Request proposals for a full-service MEL agency to design, run and deliver an evaluation for Girl Effect and Good Business’s Collaboration Hub programme in Nigeria.
Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust, and need. From chatbots to chat shows and TV dramas to tech, our content helps adolescent girls in Africa and Asia make choices and changes in their lives.
We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, and relationships, empowering girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible “for a girl.”
Our reach is 50 million and counting and we’re using technology to reach girls at scale so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, her health, her learning, and her livelihood.
Because when a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that change her life, it inspires others to do so too. She starts a ripple effect that impacts her family, community, and country.
That’s the Girl Effect.
Girl Effect and Good Business (lead partners of the SKY Girls programme) have launched a new programme called the Collaboration Hub. It is designed to foster and support greater collaboration between partners focused on gender norms change, especially those that focus on young people and use media to achieve their goals.
The Hub was established following research with stakeholders that indicated a strong desire for collaboration but uncertainty around some aspects of managing partnerships and getting the most out of them. Based on the belief that a cross-sectoral approach with multiple channels and players working in a coordinated way is necessary to achieve shifts in social norms, the Hub aims to further collaboration for transformative norms change.
As part of the project, we have developed a Collaboration Framework to act as a practical guide for partnerships. It sets out a process for setting up, managing and promoting partnerships, and provides resources for partners to use at different stages of this process.
The Collaboration Hub will also identify 4-5 programmes in Nigeria which have collaboration at their heart, to receive funding and support. This includes:
All projects will include collaborations between different organisations and will use media to shift gender norms. Projects will span a broad range of media channels, including both digital and traditional media. For digitally connected audiences, it could be social media platforms, podcasts, chatbots, or web platforms, like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. For girls with limited digital access, mass media and offline media could be used e.g. TV, radio, and Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Projects will also include a range of formats from drama series, to chat shows, to educational content.
These projects must be completed by August 2025, with final evaluation reporting to be completed in September 2025. The program is being delivered in Lagos and Kaduna states.
Girl Effect’s project: Working closely with young people in Kaduna, we will establish collaborations with CBOs such as Education as a Vaccine and fashion influencers/content creators; we will design a multi-media behaviour change ecosystem encompassing diverse content formats such as a radio chat show that explores contraception use, supported by social media and on-the-ground activities in targeted areas to increase reach and engagement with the content e.g. screenings of content.
Good Business’s project: We are looking to launch a mother-daughter cooking TV show aimed at mothers and daughters aged 10-24 in Lagos. The process of cooking family meals provides a familiar and “safe” space to encourage intergenerational conversations on sensitive issues without creating immediate resistance. Additionally, cooking is seen as “women’s work,” reinforcing traditional roles. This makes it an ideal starting point for opening up conversations about broader gender dynamics. We will use entertainment media, influencers and brand appeal for large-scale reach through online and traditional media (TV and social media), complemented by on-ground activities (events and workshops).
Key outcomes:
SWAG: GE is also supporting one existing collaboration in the Campus Unites for SRHR (CUFS) project in Zaria, Kaduna state. The project will explore collaborations with theatre arts departments in the schools to deliver community theatre to drive norms change towards access to sexual and reproductive health and rights within the communities. The collaboration will include on the ground CBOs, Campus radios, traditional and religious institutions, campuses etc.
The key outcomes of the programme will be to shift social norms and behaviours related to contraceptive use, including:
Football comic: Good Business is also supporting a collaboration based around a football themed comic book for AGYW and ABYM aged 13-19 in Lagos. The comic The comic will use football-themed storylines and relatable characters. It will be co-created with young illustrators, expert storytellers, the target audience, and organisations with expertise in behaviour change messaging for sexual health. It will become part of an existing programme by Grassroots Soccer and Youth Empowerment Development Initiative that engages adolescents through in-person activities to support them in making healthy decisions. It will utilise the existing football-based health curriculum in storyboarding and scriptwriting. Youth coaches will engage the audience in deeper discussion on topics within the comic that address gender norms change.
A 5th and final project may be selected with similar criteria to the four above, however, this is still to be confirmed.
Girl Effect is seeking a Monitoring Evaluation and Learning agency/organisation that has worked in Nigeria with experience in Kaduna and Lagos with extensive experience in monitoring and evaluation of youth-centred qualitative and quantitative research to conduct an evaluation of the Collaboration Hub programmes.
The successful partner will help us evaluate these 4-5 projects in Nigeria to:
Assess if and how greater collaboration can contribute to more pronounced or accelerated shifts in gender normsProvide insight into characteristics of collaborations or around the process of collaborating which are particularly effective or ineffective.Where possible, work with existing evaluation partners to support or enhance evaluation studies in place, generate additional insight into impact and look for comparability across the projects
The evaluation must align with the objectives outlined below. The successful agency should demonstrate local expertise and apply its experience to assess the impact against specified outcome indicators.
This RFP is primarily focused on the collaboration elements of the 4-5 projects, with additional insight into their impact as a secondary focus. For the 2-3 programmes which are expanded or enhanced versions of existing programmes, it is highly likely that some outcome evaluation processes are in place, and the focus will therefore be on working with these.
For the 2 new programmes (one Girl Effect-led and one Good Business-led) there will be additional outcome evaluation, and we have an RFP out to tender for these evaluations. If you wish to apply for those in addition to this collaboration piece please see the link below:
We anticipate the final deliverable to be a primarily qualitative evidence narrative, bringing together the collaboration evaluation, along with insights from the outcome evaluation pieces from each of the 4-5 projects; making connections between studies, collaboration and impact.
A few examples of the kind of indicators we are anticipating are detailed below. But as the programme evolves we are looking for a thoughtful agency that will be able to advise us on the best approaches we can apply to measure the impact of collaboration and provide insight into the process of collaborating. We will also look to see if and how partners are using the Collaboration Framework we have developed, which we will share with the chosen evaluation agency upon contracting.
To assess the challenges and benefits of collaboration in relation to delivering transformative impact across 4-5 live project examples:
To assess how greater collaboration can contribute to more pronounced or accelerated shifts in gender norms.
We strongly support the principles of rigour, reliability, and replicability in research. We welcome 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 encourage agencies to suggest adaptations or additional components that would allow for a robust evaluation of the intervention. The final methodology for this evaluation will be designed with the successful agency after they are commissioned.
Internal evaluation of collaboration with contributors
We anticipate a multi-faceted approach, requiring different components to explore collaboration within projects alongside evaluation of improved impact. This may include a combination of:
Outcome evaluation with beneficiaries of each project
Working with each of the projects that make up the Impact Media Accelerator programme, we require research to assess the effectiveness of each intervention and to gather compelling stories of impact. We welcome creative methodological solutions to deliver against this objective. Components may include:
*Please note each project has its independent evaluation, which may vary dramatically in scale and design. Insights from these will need to be merged together to provide one combined evidence narrative.
The sample will be made up of a range of contributors:
After commissioning, our final sample breakdowns will be agreed upon with the selected agency.
The successful agency will be responsible for the following:
Design:
Setup:
Fieldwork:
Analysis and reporting:
The agency will coordinate closely with Girl Effect to produce work that delivers on all of Girl Effect’s reporting requirements. The Girl Effect Teams will conduct quality assurance during the fieldwork implementation. And review and agree on all major stages of the design and delivery.
The agency must be based or have substantial operations in Nigeria and must be conducive to working with teams in the UK, Sub-Saharan Africa & India. The Assignment is to be carried out in Nigeria (Kaduna & Lagos).
The agency will have a primary point of contact with our Global Evidence and Insights Team and an additional local point of contact based in our Nigeria team. The language of the materials and reports shall be English. The contract supervisor shall approve all deliverables submitted by the agency before any payment is made.
Interested agencies are asked to submit the following to support their candidature (Max 10 pages):
In their technical proposal, the bidder must demonstrate an understanding of the requirements described in the RFP and demonstrate how the bidder will meet the requirements of the evaluation criteria. The technical proposal must be at most ten pages.
Technical and Financial proposals will need to be submitted as separate documents. Financial bids will not be opened until the technical evaluation and only for those proposals deemed qualified and responsive. The Proposals shall be prepared in English Language.
GE is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of GE.
The proposal's VALIDITY shall be 90 days from the bid closure date.
The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are listed below.
If you have any questions about this RFP, please email [email protected] by 3rd December. All questions will be answered and shared through an FAQ.
Please submit proposals, as described above, to Girl Effect’s procurement team ([email protected]) by the 13th of December 2024. Please mark your email with the subject line, ‘‘Proposal - Collaboration Hub Evaluation-Nigeria.’
Girl Effect Nigeria is obliged by the Nigerian tax authorities to ensure all taxes are charged where applicable. Applicants are advised to ensure that they have a clear understanding of their tax position regarding provisions to Nigeria tax legislation when developing their proposals.
All materials/documents arising from this consultancy work shall remain the property of Girl Effect.
GE reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party. GE shall inform ONLY successful applicant(s). The process of negotiation and signing of the contract with the successful applicant(s) will follow.
Please note: We will evaluate only proposals submitted following the application process outlined in the RFP and using our specified email address ([email protected]).
You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. Shortlisted consultants will be assessed on our organisational values at the interview stage. The successful consultant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding policy. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found here. We have zero tolerance for violence against children, beneficiaries, and staff.
Girl Effect Services is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity, or expression. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.
We are committed to building an increasingly representative organization that works extensively with the communities we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy service organizations and individuals with diverse professional, academic, and cultural backgrounds.
