REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP)- LOCAL PARTNER – TEGA
July 2021
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 is reaching millions of girls in Africa and Asia to make choices and changes in their lives. Igniting their confidence to act differently at a time that can define their future.
We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts, and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, relationships and so much more. And we use innovative technology so we can reach girls at scale. We arm girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible, so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, her health, her learning and livelihood.
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, her community, her country. That’s the Girl Effect.
About TEGA
Adolescent girls are one of the hardest groups to reach in society. The challenges they face are often under-reported or described on their behalf. Without the inclusion of their perspective, solutions designed to support them aren’t as effective as they could be.
Co-created with girls, TEGA (Technology Enabled Girl Ambassadors) is Girl Effect's mobile-based research tool that allows girls to collect real-time insights into the lives of their peers. This unique approach unlocks the open and honest conversations that might otherwise be lost or not included in traditional research.
TEGA networks have gathered data from girls and communities on topics including nutrition, economic empowerment, health and wellbeing, vaccines, mobile access, social media and education. This girl-talk method is especially useful when researching sensitive topics like HIV or sexual health.
TEGA in Ethiopia
Objective: Girl Effect Ethiopia (GEE) is looking to find a Local Partner with close community connections and experience working with and supporting adolescent girls, to help us set up 2 TEGA networks across 2 different regions in Ethiopia (Amhara and Oromia). Each TEGA network will have 8-10 TEGAs per region (with a further breakdown of 2 TEGAs per woreda). We would like to begin setting up these TEGA networks as soon as possible. It would be of benefit to GEE if the Local Partner also had experience working in Afar as we may like to expand our TEGA operations to Afar in the future.
Local Partner: The Local Partner will work closely with Girl Effect’s Project & Evidence Manager in Addis. The Local Partner will lead the actual implementation of TEGA rollout plan at grassroots level. This is further detailed below.
Scope of Work for a Local Partner
The role of the Local Partner for TEGA is a crucial one; a trusted, committed and flexible partner who is passionate about empowering girls will be the ideal partner for the intended project. Accordingly, the selected Local Partner will be on the ground throughout the TEGA set-up and research process and will be accountable for the major areas:
Cultural Scoping and Community Engagement: The Local Partner will be responsible for identifying local adaptations to the TEGA training and TEGA fieldwork methodology, to ensure that TEGA is culturally relevant and that TEGAs can operate safely within the communities where they conduct research. Once TEGAs have been recruited and trained, the Local Partner will introduce the young female researchers to the officials of their woredas to ensure local government is informed about the ongoing TEGA research work, necessary permissions have been obtained, and potential areas of collaborations (e.g. safeguarding) have been discussed. They will also be responsible for identifying safe spaces for the TEGAs to visit should they feel vulnerable during fieldwork, i.e. community spaces, shops.
TEGA recruitment and training: TEGAs are young women that are from the communities in which they carry out research. The Local Partner will organize and manage the recruitment of 8-10 young women per location that could perform the TEGA part-time role on an ongoing basis. Girl Effect will support the recruitment process by providing job descriptions, recruitment criteria, and quality assurance through the selection process. The Local Partner will provide support staff to support the TEGAs in the field. Girl Effect will take a ‘train the trainer’ approach to equip the Local Partner with the knowledge and skills required to train the girls appointed as TEGAs.
Respondent recruitment: The Local Partner will be responsible for recruiting respondents that align with the recruitment criteria provided by Girl Effect for each round of fieldwork. This means that the Local Partner will also need to ensure that informed research consent is collected for each of the interview respondents recruited.
Fieldwork management: TEGAs will remain in their districts (i.e. home and neighbouring communities) for the ongoing research fieldwork. The nature of their work requires having in place strong (child) safeguarding and gender policies and in-field support processes. The Local Partner is the first point of contact in the local districts in case of emergency and will support the TEGAs to obtain necessary assistance in person within a short period of time. Moreover, the Local Partner will support the TEGAs in the field with projects set up including recruitment of participants, setting up interviews etc. and regularly check in with them on their personal and professional well-being. Girl Effect will work with the Local Partner to ensure the final TEGA safeguarding agreements align with the Girl Effect safeguarding policy. The Local Partner should have the legal ability to hire local staff and receive funds for work completed.
TEGA support and communication: The Local Partner will act as the first line of communication and support to TEGAs, including providing advice and assistance with technology troubleshooting, as well as feedback on performance throughout the capacity-building period, and other related support as and when necessary.
Safety: Safety is at the heart of TEGA. The Local Partner will ensure TEGA safety by building a safety code of conduct across its work ethics, including safeguarding TEGAs in the field. The safety of data is key to our overall safeguarding policy. The data in the Data Hub, where all data collected by the TEGAs is stored, is protected by restricted access, and the Local Partner will be required to document how information on the TEGAs and respondents will be stored, retrieved and destroyed after the project. Staff working directly with children or who will have access to children’s personal data will receive training on safeguarding and Girl Effect’s minimum requirements in regards to safe conduct. Girl Effect and the Local Partner will work collaboratively to ensure the correct safeguarding policy is in place.
Translation: The local partner is also responsible for all translations and is expected to provide/avail translators in the project. GE will train the translators on how to conduct translations directly into Girl Effect’s data storage platform.
Along with these core responsibilities the Local Partner is expected to attend the general TEGA onboarding process, including general briefing workshops, TEGA training, child safeguarding training. During the onboarding process, Girl Effect will work closely and proactively with the Local Partner to ensure a thorough understanding of TEGA has been obtained and a strong work relationship has been established.
LOCAL IMPLEMENTING PARTNER COMPETENCIES:
Applicant organizations are expected to fulfil the following competencies - the first 3 competencies being vital:
Demonstrate an understanding of Child Protection, Safeguarding and ethical issues in research.
Have existing community relationships in the regions outlined above, ability to engage with the community or leverage other networks.
Experience in working with and supporting young people, and particularly adolescent girls and specific knowledge of gender dynamics at individual, household and community levels.
Experience in conducting research and expertise in conducting research with young people/adolescent girls, preferably in the target districts.
Experience in, and a good understanding of, recruiting respondents for research.
Experience in fieldwork supervision.
Ability to report and respond to comments and questions in a timely, appropriate manner.
Good technology infrastructure (use of email, fast internet connection/wi-fi that ideally allows video conference for meetings and training and laptops that can be updated to the latest version of Chrome).
Good digital skills (be familiar with web browsers and some experience with using android apps).
PROPOSED PROJECT TIMELINE
- Cultural Scoping, Local Partner onboarding, Community onboarding, TEGA recruitment - August - September 2021
- Local Partner and TEGA training of the 2 TEGA networks - September - October 2021
- On-going research in the 2 TEGA networks - October 2021 - August 2022
APPLICATION PROCESS
Interested organizations should send their proposal to Girl Effect at iman.abdulwahab@girleffect.org by August 6, 2021
The proposal should be as follows:
Proposal Template for TEGA implementing partner
Introduction (2 pages maximum)
Background about the organization, vision, mission, strategies/values, detailed information on geographies/locations where the organisation has staff presence and implements programmes either directly, and/ or through an existing network of partners.
A brief outline of experience working with young women and girls and capacity to recruit, train and support girls within communities, which will be selected in collaboration with the Local Partner.
A brief outline of experience in research or technology-related projects.
Justification (1-page maximum)
Why the organization wants to be part of TEGA, what added value do they bring, what is their unique selling point.
Suggest woredas where the Local Partner has a presence within the 2 regions where you think TEGA will help to improve the lives of girls in these areas, and where research is needed, for instance where there is a known gender data gap.
Work Plan and Activities (2 pages maximum)
The support structure and safeguarding for TEGAs (1-page maximum)
Program Management Working structure/flow of the organization (1-page maximum)
This should include a brief structure of how the TEGA project will be managed and a brief summary of the experience (one paragraph) of the key people who will be involved in the project.
Please include recommendations for wherein each region you think TEGA would work best. We are looking for a mixture of urban, peri-urban, and rural locations - somewhere within each district that best represents the life of a girl in the district as a whole, considering safety, access to literate girls and ease of travel to and from.
Technology and Digital competency of the organization (1-page maximum)
Monitoring and evaluation plan (1-page maximum)
Risk Assessment and Mitigation of TEGA (1-page maximum)
Budget in ETB - template supplied by GE. Please clearly indicate in your application the costs for the work from contract initiation until the end of May 2022 and the subsequent costs from June - August 2022.
Additional required documents from Applicants:
Organization contact details.
Contacts of two organizations (national/international) with whom you have worked previously who can be contacted for a reference.
Copies of other registration documents (Business license, Commercial registration certificate and TIN certificate).
Confirmation that your organisation has received approval from the NGO Affairs Bureau for projects in the last 24 months - NGO Registration Certificate.
Here is the link to the complete RFP for TASKS AND ACTIVITIES in more detail, SAFEGUARDING, CHILD PROTECTION AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS, BUDGET DETAILING TEMPLATE and SCORING CRITERIA.
If you encounter any problem accessing the documents, please contact Iman Abdulwahab via email iman.abdulwahab@girleffect.org
How to apply:
Interested organizations should send their proposal to Girl Effect at iman.abdulwahab@girleffect.org by August 6, 2021