RFP / Tender
Zambia
Posted 4 weeks ago

BBC Media Action

Request for proposals: Endline Evaluation for Deepening Democracy Facility (DDF)

Deepening Democracy Facility (DDF) Project

1. Background

The Deepening Democracy Facility (DDF) is a programme funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and implemented by Diakonia, in collaboration with BBC Media Action. The DDF’s primary objective is to enhance and deepen democratic practices in Zambia through an adaptive approach, allowing for flexible, context-driven and agile programming focused on testing, learning and scalability. The DDF’s objectives are centered around contributing to solving the following key complex Zambian governance challenges:

Reforms and strengthening of key democratic institutions and processes.
Expansion and protection of civic space.
Deepening democracy through active citizen participation.
Enhancing and deepening accountability, transparency, and anti-corruption measures.

The Deepening Democracy Facility (DDF) has been running for 1 year 8 months in four constituencies (Nkana, Milanzi, Mazabuka Central, Bwacha). The radio programme has been aired on 4 radio stations throughout the country. These stations include: Byta, Mphangwe, KNC and Icengelo. The programme has had a focus on Constituency Development Funds and social accountability.

Core Implementing partners

1.1 BBC Media Action – BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international development charity. It believes in the power of media and communication to help reduce poverty and support people in understanding their rights. Its aim is to inform, connect and empower people around the world. BBC Media Action is registered as an International Non-Governmental Organisation (INGO) in Zambia and has its Secretariat in London, UK. BBC Media Action works around the world to:

Raise awareness of development issues among mass audiences and opinion-leaders.
Influence awareness, attitudes, and behaviour amongst less privileged communities through a wide range of educational programming.
Build capacity in the media sector in developing and transitional countries.

1.2 Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) – JCTR aims to improve communication between WDC representatives and community members, and to enhance the effective working relationships among key stakeholders. This is aimed at deepening the responsiveness of CDF to community needs; to strengthen community participation in project identification, to stimulate the production of adequate feedback mechanisms, to support improved communication, and to promote adherence to the CDF information flow chart

1.3 Alliance for Community Action (ACA) – goal is to strengthen the demand and supply of public resource management to improve service delivery

1.4 People’s Action for Accountability and Good Governance (PAAGZ) – aims to empower communities and local governance structures (WDCs) in Chongwe to actively participate in and hold accountable local authorities in the utilization of Constituency Development Funds (CDF) for improved service delivery and development

2. The Deepening Democracy Facility Endline

Diakonia and BBC Media Action would like to invite proposals from research agencies to conduct the endline evaluation in February to March 2025 on the Deepening Democracy Facility (DDF) project. The endline will focus on three main outputs – BBC Media Action (targeting 18 to 55 years old) focused on media reach and governance accountability programmes. Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR), Alliance for Community Action (ACA) and People’s Action for Accountability in Good Governance (PAAGZ) (targeting 18 to 55 years old) focused on social accountability issues and engagement between duty bearers and the audiences.

Deepening Democracy Facility Project

The Deepening Democracy Facility project is a project that focuses on enhancing democracy and democratic practices among people in Zambia. The project is coordinated by Diakonia and implemented by implemented by four core partners who include

BBC Media Action – working with partner radio station to produce media outputs on governance, democracy and CDF working with media partners to produce media outputs in Chongwe, Lusaka, Katete, Kabwe, Kitwe and Mazabuka.
Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) – Enhance social accountability mechanisms in the communities whose intervention is based in Kabwe and Kitwe districts.
Alliance for Community Action (ACA) – Enhance community participation in CDF and social accountability mechanisms among the citizens whose intervention is based in Mazabuka and Katete districts.
Peoples Action for Accountability in Good Governance (PAAGZ) – To empower communities and local governance structures (WDCs) in Chongwe to actively participate in and hold accountable local authorities in the utilization of Constituency Development Funds (CDF) for improved service delivery and development.

Research Objectives

To evaluate the effectiveness of media outputs in the delivery of CDF information
To determine the extent to which the approaches have effectively engaged rights holders and duty bearers
To identify sustainable approaches in demand for service delivery from duty bearers among the audiences
To investigate impact of the approaches in the areas of intervention
To recommend the best approach to be used in the delivery of CDF information to the audiences
To investigate platforms created in the community for engagement between the rights holders and duty bearers
To assess the knowledge levels of the audiences in the areas of project interventions towards the democratic processes
To identify best practices/lesson learnt from programme intervention

3. Research Plan

The selected districts are as follows:

Province	District	Population
Central Province	Kabwe	299,206
Copperbelt Province	Kitwe	792,350
Lusaka Province	Chongwe Lusaka	313,389 2,204,059
Southern province	Mazabuka	232,045
Eastern province	Katete	214,072

Client expectations from the agency

Sampling

Sample Size: 1500

Sampling Design:

A probability proportional to size multistage cluster sample approach should be employed with the sample being representative of the target population in each district (by age, gender, urban/rural location, and socio-economic status). At all stages, the selection of clusters should be random and self-weighting. The sampling frame should be constructed using the most recent census data (or the agency may propose a more suitable alternative if more recent). To correct for divergence from the population parameters, the agency will be expected to use Random Iterative Method for weighting to align the final data with the latest census parameters.

The successful agency will be expected to provide the sampling frame to BBC Media Action for final checks ahead of data collection if the sampling frame is available.

4. Research ethics

Researchers and agencies working with BBC Media Action need to adhere to a strict code of ethics and endeavour to address major concerns around consent, confidentiality, anonymity, and the potential impact of the research on both those researched and researchers.

Permission to Conduct Research in Zambia

The agency will be responsible for obtaining ethical approval to conduct fieldwork in each of the districts and will operate under the agreed ethical clearance.

5. Questionnaire

BBC Media Action will provide one questionnaire in English to the agency. The instruments will consist of mainly closed questions. We expect the survey will take approximately 50 minutes to complete for each.

The survey should be conducted in the languages that are locally appropriate to each district. The agency will be responsible for translation and back-translation (to allow us to check translation) prior to fieldwork.

The agency will need to pilot the questionnaires prior to fieldwork and provide a pilot report to BBC Media Action, detailing any issues with the questionnaires and providing an overview of the interview length. BBC Media Action will then consider any changes in consultation with the agency and provide a final signed-off survey. The agency will be responsible for making any changes to translated versions of the survey. Sufficient time must be allowed within the proposed timeline for this piloting process.

6. Training of fieldwork team

The agency will be responsible for recruiting and providing sufficient training to enumeration teams. Please detail this process clearly in your proposal (including who will be recruited to fieldwork teams, composition of enumerators/supervisors, number of days of training and what training will cover).

7. Fieldwork

The agency will carry out fieldwork to a high standard within the agreed timeframe. Fieldwork will consist of:

Face to face interviews by trained staff from each of the selected districts who can speak the local dialects. The local interviewers should not be known to respondents. Therefore, please outline the approach you will take in terms of house-to-house visits.
The agency will provide weekly field reports with a breakdown of interviews completed by district and age, gender, urban/rural location, and socio-economic status.
The agency will record all unsuccessful visits in a non-response table, detailing the reasons for no interview (e.g., refusal, no one at home etc).
Throughout fieldwork, the agency will complete a context spreadsheet with any events, either national or local, such as power cuts, strikes etc. which could have an effect on the fieldwork.
The agency will conduct quality control checks on fieldwork and will provide BBC Media Action with a detailed fieldwork plan so that BBC Media Action can also conduct quality control checks if desired. Please provide a breakdown of percentage of interviews to be quality controlled by call backs, spot checks and supervisor accompaniment.

8. Quality control

BBC Media Action researchers will attend a training session carried out prior to the pilot study and may also attend trainings with local agents who will carry out fieldwork. Our research team will also travel to a number of areas where data is collected to carry out spot checks and back checks at a number of households sampled in the study in order to monitor the quality control of the data collection. This is standard practice for all surveys that BBC Media Action commissions and the agency and fieldwork staff should be aware of and comfortable with this degree of involvement. The agency should provide a detailed full fieldwork plan so monitoring can be carried out as required.

In addition to fieldwork checks BBC Media Action will conduct an early data check on the first 100 cases that are entered. This is to check that there are no problems with the data entry process, identify any coding issues, and to confirm that interviewers are following questionnaire routing and other instructions as directed on the survey tool. The first 100 cases for each program should be delivered to BBC Media Action (as an SPSS file) no later than 4 days after fieldwork has commenced. During this data checking by BBC Media Action, all data collection by the agency should be paused. BBC Media Action will check the first 100 cases and report back to the agency any data management issues or changes within 2 working days.

9. Data management

The agency will provide a clean and labelled (according to our specifications) dataset in Excel and SPSS format. We request that data entry occurs simultaneously to data collection.

The SPSS dataset will also contain labelled variables detailing all levels of cluster sampling, except the household level. If any variables are derived by the agency, the agency will provide the syntax file to BBC Media Action.

With the proposal, the agency will provide a data entry plan, outlining how many people will be allocated to this task, how quality control will be implemented and whether data will be processed locally or sent to an external data processor.

10. Project management

The agency will provide one point of contact for BBC Media Action, as well as a detailed description of the proposed project management structure and team to include project manager, supervisors, translators, interviewers (clearly detailing gender and languages spoken) and data processing. Please provide CVs of key personnel (no more than one page per person).

11. Risk management

When submitting the proposal, the agency needs to address the potential risks that could affect the overall operation of the survey process. These potential risks include, but are not limited to, factors such as delays to fieldwork, staff absence, potential harm to researchers and respondents during fieldwork, security risks to researchers and respondents during fieldwork, potential language barriers between the researchers and participants, etc. For each risk identified, the agency needs to state a clear mitigation strategy in the proposal.

12. Timings

The following (below) are the endline survey timelines.

Task	Date
Submission of tenders	By 17^th January 2025
Proposal presentations from selected agencies	20^th to 22^nd January 2025
Final amendments to proposal (if required)	By 27^th January 2025
Contract Awarded	31^st January 2025
Engagement meetings with Agency and sharing of tools	3^rd to 7^th February 2025
Translation and back translation of tools	10^th to 14^th February 2025
Ethical Clearance	10^th February to 14^th February 2025
Scripting of instruments	17^th to 19^th February 2025
Training field team, piloting, finalise methodology and instruments	20^th February to 22^nd February 2025
Fieldwork	23^rd February to 2^nd March 2025
Delivery of first 100 cases for each program	Within 2 days of fieldwork commencing
Data Entry and Cleaning	Done By 6^th March 2025
Delivery of cleaned SPSS dataset and data tables	By 6^th March 2025
Submission of draft report	11^th March 2025
Submission of final evaluation report	14^th March 2025

13. Research agency deliverables

The successful agency will provide the following:

Detailed design of the sampling approach according to our specifications and a sampling frame
Piloting of the research tools and sampling approach (with opportunity to revise these before main data collection commences)
Training of fieldworkers to cover BBC Media Action briefing notes and guidelines
Delivery of the first 100 cases after one week of fieldwork, with a pause in fieldwork while checks are conducted
Submission of final evaluation report to BBC Media Action
Suitable quality control procedures over fieldwork and data entry/checking
Interviews with a total of around 1500 males and females aged 18+-24 years old on DDF, representative of this population within each of the districts as detailed
Weekly field reports with a breakdown of interviews completed by district.
Cleaned, weighted, and labelled dataset in English in SPSS format – plus a syntax file to show any variables that have been derived.
Data tables
Final evaluation report

Expected use of findings

This study will serve as a basis for comparison with earlier findings from the previous endline evaluations, and these findings will be used in evaluating the project’s impact among those who are exposed to the media programmes produced on the project. Findings from this research will be used for evidence-based decision making by BBC Media Action teams as well as the donor and other relevant stakeholders in the wider health and governance community.

14. Expectations for the tender

When responding to this RFP, your proposal should provide details and evidence of the following:

An outline of the agency’s skills and capacity to undertake and manage the research, including details of relevant previous work experience, examples of previous work in the field and detailed CVs of the key persons involved in the study.
The names and contact details of two referees for whom your organisation has carried out similar work.
A detailed plan of how the research will be carried out, including:
The sampling strategy (addressing our specifications)
Details (content and number of days) of the training proposed for fieldwork teams
Piloting and fieldwork plan – please outline how long it will take to collect the data; how many teams you will send into the field and how this process will be overseen to ensure a quality deliverable
Quality control procedures
Data entry plan outlining how many people will be allocated to this task, how you will implement quality control and whether data will be processed locally or sent to an external data processor
A description of deliverables.
All submitted proposals should include a section describing how the agency plans to meet and adhere to ethical protocols, including:
How informed consent will be gathered and recorded during piloting and fieldwork;
How respondents will be assured of their confidentiality and anonymity of data;
Procedures relating to how data will be transported securely during fieldwork and how it will be stored both in hard and soft copy in agency offices
A data entry plan, outlining how and where the data will be entered into electronic format. Please specify how many people will be allocated to this task and how you will assure quality. We are particularly interested to find out whether your data will be processed locally or whether you intend to send it to an external data processor.
Provision of a detailed timeline for the studies: this should include an explanation of how the project will be managed to deliver data to us on time and to a high standard. Please outline how long it will take to collect the data; how many teams you will send into the field and how this process will be overseen to ensure a quality deliverable.
Complete breakdown of costs including VAT, applicable taxes etc. and unit costs.

15. Assessment of tenders

Overall assessment of proposals will be concerned with value for money, taking account of the cost and quality of each research proposal. In particular, assessment will focus on:

Relevant skills and experience of the research agency, in particular the team that will be involved.
Proposed methods, including sampling, fieldwork and data management, quality assurance and project management.
The acceptability of the proposed timetable.
The proposed costs compared to the implementation plan.

16. Formatting and submission of tender

The full proposal, including both technical and financial components, should be no more than 20 pages. The proposal should be written in a font no smaller than 11 point. Annexes may be included with the proposal and will not count against the 20-page maximum limit.

Proposals submitted in response to this RFP should address the research objectives set out in this brief and should be written in English. Proposals should be submitted in PDF format and put “[Agency Name] proposal to BBC Media Action Zambia – “Deepening Democracy Facility” as the title of the email.

Soft copies of the technical and financial proposals and other supporting documents should be addressed to the Country Director and be sent by end of day Lusaka time by 15:00 hours on 17^th January 2025 to the email address below.

Country Director

BBC Media Action

Plot 17 Roan Road, Kabulonga

Lusaka – Zambia

Phone: +260 974 003 703/0977947510

Email: [email protected].

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