of evidence documenting linkages between relationship quality and health behaviors for African couples and has the potential to guide future interventions on couple relationship functioning and FP.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

SCOPE is seeking a Research Firm to support the research study. The work will be supervised by the study’s Field Study Coordinator and Data Analyst, who are both study investigators.

The consultancy includes

• all enumerators participating in 1 to 2-day training on evaluation methodology
• data collection (including informed consent procedure) through a mobile platform using tablets provided and programmed by WR
• ensuring data quality and addressing any data quality issues identified by WR.
• submitting daily updates and a final report summarizing data collection methodology, number of surveys/interviews conducted and number of refusals (by date and location), and any challenges encountered

There will be two rounds of data collection – baseline interviews (prior to intervention) and endline interviews of quantitative tools being administered to the program participants who have consented to being a part of the study, as well as qualitative FGDs and KIIs being administered at the end of the study to a purposive sample of program participants.

The methods for data collection are described in the table below. Each survey interview is anticipated to take one hour, and KIIs and IDIs are also anticipated to take one hour each. See appendix for description of survey interview structured questionnaire.

The Baseline survey will use structured questionnaire and participants will be couples – man and woman interviewed separately and total number will be 560 individuals (280 women, 280 men)

The Endline survey will use structured questionnaire and participants will be couples – man and woman interviewed separately and total number will be 560 individuals (280 women, 280 men).

The Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) will use semi-structured questionnaire and participants will be WR personnel total number 2-4 and FT facilitator couples – man and woman interviewed separately total number 4-6 individuals (2-3 women, 2-3 men)

The In-depth Interviews (IDIs) will use semi-structured questionnaire and participants will be FT participant couples – man and woman interviewed separately and total number 12-20 individuals (6-10 women, 6-10 men)

All the questionnaires have already been developed, translated and coded for mobile data collection on WR tablets.

CONSULTANCY DELIVERABLES

The firm shall meet the following deliverables:

• Contract/hire personnel for data collection: The firm is responsible for recruiting and hiring enumerators and leads for the collection of quantitative and qualitative data. Decisions about number of enumerators, gender, and language capabilities of enumerators will be made in collaboration with WR. The training for these enumerators will take place between July 24 and August 4, 2023.
• Conduct Data Collection: In accordance with the protocol, conduct data collection. WR staff and Study Investigators will provide in-person and remote supervision and support of data collection. Data collection will comply with ethical guidelines as stated in the protocol and including reporting and documenting any adverse events, ethical violations, or data quality issues. Data security and management is the responsibility of the firm but must be done with regard to best practices for protection of individually identifiable data or sensitive information. Data collection should begin in September 2023 (specific date TBD based on IRB approval) and final data collection should be completed no later than January 2024.
• Quantitative Evaluation Reporting: The firm will provide daily written updates to WR during data collection, using a template provided by WR. Quantitative data will be made available to WR immediately and the data collection reports submitted within 1 week after completion of data collection in each site.
• Qualitative Evaluation Reporting: Data from IDIs and KIIs will be translated into English, and a complete, word-for-word translation provided using template provided by WR. A brief (1 page) report on each interview will also be submitted, using a template provided by WR. The translation and report will be submitted no later than 1 week after each interview.
• Review and Finalization: The firm is expected to participate in data reviews, and to promptly reply to any questions from WR regarding data quality or other issues during data collection (within 24 hours, and sooner if possible).

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

The Research Firm must be able to demonstrate experience with producing similar deliverables and activities and must provide at least two references for this work, to be contacted by World Relief technical staff. Qualifications for the firm include:

• Master’s Degree or higher in a relevant field (e.g., Public Health) for the Lead Consultant at the firm. This person shall be the main technical point-of-contact for WR.
• Lead Consultant and all enumerators must have certification in human subjects research ethics. Certification must be shared as part of the application process.
• Experience with program evaluations and/or public health studies and applied statistics in developing countries.
• Knowledge and experience using quantitative data collection and statistical sampling methodologies in general
• Knowledge and experience conducting qualitative interviews.
• Familiarity and experience working in Turkana and Kajiado counties, include enumeration team exhibiting fluency in local languages (Kimasaai and Kiturkana), in addition to Kiswahili

World Relief has sole ownership of all data, and no data or findings shall be shared or reproduced without the permission of World Relief. Please also note that the data will be analyzed by World Relief’s assigned staff, and final payment will be made only upon acceptance of final deliverables by World Relief SCOPE leadership.

TIMELINE

The assignment is expected to commence by the end of July 2023 and final data collection is expected to happen no later than January 2024.