Online Community Research at Girl Effect

The Scope

For both components of the study, the successful agency will be responsible for: 

• Designing a compelling and youth-friendly online community, including baseline, endline and tools for the offline component. 
• Translate and back-translate the tools.
• Ensuring the sampled girls get exposed to the intervention (a WhatsApp-based chatbot, USSD service, and other modes of content - radio, social media, website) through fun and engaging tasks and activities.
• Providing an inception report, including the plans for tool design, final sampling strategy,  agreed research plan and timeline, data quality and management, research ethics and safeguarding processes. 
• Gaining ethical approval for this study from the required bodies 
• Advising on sample design within specification and agreeing on the final design with Girl Effect 
• Recruiting communities and participants according to the provided purposive sampling  criteria 
• Piloting of tools, including debriefing and working sessions with Girl Effect  to refine and finalise the tools before the research
• Any testing and scripting required for the community, baseline/endline surveys and off-line component
• Obtaining informed consent from all participants 
• Managing the online community for the duration of the research 
• Facilitating any off-line FGDs or methodologies proposed
• Ensuring quality control and data management 
• Full data analysis 
• Maintaining a database of respondents for future research re-contact 
• Cleaned, labelled, securely stored, and correctly coded datasets in English for any quantitative data and complete qualitative data transcripts. Agency to provide details on what will be available. 
• Final evaluation report of the differences between baseline and endline surveys. 
• Final qualitative report sharing user feedback and qualitative user impact stories.
• To ensure all work is conducted according to the Girl Effect Girl Safeguarding Policy and an agreed safeguarding agreement. 
• A wrap-up session with Girl Effect to debrief the online community. 

Girl Effect will be responsible for the final sign-off of all steps involved in the above process. 

Research objectives 

• Primary: To evaluate the effectiveness of Binti Stawi content to shift psychological drivers and intention to complete the target behaviour (accessing SRH services).
• Secondary: To collect detailed user responses to the content experience and products available (chatbot, USSD, radio, website, social media etc), including qualitative impact stories.
• Additional: We would also like to check our USSD feedback from online communities with low-fi audiences, i.e. those without access to the internet.

Methodological Approach 

Girl Effect welcomes recommendations on the best possible approach to deliver against our research objectives and would like to receive your approach design as a  core component of the proposal. 

We imagine this may take the form of a 6-8 weeks long online research community and must include the following: 

• A baseline survey, in which participants will be questioned on their knowledge, outcome expectations and intention to access service before interacting with the chatbot or USSD.  
• Participants will engage with the chatbot, USSD, radio, website, social media etc, through a range of online community activities/tasks. The research will explore likes and dislikes, the relevance of content etc. 
• An endline survey would be run after participants have had enough time to engage with content. Participants will repeat the baseline survey to measure the impact of the content. 

Who You Are

Skills and Expertise

• Experience in designing and conducting online communities 
• Access to a suitable online community platform 
• Capacity to deliver all areas expected of this research, from recruiting to our sampling  criteria to developing and managing the online community, ensuring quality assurance  and working in line with research ethics principles 
• Experience in designing and conducting online communities in Kenya, especially  with children/girls, preferably in multiple regions 
• Experience in research with minors and adolescents and in safeguarding policies and  procedures 
• Excellent and demonstrated understanding of Child Protection/ Safeguarding and ethical  issues in research 
• Excellent online community management and data quality control strategies 
• Ability to conduct a risk assessment and mitigation plans for research
• Proven record of effectively managing relationships with research partners 
• Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstration of effectively managing relationships  with research partners 
• Exceptional communication and organization skills 
• Ability to respond to comments and questions in a timely, appropriate manner 
• Experience in delivering outputs on time and on budget 

Proposal Submission

Your proposal, should you be interested (Max 10 pages), should cover:

• Your understanding of the brief and why you feel you are well-placed to advise us on this
• Credentials/Profile/CV - Please showcase any previous work that you consider relevant to what we are trying to achieve and how we approach our work, and the audience we cater to. Describe the qualifications, experience, and capabilities of the firm or consultant in providing the requested services.
• Methodology and Workplan - including your proposal for the research methods and a detailed sample recommendation with an explanation.
• Reference-Provide at least three references for similar contracts with a description of the service provided, the value of the contract, and the contract periods of performance.
• Breakdown of Costs provided with applicable taxes and other charges clearly identified in USD. Consultants should provide their daily or hourly billing rate or their proposed fixed fee for the requested deliverables. 
  • All applicable taxes should be quoted separately;