Baseline Survey Consultant at Kituo Cha Sheria (KITUO)

  Purpose of the Assignment

• The purpose of this assignment is to engage a Baseline Survey Consultant to design and undertake a baseline assessment for the CSEA/GBV legal aid programme. The assessment will establish baseline values for key outcome and output indicators, document the current status of access to legal aid and justice for CSEA/GBV survivors in the target counties, and provide an evidence base for tracking programme progress, informing implementation and supporting future evaluation.

Objectives

Specific objectives are to:

• Establish baseline values for the indicators in the programme’s results/logical framework, including on access to and awareness of legal aid services, survivor experiences of reporting and seeking justice, and the functioning of referral and coordination mechanisms.
• Assess the current capacity, coverage, and functioning of legal aid, community paralegal and referral structures, including Community Justice Centres and GBV/Children’s Court User Committees, across the seven target counties.
• Document existing knowledge, attitudes, and practices among communities, survivors, justice-sector actors, and service providers relating to CSEA, GBV, survivors’ rights, and available legal remedies.
• Identify context-specific barriers and enablers to reporting, accessing legal aid and navigating the justice system, disaggregated by county, sex, age and disability status.
• Provide recommendations to inform refinement of the programme’s theory of change, monitoring plan, targets and implementation approach.

Scope of Work and Key Tasks

Geographic scope: the assessment will cover the seven programme counties and their 42 target sub-counties:

• Bungoma County: Bumula, Kimilili, Webuye East, Webuye West
• Homa Bay County: Homa Bay Town, Kabondo Kasipul, Karachuonyo, Kasipul, Ndhiwa, Rangwe, Suba North, Suba South
• Kilifi County: Ganze, Kaloleni, Kilifi North, Kilifi South, Magarini, Malindi, Rabai
• Kisii County: Bobasi, Bomachoge Borabu, Bomachoge Chache, Bonchari, Kitutu Chache North, Kitutu Chache South, Nyaribari Chache, Nyaribari Masaba, South Mugirango
• Kwale County: Kinango, Lunga Lunga, Matuga
• Migori County: Awendo, Kuria East, Kuria West, Nyatike, Rongo, Suna East, Suna West, Uriri
• Tana River County: Bura, Galole, Garsen

Thematic scope: the assessment will address direct legal aid and case support; community legal empowerment and outreach; capacity of justice, protection and health actors; and the functioning of coordination platforms, including GBV and Children’s Court User Committees, across children, adolescent girls and boys, women, persons with disabilities and other priority groups.

Task 1: Inception Phase

• Hold an inception meeting with Kituo Cha Sheria and, where relevant, UNICEF and county partners to clarify expectations, refine the assessment questions and agree on governance and coordination arrangements.
• Prepare an inception report that includes: refined evaluation questions; a detailed methodology for the quantitative and qualitative components; the sampling strategy and sample size determination for the survey, KIIs and FGDs; a data management and quality-assurance plan, including ethical considerations and safeguarding; and a detailed workplan.

Task 2: Design of Tools and Data Collection

• Design survey tools and qualitative instruments to capture awareness of and access to legal aid, survivor experiences of reporting and seeking justice, and the functioning of referral and coordination mechanisms.
• Train a team of enumerators on the tools, research ethics, child safeguarding and data collection protocols.
• Conduct a desk review of the programme design, results framework, relevant national legal and policy frameworks (including the Children Act 2022, Sexual Offences Act 2006, Legal Aid Act 2016 and Protection Against Domestic Violence Act 2015), and existing secondary data.

Task 3: Fieldwork and Data Collection

• Oversee quality-assured quantitative and qualitative data collection across all seven target counties, appropriately sampled to allow disaggregation by county, sex, age and disability.
• Conduct key informant interviews with justice-sector actors (police, prosecutors, judiciary, probation), health providers, county child protection and gender officers, and Kituo Cha Sheria.
• Conduct focus group discussions with community members, adolescent girls and boys, community paralegals and, where ethically appropriate and with adequate safeguards, survivors of CSEA/GBV.
• Review and, where feasible, spot-verify case-management, referral and Court User Committee records.

Task 4: Data Analysis and Reporting

• Clean, code and analyze quantitative and qualitative data, and produce baseline values for each indicator in the programme’s results framework.
• Prepare a draft baseline assessment report with an executive summary, findings by objective and county, and actionable recommendations, supported by clear data visualization.

Task 5: Validation and Dissemination

• Organize and facilitate a validation workshop with Kituo Cha Sheria, and key stakeholders to present and discuss draft findings.
• Incorporate feedback from validation into the final baseline report, the summary brief, and the indicator baseline matrix.
• Support Kituo Cha Sheria in sharing final findings with relevant county and national stakeholders as required.

All data collection involving children, survivors and other vulnerable groups must follow internationally recognized ethical standards for research on
violence against children, including informed consent/assent, confidentiality, referral protocols for participant distress or disclosure, and UNICEF’s
Procedure for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluation, Data Collection and Analysis.

Deliverables

The assignment is expected to be completed within 10 weeks of contract signing, in accordance with the specific deliverables below

• Inception report, including refined methodology, sampling framework, data collection tools, indicator/results-framework alignment and a detailed workplan
• Final data collection tools (household/survivor survey, KII/FGD guides, service-provider checklist) cleared by Kituo Cha Sheria, plus enumerator
  training materials
• Fieldwork completed across the 7 target counties, including data collection with survivors/community members, justice-sector actors, Court User Committees and service providers
• Clean, coded and analyzed dataset (quantitative and qualitative), with a data file, code book and methodological annex handed over to Kituo Cha Sheria
• Draft baseline assessment report, including an executive summary, findings against results-framework indicators, and recommendations
• Validation workshop report, with a summary of stakeholder feedback and agreed follow-up actions
• Final baseline assessment report incorporating stakeholder feedback, a 4-6 page summary brief, and a completed indicator baseline matrix

Duration and Level of Effort

The assignment is expected to require approximately 20 working days over a period of 10 weeks, combining home-based work (desk review, tool design, analysis, report writing) and field-based data collection across the seven target counties. The final level of effort and work plan will be agreed with Kituo Cha Sheria at inception.

Required Profile and Qualifications

• Advanced degree (Master’s or equivalent) in Monitoring and Evaluation, Statistics, Social Sciences, Development Studies, Law or a related field.
• Minimum of 10 years’ professional experience designing and leading baseline studies, evaluations or research on GBV, child protection, access to justice or related areas.
• Demonstrated expertise in mixed-methods research design, quantitative sampling and analysis, and qualitative data collection and analysis.
• Prior experience conducting research involving survivors of violence or other vulnerable populations, with a strong understanding of survivor centred, trauma-informed and ethical research practice, including child safeguarding and PSEA.
• Familiarity with Kenya’s legal, justice and child-protection systems, and prior experience working with UNICEF or similar development partners is an added advantage.
• Excellent report-writing and communication skills in English; working knowledge of Kiswahili and local languages spoken in the target counties is an advantage.
• Willingness and ability to travel to all seven target counties, including hard-to-reach and remote areas.
• Where the consultant proposes a small field team (e.g. enumerators or research assistants), the proposal should describe their qualifications and how data quality and ethical standards will be assured.

Coordination and Management

• The Consultant will report to Kituo Cha Sheria’s Executive Director, with day-to-day technical guidance from the Programme Manager and the M&E
  Officer in consultation with other programme focal points.
• Kituo Cha Sheria will facilitate introductions to county-level partners, provide relevant programme documentation, and support review and validation of tools and findings.
• Regular check-ins (bi-weekly) will be held to review progress, address bottlenecks, and agree on key decisions.
• All deliverables will be submitted in draft for review and comment before finalization.
• The Consultant will be responsible for their own logistics, travel arrangements and, where applicable, recruitment and management of any field team, unless otherwise agreed with Kituo Cha Sheria.

Ethical Considerations and Safeguarding

• The Consultant must adhere to high ethical standards, including informed consent/assent, confidentiality, data protection and do-no-harm principles, given the vulnerability of the survivors and children involved.
• The Consultant will be required to sign and comply with Kituo Cha Sheria’s and UNICEF’s child safeguarding, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), confidentiality and data protection policies.
• Any research tools involving children or survivors must be reviewed and cleared prior to fieldwork, with appropriate referral pathways built into the data collection protocol for participant safety and well-being.
• Enumerators or field staff engaged by the Consultant must be trained on safeguarding, referral pathways and how to handle distress or disclosures of protection concerns.
• All raw data, transcripts and personally identifiable information will remain the property of Kituo Cha Sheria and must be stored securely, anonymized where appropriate, and disposed of in line with agreed data protection protocols.

Payment Terms

Payment will be made in instalments linked to approve deliverables, as follows (indicative, to be confirmed in the contract): 20% upon signing of the contract and submission of the inception report; 40% upon submission and clearance of data collection tools and completion of fieldwork; 40% upon submission and acceptance of the final baseline report and all supporting datasets.

Submission of Proposals

Interested and qualified consultants are invited to submit:

• Technical proposal, including: understanding of the assignment and context, proposed methodology, proposed workplan and the proposed field team and management arrangements.
• Financial proposal/budget in Kenya Shillings, inclusive of all professional fees, travel and related costs.
• Curriculum vitae, including at least three references.
• At least two samples of similar baseline studies, evaluations or research reports previously authored.
• Evidence of tax compliance and any relevant registration documents.