1. Background

Natwampane means coming together in Bemba, a local language in Zambia. Natwampane is a Government of Zambia led Programme funded by the European Union, and implemented by BBC Media Action, Lifeline Childline, GIZ, Norwegian Church Aid and World Vision. The Natwampane Programme aims to reduce levels of gender-based violence in Luapula and Northern Provinces. Although the focus is on these two provinces, the programme also has a national focus, supporting the Gender Division, Office of the President in policy and system building and strengthening coordination within the provinces as well as at the national level. Natwampane is unique in that it has been structured in such a way that technical support is embedded within the Gender Division, Office of the President, therefore increasing potential for sustainability, whilst simultaneously providing concrete practical support to at survivors and at-risk women and girls in Luapula and Northern Provinces. An additional benefit from the structure, is the overall impact that the programme will have for all GBV, gender, ending child marriage and women and girl’s empowerment programmes currently being implemented or planned in Zambia.

In February 2022 a midline household survey will be conducted to evaluate the project’s impact.

Natwampane would like to invite proposals from research agencies to conduct the midline survey.

2. Permission to conduct research in Zambia

The selected research agency on the behalf of Natwampane will be responsible for obtaining ethical approval from ERES Converge to conduct fieldwork in each of the selected districts of Zambia. However, the Natwampane team will co-operate with any additional information required to facilitate this process. The agency will operate under the agreed ethical clearance.

3. Methodology

The survey will be based on household (face-to-face) interviews with people between the ages of 15 and 55 years old in select districts of the two provinces where Natwampane project is being implemented. These districts correspond to where Natwampane has been implementing project activities.

The following list of districts are all completely covered by a radio station broadcasting Natwampane programmes and are where World Vision or Norwegian Church Aid and their partners are implementing Natwampane activities. We are expecting you to draw a probability proportionate to size (PPS) from the districts below:

At least one of the districts sampled should be a border district. The PPS multistage cluster sample approach should be employed with the sample being representative of the target population in each district (by age, sex, urban/rural location and socio-economic status). At all stages, the selection of clusters should be random and self-weighting. The sampling frame should be constructed using the most recent census data (or the agency may propose a more suitable alternative if more recent). The minimum sample size proposed should be 1,000.

Within enumeration areas, predefined random starting points should be used to begin household selection and a random walk approach applied with a fixed household interval. Within households, the Kish grid method should be used to select one respondent.

Ideally data collection will be conducted using face-to-face interviews using computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) to provide more secure, accurate and faster data collection, upload and entry.

In your proposal, please detail how you intend to select wards and name the list of sampling units that you would see fit for this survey.

4. Research Indicators

The survey will seek to respond to the following Natwampane indicators listed below:

1. % of ever-married women who have experienced physical or sexual violence by any husband/partner in the last 12 months
2. % of women aged 15-49 who agree that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife for at least one reason[1] (disaggregated by age)
3. % of men age 15-49 who agree that a husband is justified in hitting or beating his wife for at least one reason (disaggregated by age)
4. % of male and female community members who can demonstrate knowledge and understanding of women’s rights and gender equality
5. % of male and female community members who demonstrate positive attitudes towards women’s rights and gender equality
6. % of male and female community members who know what SGBV services are available to them in their district
7. # of people reached with SGBV focused programmes broadcasted by community radio in the target areas – with EU support
8. % of girls and women (aged 15-49) who have experienced physical and sexual violence who sought help to stop the violence

5. Research ethics

Researchers and agencies working with Natwampane need to adhere to a strict code of ethics and endeavour to address major concerns around consent, confidentiality, anonymity and the potential impact of the research on both those researched and researchers. Whilst survivors of GBV are not the target of the survey, it should be expected that a disclosure of GBV could take place. Enumerators are expected to provide information on how to ensure safe referral to a One Stop Centre or the LifeLine ChildLine hotline. Please advise on your proposed approach to minimising discomfort and biased reporting caused by gender dynamics in an interview situation.

6. Questionnaire

Natwampane will provide a questionnaire in English to the agency. The instrument will consist of mainly closed questions.

The survey should be conducted in the languages that are locally appropriate to each district. The agency will be responsible for translation and back-translation (to allow us to check translation) prior to fieldwork.

The agency should pilot the questionnaire prior to fieldwork and provide a pilot report to BBC Media Action on behalf of Natwampane, detailing any issues with the questionnaire and providing an overview of the interview length. The Natwampane team will then consider any changes in consultation with the agency and provide a final signed-off survey. The agency will be responsible for making any changes to translated versions of the survey. Sufficient time must be allowed within the proposed timeline for this piloting process.

7. Training of fieldwork team

The agency will be responsible for recruiting and providing sufficient training to enumeration teams. Please detail this process clearly in your proposal (including who will be recruited to fieldwork teams, composition of enumerators/supervisors, number of days of training and what training will cover). The training must cover Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) and safe referrals in the case of GBV or other protection type issues disclosed. The Natwampane team will support in training on safe referrals and PSEA.

8. Fieldwork

The agency will carry out fieldwork to a high standard within the agreed timeframe.  Fieldwork will consist of:

• Face to face interviews by trained staff from each of the selected districts who can speak the local dialects. The local interviewers should not be known to respondents. Therefore, please outline the approach you will take in terms of house-to-house visits.
• The agency will provide weekly field reports with a breakdown of interviews completed by district and age, sex, urban/rural location and socio-economic status.
• The agency will record all unsuccessful visits in a non-response table, detailing the reasons for no interview (e.g., refusal, no one at home etc).
• Throughout fieldwork, the agency will complete a context spreadsheet with any events, either national or local, such as power cuts, strikes etc. which could have an effect on the fieldwork.
• The agency will conduct quality control checks on fieldwork and will provide Natwampane with a detailed fieldwork plan so that Natwampane can also conduct quality control checks if desired.  Please provide a breakdown of percentage of interviews to be quality controlled by call backs, spot checks and supervisor accompaniment.

9. Quality control

Natwampane researchers will attend a training session carried out prior to the pilot study and may also attend training with local agents who will carry out fieldwork.  The BBC Media Action research team on behalf of Natwampane will also travel to a number of areas where data is collected to carry out spot checks and back checks at a number of households sampled in the study in order to monitor the quality control of the data collection. This is standard practice for all surveys that BBC Media Action commissions and the agency and fieldwork staff should be aware of and comfortable with this degree of involvement. The agency should provide a detailed full fieldwork plan so monitoring can be carried out as required.

In addition to fieldwork checks Natwampane will conduct an early data check on the first 100 cases that are entered. This is to check that there are no problems with the data entry process, identify any coding issues, and to confirm that interviewers are following questionnaire routing and other instructions as directed on the survey tool. The first 100 cases should be delivered to BBC Media Action on behalf of Natwampane (as an SPSS file) no later than 10 days after fieldwork has commenced. During this data checking by Natwampane, all data collection by the agency should be paused. Natwampane will check the first 100 cases and report back to the agency any data management issues or changes within 2 working days.

10. Data management

The agency will provide a clean and labelled (according to our specifications) dataset in Excel and SPSS format. We request that data entry occurs simultaneously to data collection.

The SPSS dataset will also contain labelled variables detailing all levels of cluster sampling, except the household level. If any variables are derived by the agency, the agency will provide the syntax file to BBC Media Action on behalf of Natwampane.

With the proposal, the agency will provide a data entry plan, outlining how many people will be allocated to this task, how quality control will be implemented and whether data will be processed locally or sent to an external data processor.

11. Project management

The agency will provide one point of contact for BBC Media Action, who will be the lead contact for Natwampane, as well as a detailed description of the proposed project management structure and team to include project manager, supervisors, translators, interviewers (clearly detailing sex and languages spoken) and data processing.  Please provide CVs of key personnel (no more than one page per person).

12. Risk management

When submitting the proposal, the agency needs to address the potential risks that could affect the overall operation of the survey process.  These potential risks include, but are not limited to, factors such as delays to fieldwork, COVID-19, selection of hard-to-reach areas from the PPS, staff absence, potential harm to researchers and respondents during fieldwork, security risks to researchers and respondents during fieldwork, potential language barriers between the researchers and participants, etc. For each risk identified, the agency needs to state a clear mitigation strategy in the proposal.

13. Timings

The following (below) are the Natwampane midline survey timelines.

14. Research agency deliverables

The successful agency will provide the following:

• Detailed design of the sampling approach according to our specifications and a sampling frame.
• Piloting of the research tools and sampling approach (with opportunity to revise these before main data collection commences).
• Training of fieldworkers to cover Natwampane briefing notes and guidelines.
• Delivery of the first 100 cases after two days of fieldwork, with a pause in fieldwork while checks are conducted.
• Suitable quality control procedures over fieldwork and data entry/checking.
• Weekly field reports with a breakdown of interviews completed by district.
• Cleaned and labelled dataset in English in SPSS format – plus a syntax file to show any variables that have been derived.

15. Expectations for the tender

When responding to this RFP, your proposal should provide details and evidence of the following:

• An outline of the agency’s skills and capacity to undertake and manage the research, including details of relevant previous work experience, examples of previous work in the field and detailed CVs of the key persons involved in the study.
• The names and contact details of two referees for whom your organisation has carried out similar work.

• A detailed plan of how the research will be carried out, including:
  • The sampling strategy, addressing our specifications, including proposed sample size
  • Details (content and number of days) of the training proposed for fieldwork teams
  • Piloting and fieldwork plan – please outline how long it will take to collect the data; how many teams you will send into the field and how this process will be overseen to ensure a quality deliverable
  • Quality control procedures
  • Data entry plan outlining how many people will be allocated to this task, how you will implement quality control and whether data will be processed locally or sent to an external data processor
  • A description of deliverables.

• All submitted proposals should include a section describing how the agency plans to meet and adhere to ethical protocols, including:

• How informed consent will be gathered and recorded during piloting and fieldwork
• How you will obtain permission and consent for those aged 15, 16 or 17 years old
• How respondents will be assured of their confidentiality and anonymity of data
• Procedures relating to how data will be transported securely during fieldwork and how it will be stored both in hard and soft copy in agency offices
• A data entry plan, outlining how and where the data will be entered into electronic format. Please specify how many people will be allocated to this task and how you will assure quality. We are particularly interested to find out whether your data will be processed locally or whether you intend to send it to an external data processor.
• Provision of a detailed timeline for the study – this should include an explanation of how the project will be managed to deliver data to us on time and to a high standard. Please outline how long it will take to collect the data; how many teams you will send into the field and how this process will be overseen to ensure a quality deliverable.
• Complete breakdown of costs including VAT, applicable taxes etc. and unit costs.

16. Assessment of tenders

Overall assessment of proposals will be concerned with value for money, taking account of the cost and quality of each research proposal. In particular, assessment will focus on:

• Relevant skills and experience of the research agency, in particular the team that will be involved.
• Proposed methods, including sampling, fieldwork and data management, quality assurance and project management.
• The acceptability of the proposed timetable.
• The proposed costs compared to the implementation plan.

17. Formatting and submission of tender

The full proposal, including both technical and financial components, should be no more than 20 pages. The proposal should be written in a font no smaller than 11 point. Annexes may be included with the proposal and will not count against the 20 page maximum limit.

Proposals submitted in response to this RFP should address the research objectives set out in this brief and should be written in English. Proposals should be submitted in PDF format and put “[Agency Name] proposal to BBC Media Action Zambia – “Natwampane midline” as the title of the email.

Questions about this Request for Proposals should be addressed to Nick Chasimpha at Nick.Chasimpha@zm.bbcmediaaction.org or telephone +260 977 947510.

Email the technical and financial proposals and other supporting documents to recruitment@zm.bbcmediaaction.org coping in Nick.Chasimpha@zm.BBCMediaaction.org and benedek.paskuj@bbc.co.uk.