National Institutional Consultancy for Providing Data Collection Services

• Country: Belarus
• Summary: National Institutional Consultancy for Providing Data Collection Services
• BYT Ref No: 52833640
• Deadline: 16 May 2021
• Financier: United Nations Secretariat
• Purchaser Ownership: Government
• Tender Value: Refer Document
• Notice Type: Tender
• Document Ref. No.: RFPS 2/2021
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• Description:
• Request for proposals are invited for National Institutional Consultancy for Providing Data Collection Services. TERMS OF REFERENCE National institutional consultancy for providing data collection services Type of contract: Institutional consultancy, Long Term Arrangement (LTA) for services Duration: 20 May 2021 - 31 December 2023 1. BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION: UNICEF is an organization with a universal mandate, representing the interest of children. The mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child and to ensure every child has the opportunity to lead a decent life, realize their potential, and have their rights respected, protected, and fulfilled. The Strategic Plan 2018-2021 explicitly recognizes the critical role of evidence in achieving these results. As an organization, UNICEF has to respond to a world that is changing at a faster rate than ever before, changes that represent threats as well as opportunities. In this context, evidence becomes an increasingly important asset guiding interventions in favour of children in a diverse and changing landscape; evidence underpins policy advocacy with Governments and other actors who set the policies that make the most difference for children. Data collection, evaluation, and research represent the three pillars of UNICEF-s evidence generation efforts. As internal UNICEF capacity is focused on designing and upholding quality assurance of data collection as well as analyzing the data and evidence collected from internal sources, there is a need to collaborate with capable local contractors to provide specific services for conducting quality data collection. The terms of reference outline the types of technical services required for such independent data collection. 2. PURPOSE: The purpose of the consultancy is supporting UNICEF in Belarus programme work through conducting qualitative data collection, quantitative surveys, mixed-method data collection and rapid needs assessments. The objective of establishing a long-term agreement with a qualified contractor for data collection is to provide UNICEF in Belarus with quality and timely assessment of the situation of children, families with children and women for better identification of existing deprivations and addressing them with programmatic interventions. 3. KEY TASKS: The expected scope of work is as following: 1) conducting qualitative data collection (focus groups, structured and semi-structured interviews); 2) conducting quantitative surveys, both face-to-face and online; 3) conducting mixed-method data collection and rapid needs assessments. 2 Preliminary methodologies will be guided by UNICEF in Belarus team. The service providers are expected to work closely with UNICEF in Belarus to develop detailed methodologies and tools for implementing quantitative and qualitative data collection. Specific tasks are the following: I. Conduct surveys and qualitative data collection for specific purposes The service provider will conduct surveys and data collection for specific purposes as requested by UNICEF Belarus. Data collection is implemented using a range of qualitative methods (observations, interviewing, case studies, focus groups, unobtrusive methods) and quantitative surveys based on various probability and nonprobability sampling strategies. Generally, the data collection entities (units of analysis) would be parents / caregivers, children and adolescents (including from vulnerable groups, i.e. children with disabilities), women, social sector professionals, etc. The following types of surveys and data collection are anticipated. Requirements for quantitative and qualitative data collection are described in the Table 1. a) Survey and qualitative data for study of needs and opportunities of girls and women with disabilities. This includes data collection at girls and women with disabilities level to obtain data on their situation in all spheres of life, current problems and unmet needs. Qualitative data collection methods would include focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with experts and girls and women with disabilities. b) Qualitative data collection on breastfeeding issues. It is anticipated to conduct focus group discussions with women and in-depth interviews with experts, healthcare staff, and parents. c) Surveys and qualitative data for measuring brand awareness and media coverage. The purpose of the study is to measure baseline for level of prompted brand awareness and media coverage on key child rights issues that includes UNICEF key messages. The intended impact is improved targeting accuracy of various communication tools, which allow to improve UNICEF credibility and advocate policy more effectively. First, the study will compare effectiveness of communicating the evidence in various contents and formats that increases the likelihood that it will be understood and used by the target audience. Second, it will examine the comparative effectiveness of a variety of approaches for disseminating the evidence from UNICEF to its potential users. In order to measure the level of prompted brand awareness among general public, the online survey will be used. To measure the media coverage on key child rights issues that includes UNICEF key messages it is planned to employ content analysis method. d) Data collection for measuring quality of evidence products. In-depth interviews and/or focus group discussions will be employed to collect information about the possible improvements of communication products and how to adopt it for different target audiences. While some evidence products may work differently for different target audiences (i.e. expert society, non-informed specialists, vulnerable groups, as well as general public), it is essential to know what exactly works for them and what can be improved from their perspective as UNICEF specialists are not the target audience. Indepth interviews will be used to cover hard-to-reach populations like adolescents practicing risky behavior. e) Qualitative and quantitative data collection to analyze gender stereotypes that impede the realization of the rights of adolescent girls (15-19) and form discrimination. It is anticipated that the methodology of the study will be mixed-method, using primarily qualitative methods (semi/structured interviews and FGDs) but also quantitative survey to measure the scale of parents- harmful gender-based stereotypes, and their knowledge and 3 skills on adolescents cognitive, sexual and psycho-social development and capacity to provide immediate psychological assistance to adolescents in crisis situations. f) Qualitative and quantitative data collection to analyze workplace policies in Belarusian companies and the implementation of family-friendly approach. It is anticipated as FGDs with employees and families. It is also planned to conduct a survey on children's and adolescent's views on the impact of parents' workplace to compare the views of children and youth on the impact of their parents- workplace with family friendly business practices in the Belarusian business sector. g) Mixed-method data collection to support on-going and planned reviews, evaluations and rapid needs assessment. The latter can bring important understanding about factors affecting behaviours related to the emergencies and about targeted interventions to support vulnerable populations to respond timely addressing their vulnerabilities. It includes a survey to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the families with children in Belarus. A contractor should be able to ensure that the sample is representative at the level of rural and urban areas. h) Data collection for other specific purposes (as required) with focus on issues related to children, families with children and vulnerable groups. Depending on programmatic needs, UNICEF in Belarus may commission specific data collections to inform better programmatic design, identification of gaps in reaching the beneficiaries or target groups, assessing the effectiveness of specific interventions, identification of the alternative intervention approaches to achieve results. The scope and frequency of the specific data collection within the above scope of work is to be determined in the contract signed. Data collection tools and methodologies, including sampling methods and procedures, study populations, sampling frames, samples, their sizes, and generalizability are to be designed by a contractor in consultation with UNICEF and sectoral/thematic experts working with UNICEF. Data collection protocols (Annex 1) including proposed teams, professionally qualified for conducting data collections using specified methods, should be approved by UNICEF and are subjects to external quality review. The contractor within this Terms of Reference will submit datasets and qualitative data to UNICEF for further analysis with all supporting documents according to a data collection protocol. A consultant should adhere to UNICEF-s Procedure for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluation, Data Collection and Analysis, the UNICEF Personal Data Protection Policy, and to UNICEF Reporting Standards. II. Conduct report writing The contractor is required to be familiar with and use the UNICEF Style Book while producing reports, presentations, briefing documents, fact sheets, media materials and web content. The content of the reports is to be outlined in a data collection protocol. The reporting language is English if not specified otherwise. 4. DELIVERABLES TIMELINE: № Deliverables Tentative timeframe for conducting data collection Tentative samples (qualitative/ quantitative) 4 1 Survey is conducted and qualitative data is collected for study of needs and opportunities of girls and women with disabilities. May-August, 2021 30/800 2 Qualitative data on
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