Consultancy to Conduct the End-line Study for the Project “Action for Teen Mothers and Adolescents Girls in the Central Region of Malawi

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TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR A CONSULTANCY (FIRM)
Title: Consultancy to conduct the End-line study for the project “Action for Teen Mothers and Adolescents Girls in the Central Region of Malawi”

Hiring Office : UNFPA Malawi office

1. Introduction
Malawi is a youthful country situated in East-Southern Africa. The 2018 Malawi Population and Housing Census (PHC) shows that 50.6 percent of the country’s population is under the age of 18, out of which 26.6 percent were female and 25 percent were male. The report further shows that the population of the age group 10-29 comprised more than one third of the country’s population (42.4 percent); the majority of which were female (51.5 percent) while males comprised 48.5 percent. Statistics also show that 71.9 percent of the population is below age 30 and 6.5 percent is between the ages of 15-24.

While adolescent girls in Malawi possess immense potential that can be unleashed and harnessed to significantly contribute to the sustainable socioeconomic development of the country, they face numerous obstacles in their development into young, healthy adults who are in control of the decisions shaping their lives. Girls and young women experience high levels of inequality and discrimination that undermine their real potential, including harmful practices, sexual and gender-based violence, child marriage, and underage pregnancies. These result in limited opportunities to succeed in life when confronted with male-dominated networks that continue to reinforce negative and harmful practices. High adolescent birth rates (15-19 years) of 136 per 1,000 women and high levels of child marriage before the age of 18 of 37.7 percent also lead to the wider challenge of continued rapid population growth, which the Government of Malawi has identified as a key barrier to transformative change in the social and economic sectors. The Demographic Health Survey (DHS) 2015-16 revealed that 23.8% of women aged 15-19 had begun childbearing. The recent Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS, 2019-20) indicates that the adolescent pregnancy rate in the central region is particularly high, 137 births per 1000 girls aged 15-19. Central region is also where the highest unmet need for family planning (52.6 percent) prevails, compared to the north (46.8 percent) and south (38.5 percent) (MICS 2021) and early sexual debut is high, with 7.8 percent of women aged 15-24 that had sex before the of 15 (after the north with 8.5 percent).

“Action for Teen Mothers and Adolescents Girls in Central Region, Malawi” – Phase I (2020-2024)

In order to prevent, mitigate and address various vulnerability factors that adolescent girls could be prone to – including but not limited to poverty, socio-cultural and gender-based norms and practices, low level of education and school drop-outs – the Government of Malawi through the Ministry of Youth and Sports, UNFPA and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) initiated the 4-year project (2020-2024) with a total budget of USD 6,600,000 in two districts in the central region in Malawi – Mchinji (3 Traditional Authorities in Zulu, Mduwa, Mkanda) and Dedza districts (3 Traditional Authorities in Kachere, Kaphuka, Chilikumwendo). Adolescent girls, (10-24 years) especially teen mothers, pregnant, married, out-of-school, HIV positive and those with specific vulnerabilities, making them at high risk of becoming mothers during adolescence in the selected two districts are the primary direct beneficiaries of this project.

The expected goal of the project is: The sexual and reproductive health and rights (SHR) of teen mothers and adolescent girls is improved. Three (3) project outcomes and eight (8) project outputs are the pathways to achieve the goal:

Outcome 1: Teen mothers and adolescent girls (15-24) are empowered to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and life in target areas.

• Output 1.1: Teen mothers and adolescent girls’ knowledge, life skills and agency for SHR improved;
• Output 1.2: Teen mother and adolescent girls’ basic farming skill in targeted districts obtained.

Outcome 2: Communities contribute to the fulfillment of adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights.

• Output 2.1: Local and religious leaders support the prevention and response to early pregnancy and GBV, including early marriage;
• Output 2.2: Boys and young men making empowered and informed decisions
  related to their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Outcome 3: Adolescent girls’ access to integrated and youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, including family planning and GBV enhanced.

• Output 3.1: Greater availability of youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services;
• Output 3.2: The quality youth-friendly services is accessible;
  Output 3.3: Services to prevent and respond to GBV are coordinated;
  Output 3.4: Improving access to menstrual hygiene products and personal hygiene protective equipment.

2. Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of this study is to design and conduct the endline evaluation of the Action for Teen Mothers and Adolescent Girls project. A firm will be recruited for the timely and quality delivery of the assignment.

The objectives of the endline study are:

1. To collect and provide data and information on all the outcome and output project indicators in the project results framework;
2. To assess and analyze the changes made or lack thereof due to the implementation and the results of the project before-after comparison, in comparison to its baseline study undertaken prior to the project;
3. To better understand the changes to which the projects have contributed in the target locations in depth;
4. To inform the Phase Il project (Addressing Challenges to Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment through Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, also known as ACE project) for activities and programming strategies.

3. Scope of work
(Description of services, activities, or outputs)

Methodology of the Endline Study

To conduct the Endline study, following qualitative and quantitative methodologies will be adopted but should not be limited to:

• Document review on the situation of adolescents and young people’s sexual reproductive health and rights, and well-being in the districts; including review of the Project Document, Baseline survey report and the Mid-Term Review report.
• Survey, (by using mobile phones data collection apps such as ODK, KoboCollect or online forms as applicable); for randomly selected project communities in the district with a statistically representative number of direct and indirect beneficiaries.
• Key Informant Interviews (KIls), stakeholder interviews and any other participatory methods;
• Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with the project target groups, especially adolescents and young people purposely covering teenage mothers and young girls;
• Records and administrative data review at the facilities and administrative offices;
• Direct observation, as a compliment.

In addition, the endline study will assess the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the project, based on the OECD-DAC Evaluation Criteria. Some examples of proposed preliminary evaluation questions can be:

1. Relevance
   • To what extent is the project adapted to: (i) the needs of diverse populations, including the needs of vulnerable and marginalized groups (e.g. young people and women with disabilities, with HIV, and/or from vulnerable categories of economic status, etc.); (ii) national development strategies and policies; (iii) the strategic direction and objectives of UNFPA and the partners? This is to be built on the findings and the recommendations from the project’s Mid-Term Review.
   • To what extent has the project been able to respond to changes in national needs and priorities, including those of vulnerable or marginalized groups, or to shifts caused by crisis or major political changes?
   • To what extent has the project ensured that the varied needs of vulnerable and marginalized populations, including adolescents and youth, those with disabilities and indigenous communities, have been taken into account in both the planning and implementation of the project?
2. Coherence
   • To what extent has the project leveraged strategic partnerships with national, local and grassroots organizations (e.g. women’s rights activists, youth-led groups, advocacy groups of people with disabilities) to address its project goal to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender inequalities of young people in the target districts?
3. Effectiveness
   • To what extent have the interventions supported by the project delivered outputs and contributed to the achievement of the outcomes of the project?
   • To what extent has the project achieved intended outputs and outcomes of the project, and unintended results if any?
   • To what extent has the project successfully integrated human rights, gender perspectives and disability inclusion in the design, implementation and monitoring of the country programme?
   • To what extent has the project brought changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practices for the targeted populations and communities related to the project goals and objectives?
4. Efficiency
   • To what extent has the project made good use of its human, financial and administrative resources, and used a set of appropriate policies, procedures and tools to pursue the achievement of the outcomes defined in the county programme?
   • To what extent did the project consider value for money in the interventions implemented under the project? What percentage was committed to program implementation and operation costs?
   • What are the perspectives of the targeted populations on the project implementation modality? Any feedback on the harmonization of various activities implemented by different implementing partners?
5. Impact
   • What impactful difference has the project interventions made? This should look into the results beyond the achievement of the project indicators, but contributing to the change of national indicators on SHR and youth, as well as on the lives of the targeted populations.
6. Sustainability
   • To what extent has the project been able to support the partners, stakeholders and rights-holders (notably, women, adolescents and youth) in developing capacities and establishing mechanisms to ensure the durability of effects?
   • Do the interventions under the project – including i) those that are parts of the implementation of the government policies and priorities, and ii) those that were independently implemented by the Implementing Partners respectively – have sustainability mechanisms in place? This includes looking into: i) the continued enrollment of the girls who benefitted from the bursary intervention, ii) follow-ups of the adolescents who participated in the Youth and Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools (JFFLS) and the gained economic status of them, iii) continuation or scale-ups of the mentorship as well as iv) making of sanitary pads, and so on.
   • Are there interventions with concrete sustainability plans by the government? If yes, to what extent? If not, what were the reasons and any bottlenecks/challenges faced?

Key Outcome and Output indicators for the Endline Study

Note: While the list of above-mentioned indicators are selected considering the magnitude of the reviews and the surveys required for the end-line data, the evaluation will cover all outcome and output indicators in the project results framework under the section of ‘Effectiveness’ of the evaluation.

Expected outputs and deliverables

1. Design phase
   • Study work plan and inception report (with key parameters and indicators to be considered, metadata of indicators, including the methodologies and tools for data collection and analysis, sampling strategies, and draft outline of the final report) – based on initial desk review
   • Review meeting and presentation slide deck of the inception report for the project stakeholder group’s validation and feedback
   • Research protocol submitted to the ethical committee (level of submission will be determined later)
   • Outline of the report and proposed structure for tables and graphs to present the findings
   • Finalized inception report addressing all feedback received
2. Field phase
   • Training of the data enumerators on data collection tools and methodologies (if applicable)
   • Data collection and field visit plan
   • Preliminary findings report in line with the outlined tables and graphs
   • Preliminary findings report in line with the outlined tables and graphs
3. Reporting and dissemination phase
   • Draft report with the presentation slide deck
   • Report validation meeting with UNFPA, relevant donor, and other partners on the draft report with findings and recommendations
   • Final report which is formatted, organized and designed to professional quality acceptable by UNFPA (report must include a set of recommendations on project strategies and monitoring during the project implementation)
   • Study brief fully formatted and designed to the professional quality acceptable by UNFPA (no more than 6 pages)
   • A final presentation deck, summarizing the key End-Line study findings in user-friendly and visualized aids
   • All quantitative and qualitative data sets and transcripts

General Terms and Conditions

All reports and documents prepared during the assignment shall be treated as property of UNFPA Malawi Country Office (CO). The reports/documents or any part, therefore, cannot be sold, used and/or reproduced in any manner without prior written approval of UNFPA Malawi CO. In the event of the consultant requiring additional time to complete the contract, over and above the time previously agreed to, but without UNFPA Malawi CO changing the scope of work, UNFPA’s prior written approval for the same shall be necessary. After completion of the assignment and submission of the final output/deliverables, the concerned project/unit on the basis of which final payment shall be made based on evaluation.

The consultant will submit the draft presentation before the debriefing session for taking inputs from concerned project authority.

4. Duration and working schedule

This consultancy is deliverable-based and is designed to be implemented during September – December 2024.

Tentative start date of the consultancy is on 2nd of September 2024.

5. Delivery timeline and how work will be delivered

6. Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements
This is a deliverable based consultancy and it is estimated to take place between September – December 2024.

7. Management of the study
Under the overall guidance of adolescent and youth SRH specialist and direct supervision of the M&E specialist. Project Steering Committee and Technical Committee groups will provide technical guidance and inputs to the selected deliverables for the quality assurance.

8. Expected travel:
Field visits to the selected sites in Dedza and Mchinji are required. Travel to the field trip related costs should be included in the financial proposal.

9. Bid evaluation criteria
9.1. Technical evaluation: The Technical Bid is evaluated on the basis of its responsiveness to the Terms of Reference, the Technical Bids submitted by the Bidders and the evaluation criteria published below.

9.2. Financial evaluation: The Financial Bid will only be evaluated if the Technical Bid achieves the minimum score as indicated and is considered qualified through the supplier qualification process. Proposals failing to obtain this minimum technical threshold or those which will not be considered qualified through the supplier qualification process will not be eligible for further consideration.

9.3. Total score: The total score for each Bidder will be the weighted sum of the technical score and financial score. The maximum total score is 100 points.
Total score = 70% Technical Score + 30% Financial Score

10. Payment schedule

Payments for evaluation consultancy is as follows:

Proposals should be sent to the UNFPA using email address: procurement.malawi@unfpa.org

Closing date is Monday, 9th September 2024, 12.00hrs Malawi Time

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