Consultancy to Conduct Data Analysis and Report Development for the Endline Evaluation of the Responsive Parenting Program

About ChildFund

ChildFund International works throughout Asia, Africa and the Americas to connect children with the people, resources and institutions they need to grow up healthy, educated, skilled and safe, wherever they are. Delivered through over 250 local implementing partner organizations, our programs address the underlying conditions that prevent any child or youth from achieving their full potential. We place a special emphasis on child protection throughout our approach because violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect can reverse developmental gains in an instant. In 2022, we reached 55.7 million children (of which 5.6 million are infants under 5 years) and family members in 21 countries. About 200,000 Americans support our work by sponsoring individual children or investing in ChildFund programs. In Kenya, ChildFund works through 13 implementing partners spread across 27 counties reaching over 3.1 million (0.2 million infants) children and adults. ChildFund has been in existence for over 60 years and receives funds through grants and sponsorship.

Responsive and Protective Parenting Program

The RPP program model has three main intervention strategies targeting local partners and sub-national government, community support services (mentors and facilitators) and caregivers of infants and young children (IYC) age 0-5. The program model is implemented (recruitment, training, intervention delivery, M&E) during an average of 18-month time-period (12 months of direct engagement with caregivers and reflective supervision of facilitators).

The Theory of Action (i.e., the “theory of change” in action) for the RPP-PM is:

• Local and sub-national government partners will participate in 1) a community-led collection of information on the local ECD situation (inclusive of the Community Based Child Protection Mapping), 2) a series of capacity building workshops (training), 3) ongoing reflective supervision, and 4) planning meetings to enhance their knowledge, attitudes and skills on ECD Foundations and Nurturing Care, Community-based Child Protection (CBCP), in addition to 5) coordination, planning, and reflective supervision.
• Community stakeholders will participate in community mobilization, a series of capacity building workshops and ongoing reflective supervision. These activities will help them build the skills to plan and facilitate parenting sessions at the community level (through group or home visits) with vulnerable caregivers of IYC).
• Male and female caregivers of IYC will participate in monthly group parenting sessions facilitated by the community stakeholders (mentors and group facilitators). These meetings will be offered over the course of minimum 12 months, with a frequency of once a month, and will allow for caregivers to gain important knowledge, and adopt attitudes and practices in child protection, nutrition, early stimulation, and responsive caregiving.

Goal: Infants and Young Children (0-5) have improved age-appropriate development and early learning outcomes and are protected at home and in their communities.

Objectives

• Strengthening multi-sectoral sub-national government and local partners’ capacity to support community stakeholders in ensuring protective and nurturing home and community environments for infant and young children.
• Strengthening community stakeholders’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices on the components of nurturing care, caregiver well-being, and community-based child protection to support caregivers in group and home parenting sessions.
• Enhancing parents/caregiver’s knowledge, attitudes, and practices across the components of nurturing care, caregiver well-being; and community-based child protection.

Purpose of the Evaluation

The evaluation of project outcomes seeks to measure the contribution of the RPP program towards changing specific indicators for sets of program model outcomes that are linked to the program model’s: 1) goal and 2) objectives.

Evaluation Questions

Goal

• Does the RPP model help improve development and early learning outcomes of infants and young children (IYC) 0-5 years?[1]
• Does the RPP model help improve the protection of IYC at home and their communities?[2]

County Government and Local Partners

• Does the program increase local partners and county government support for establishing and maintaining a nurturing and protective environment for infants and young children?
• Does the program increase county government and local partners’ knowledge in nurturing care and caregiver wellbeing?
• Does the program increase county government and local partners’ knowledge on reflective supervision?

Community Support Structures

• Does the program increase communities’ stakeholders support for establishing and maintaining a nurturing and protective environment for infants and young children?
• Does the program increase mentors’ and group facilitators knowledge in nurturing care and caregiver wellbeing?
• Does the program increase mentors’ and group facilitators knowledge in facilitating parenting session planning, training and reflective supervision?

Parents/Caregivers

• Does the program lead caregivers to see their communities as safe places for their children?
• Does the program increase caregivers’ knowledge in nurturing care and protection of infants and young children?
• What nurturing care practices (behavior) of caregivers are enhanced by the program?
• What child protection practices (behaviour) of caregivers are enhanced by the program?

Evaluation Indicators

Goal

• Children are observed to have improved age-appropriate development and early learning outcomes (Note, this is not being globally assessed in FY20/21).
• Caregivers more likely to perceive home as safe.
• Caregivers more likely to report community as safe.

County Government Officers and Local Partners

• % sub-national government and local partner staff that shows support for establishing and maintaining protective and nurturing home and community environments for IYC, disaggregated by stakeholder type
• % of partners with improved knowledge across nurturing care components, disaggregated by gender, partner type and component of nurturing care
• % of partners with improved knowledge on reflective supervision, disaggregated by gender and partner type
• % of partners with improved knowledge on the importance of caregiver well-being, disaggregated by gender and partner type

Community Support Structures

• % communities stakeholders that shows support for establishing and maintaining protective and nurturing home and community environments for IYC, disaggregated by stakeholder type, gender
• % of community leaders and/or CSS stakeholders with increased knowledge on nurturing care, and CBCP, disaggregated by stakeholder type and gender.
• % of community leaders and/or CSS stakeholders with increased knowledge in facilitation parenting session planning, and reflective supervision (disaggregated by stakeholder type and gender)

Parents/Caregivers

• % of caregivers who report their community is a safe place for children, disaggregated by respondent type, gender & engagement type[3]
• % of primary caregivers of children 0-5 with improved knowledge on nurturing care components, disaggregated by topic, caregiver’s gender & engagement type
• % of primary caregivers who report leaving children alone or in the care of another child aged 10 or younger for more than 1 hour in the past week disaggregated by gender & engagement type
• % of primary caregivers engaged in 2 or more early stimulation activities with their child 0-5 in the past 3 days (i.e. singing, playing with toys or household objects, reading, telling stories, etc.), disaggregated by gender & engagement type
• % of caregivers who engaged in positive method of parenting (and do not recur to violent forms of discipline) with their children 0-5 in the past month, disaggregated by gender engagement type

Scope of Work

The evaluation will cover Machakos, Kajiado, Homabay, Laikipia, Nyeri and Kitui counties. Specifically, the data collection will be undertaken in Rusinga, Mwala, Wamunyu, Maka, Masaku, Migwani, Ngwatanio and Naromoru communities.

Evaluation Outputs and Deliverables

• Conduct Data Cleaning, Aggregation and Analysis of the raw data collected from the field based on the Data Analysis Plan.
• Produce the draft and final Endline Report guided by the template
• Produce Caregiver Questionnaire excel tables and Stata do files.

Qualifications of Consultant (s)

The successful firm/organization or individual will have the following competencies:

• Advanced degree in any of the following or related disciplines: Early Childhood Development, Education, Public Health, Sociology, Community Development Studies.
• Expertise in undertaking research studies, preferably in the Early Childhood Development.
• Proficient in Stata data analysis software
• Have strong proven knowledge and practical experience in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.
• Excellent analytical, organizational, facilitating, presentation and communication skills.
• Excellent report writing and presentation skills.
• Fluency in English and Kiswahili and local language

Management and coordination

The key people that the consultant will be working closely with will be ChildFund Early Childhood Development Specialist and Monitoring & Evaluation Learning Manager. The management of the day-to-day activities in the field will be supported by Programs Coordinator and Programs and Sponsorship Officer at the implementing partner’s level.

Work plan & Timelines

The data analysis, visualisation and report writing of the evaluation is expected to take place from the 6th of March 2023 to 31st March 2023.

Payment process

Payment upon submission and acceptance of the data aggregation and analysis report to ChildFund Kenya –30%

Payment upon submission and acceptance of the draft endline report including annexes to ChildFund Kenya – 30%

Payment upon submission and acceptance of the final report to ChildFund Kenya and dissemination/validation of the findings during meeting – 40%

NB:

• The Consultant’s compensation shall be paid NET, within 30 days from receipt of a proper invoice unless otherwise specified.
• Payment will be made through direct bank transfer otherwise specified.
• The payment shall be subjected to 5% withholding tax as required by the Law at the time of payment.