Summary
Date Posted: Thursday, June 15 2023, Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Terms of Reference for an experienced and qualified statistician – analysing a Life Skills Assessment tool for measuring agency in girls and young women
The Campaign for Female Education, CAMFED, is an international non-profit organisation established in 1993 with a mission to multiply girls’ access to education, and to accelerate the benefits to individuals, their families, and communities in Africa. CAMFED works to tackle poverty and inequality by supporting girls to go to school and succeed, and to empower young women to become leaders of change. CAMFED invests in girls and women in the poorest rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, where girls face acute disadvantages, but where their empowerment transforms communities. CAMFED was founded simultaneously in Zimbabwe and the UK in 1993, and currently operates in Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Zambia with offices in each country as well as in the UK, USA, Canada, and Australia.

Introduction
CAMFED seeks the services of a qualified statistician to analyse the data from a psychometric assessment tool. The tool will be piloted in targeted districts, communities, and schools in rural Zambia to explore the impact of social support on girls’ self-esteem and agency. To be able to measure this, we have adapted an existing psychometric assessment tool designed by Amplify Agency to assess changes in key life skills, specifically self-esteem and agency. We will use this tool to examine to what extent social support provided to rural, marginalised school girls through the Learner Guide program, translates into an increase in a girl’s self-esteem and agency. The program will further enable girls to be able to make decisions that affect their lives, as well as those of their families and communities.

The research will be conducted between 2022 and 2024, with 2022 being for the design stage, 2023 for Year 1 data collection and analysis, and 2024 for Year 2 data collection and analysis.

Purpose
The purpose of this research will be to adapt and translate a Life Skills Assessment tool which can be used by CAMFED and in the wider audience to measure agency in marginalised girls and young women in Zambia.

The key objectives of this research are to:
• Adapt a tool which measures life skills and agency in secondary-school-age, marginalised girls and young women.
• Use the Life Skills Assessment tool to measure and provide data on the life skills and agency of marginalised girls and young women.

Methodology
CAMFED will use a pre-developed tool by Amplify Girls which has been designed to measure life skills and agency in marginalised girls and young women. This tool will be piloted in Zambia to identify nuances and amendments which will be suggested to suit the context and the learning environment of Zambia.

The role of the statistician:
Collaborating with Amplify Girls (with support from CAMFED)
• Amplify Girls own the psychometric tool “Amplify Agency tool” that we will be using.
• Amplify Girls have produced latent factor scores using Structural Equation Modelling and a 2nd order factor score for agency, based on the weighting of those 1st order domains for the original version of the Agency tool.
• The tool has since been slightly revised and shortened, which means the scoring methodology will need to change. Amplify Girls are currently working on their analysis and have offered to advise on a call in lieu of written guidance.
• The statistician will collaborate with Amplify Girls (CAMFED will help set up this meeting) to document the scoring methodology for each of the domains.

Validation of Agency tool
• Examine the internal consistency of the tool, and whether the tool is in fact measuring one factor (which is what enables it to be summed and reported as a single scale) or more.
• Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) will be performed to test the hypothesis that a relationship between observed variables and their underlying latent constructs exists.
• Suggest any refinements that might need to be made to the Amplify Agency tool to ensure internal consistency, determinacy and replicability.

Calculate Agency Scores
• Calculate average Factor scores for different groups (by gender and school type) for the four domains: self-governance skills, leadership skills, self-beliefs, and environmental beliefs.
• Calculate average Agency scores for different groups (by gender and school type).
• Associations between participant characteristics (such as age, grade, marginality indicators, etc.) and specific life skills’ domains will be examined.

Additional for Year 2
• Investigate use of the tool as a pre/post measure of adolescent agency.

Qualifications, experience, and skills of the consultant/s
• CAMFED is seeking the services of an experienced and skilled statistician or organisation with experience and expertise in analysing psychometric testing data.

Preference will be given to applicants with the following:
• Experience in analysing psychometric test data and carrying out validation, tests for internal consistency and CFA;
• Demonstrated and recent understanding of the complexities of data collection in Zambian or similar context, and of partnering with local research partners;
• Ability to produce well written, analytical reports in plain English.

Education Requirement: No Requirements

Job Experience: No Requirements

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months:

Level of Education:

Job application procedure

Proposal and contract details
For full details, including the Proposal requirements, please find the link to our website: https://camfed.org/who-we-are/work-for-us/statistician-consultant-position-zambia . All proposals must be submitted to evaluation@camfed.org  by no later than 9:00 GMT on Monday 26th June with the title ‘Statistical analysis of Life Skills Assessment Tool data for measuring agency in girls and young women’.


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