IALA Baseline Study

The Aga Khan Foundation, Afghanistan (AKF (Afg)) is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), a group of international, private, non-denominational development agencies working to improve living conditions and opportunities for people in some of the poorest parts of the developing world. The Network’s organizations have individual mandates that range from the fields of health and education to architecture, rural development and promotion of private-sector enterprise and institutions that seek to empower communities and individuals, usually in disadvantaged circumstances, to improve living conditions and opportunities.

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is a non-denominational international development agency established in 1967 by His Highness the Aga Khan. Its mission is to develop and promote creative solutions to problems that impede social development, primarily in Asia and East Africa. Created as a private, non-profit foundation under Swiss law, it has branches and independent affiliates in 19 countries.

AKF seeks to provide sustainable solutions to long-term problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and ill health. In Afghanistan, AKF works with rural communities in mountainous, remote or resource poor areas to improve quality of life in the areas of natural resource management, market development, governance, education, and health.

1. Rationale

Aga Khand Foundation with the financial support from Vitol Foundation UK implementing the Improving Adolescents’ Lives in Afghanistan (AILA) project in 5 districts of Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan. The project targets in school and out of school adolescents aged 15-19 years old to navigate positive pathways to adulthood. The project also aiming at creating a positive perception of parents and communities toward education.

This document outlines a request for the base-line evaluation service (open to qualified firms and individuals) of the Improving Adolescent’s Lives in Afghanistan (IALA) project to establish a base-line status for the IALA project indicators and build and evidence base for measuring the results brought by the project during the project implementation cycle (2022-2023).

2. Project Background

Despite adolescents representing a large proportion of the population in Afghanistan, even prior to the current crisis, they have been largely invisible as citizens, excluded from decisions that affect them and have limited access to information. Adolescent girls, in particular, face negative perceptions from communities and teachers, especially if they are married, and have internalized negative gender norms resulting in low self-confidence. At the community level, conservative cultural views are also conflated with religion to keep older girls out of school. As a result, they have limited opportunities to acquire and share knowledge and to actively participate in decision-making processes, including whether they return to school, pursue job opportunities, marry, and other decisions that impact their lives. The current economic and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has served to further marginalize, disenfranchise, and put the lives of adolescents, especially girls at risk.

To address some of these challenges, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) with the financial support from Vitol Foundation has recently launched ‘Improving Adolescents’ Lives in Afghanistan’ (AILA) project in Baghlan province in northern Afghanistan. The project supports in-school and out of school adolescents aged 15-19 years old to navigate positive pathways to adulthood. The project also aims at creating a positive perception of parents and communities toward education of their children. The project is based on AKF’s proven model that was implemented in Bamyan province from 2017 to 2020, and will implement the following interventions:

1) Adolescents Aged 15-19 years old: The project will establish Multi-purpose Adolescent Groups (MAGs) and will works with 800 adolescent girls and boys in the targeted districts to build their capacities. These 800 volunteers will work with their peers (9,600) in their communities to replicate the knowledge gained on e.g., child protection, education, awareness on early marriage etc. The project will also employ a proportion of these volunteers in the Early Childhood (ECD) centers as teacher assistants to build their capacity and provide them with economic opportunities close to their residence.

2) Parents, Preschool Shuras, and Communities: The project works with parents and pre-school (ECD) shura members to raise their awareness on education and change their perception towards children education. AKF will also employ the Flexible Response Fund (FRF) mechanism to identify local solutions to mitigate the learning loss and ensure adolescents can access pathways back into education or towards employment opportunities.

3) Children Aged 4-6 years (ECD): The project establish community based Early Childhood Development (ECD) / Pre-school centers in the targeted communities benefiting 300 children aged 4 to 6 annually.

Prior to the start of the programme implementation, AKF is planning to conduct a baseline study. This document outlines a request for the base-line evaluation service (open to qualified firms and individuals) of the Improving Adolescent’s Lives in Afghanistan (IALA) project to establish a base-line status for the IALA project indicators.**

3. Scope of work and Overall objective

The purpose of IALA Baseline Study is to help the programme to focus on achievement related to a set of expected outcomes; and to empower them to collaboratively measure progress towards them, as well as review them as needed and appropriate. Aligned with this purpose, the baseline study is designed to achieve four specific objectives:

· To establish starting points or baselines for its Key Performance Indicators and to suggest revisions to these KPIs if needed.

· To help validate the programme’s Theory of Change.

· To provide recommendations for the development, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and learning for the programme.

Baseline data is intended to inform the establishment of realistic and achievable targets, provide a point of reference against which progress on or towards the achievement of outcomes can be monitored and evaluated, and provide suggestions for the review of indicators if and where necessary.

4. Work Location(s)

The consultant(s) will conduct in person or virtual consultation meetings / interviews with AKF Afghanistan Education team alongside MERL’s representer in Kabul and will travel to the field (if required) or virtually train data collectors at the regional level. Subsequently, the field data collection (to be done by AKF Afghanistan team) will take place in Baghlan province. The consultant/firm will need to further elaborate and explore the suggested methods and validate/contextualize them in consultation with both the Education and MERL teams. She/he will need to discuss the proposed study plan and approaches with both teams and seek technical guidance including the verification of all requested data collection, management, analysis and reporting of proposed/planned ways forward. The consultant will report to the National Knowledge Management Coordinator, Education, who will coordinate field activities with the Baghlan regional education team.

5. Main duties and responsibilities

· Conduct a desk review to develop a contextual understanding of the project by using the project or other document required.

· Develop consultancy plan as per the consultancy requirement and TOR.

· Develop an inception report for the base-line study.

· Develop base-line methodology, tools, evaluation matrix, research / evaluation questions and training / orientation materials and guides for the data collectors.

· Train the enumerators / project staff on the data collection tools, methodology and other base-line activities as required.

· Make sure the data quality by employing certain parameters and quality checks.

· Use of appropriate data management system and hand over of all data sets back to AKF-A.

· Clean and analyze the data collected for the base-line study.

· Provide regular updates and feedbacks on the data collection.

· Drat the base-line evaluation report.

· Incorporate the comments into the base-line report.

· Provide the final base-line report.

· Produce a final report brief for management and donor use.

· Develop PowerPoint presentation reflecting the study findings and or other related information.

· Present the study findings in a meeting to the AKF education management team.**

6. Methodology

The selected consultant/s will be required to propose a detailed baseline methodology in coordination with the AKF Afghanistan and Geneva education team. The baseline study should adopt a mixed methods approach, integrating quantitative and qualitative methods to achieve the baseline objectives.

The study will use different methods such as desk review, observation, survey(s), KIIs, FGDs to collect data from beneficiary groups e.g., students, parents, and communities, to add a diverse perspective to the baseline, triangulate results, and to encourage participation of different groups of stakeholders. While developing the methodology, the consultant will consider age, gender, and include gender analysis. It is expected that the survey will be conducted by taking into consideration ethical standards as per the AKF Safeguarding Guideline for Researchers and Data Collectors and Safeguarding Policy regarding the gathering of data from girls, boys, men, and women.

7. Deliverables

· Consultancy Workplan that includes the timeline of key interventions that consultant(s) will undertake to complete the assignment.

· Inception Report for the Base-line Evaluation that includes the field workplan, research methodology, quantitative and qualitative data collection tools, list of beneficiaries to be interviewed.

· Develop Base-line Tools and Evaluation Matrix: The consultant will develop the base-line study tools to capture data on the project indicators, along with an evaluation matrix containing relevant research / evaluation questions and methodologies to establish a base-line status for the project indicators. The study shall use electronic / tablet-based data collection tools.

· Data Collection and Training: The consultant will train AKF field staff on tools and data collection strategies. AKF field staff will collect the data using the tools developed by the researcher and submit the data to the researcher for analysis.

· Data Analysis: The consultant will develop data outputs and conduct data analysis based on the data received from AKF.

· First Draft of the Base-line Evaluation Report that includes executive summary, a narrative of how the study was conducted, findings, recommendations, beneficiary testimonials and photos (must be accompanied with signed consent forms), lessons learned, and evaluation appendices such as quantitative databases and a matrix with evaluation notes (clean version).

· Final Endline Report: The consultant will review and incorporate comments from AKF Afghanistan and Geneva technical teams and submit a final report.

· Final Report Brief: A 2-page brief summarizing the baseline findings, recommendations, and other key information from the report.

· PowerPoint Presentation of key findings, recommendations and lessons learnt tailored to external education stakeholders (e.g., government and education partners); and should be presented in a session to AKF education team.

8. Qualifications Required

This assignment is open for individuals/organizations who have the below mentioned competencies with a strong record in conducting evaluations with excellent knowledge of evaluation research and a good understanding of education sector programs, particularly in the context of Afghanistan. The consultant should have the following skills and competencies:

· Minimum of master’s degree in Education, Development Studies, Research / Evaluation, or any other related fields.

· At least 5 years professional experience in conducting research / evaluating education projects.

· Demonstrable experience with an array of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including in the systematic verification and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data.

· Ability to write concise and analytical reports and a thorough understanding of how to tailor written content to fit different audiences.

· Demonstrable experience of producing high-quality, credible evaluation research (examples of past reports is required).

· Excellent writing and verbal communication skills in English; knowledge of local languages will be an asset but not required.

· Experience working in conflict contexts, like Afghanistan; and

· Ability to travel (minimum of one visit to Kabul) to Afghanistan; ability to travel to project sites in Baghlan province will be an asset but not required.

9. Timeline / Work plan

The baseline study is expected to commence by mid-April 2022 (tentatively) with final deliverables by 30th April 2022. The total number of days for the consultancy shall not exceed 15 working days.

10. Terms of Payment

The payment will be processed as following:

• 30% after deliverable #3 finalized.**

• 30% after deliverable #6 finalized; and **

• 40% after all assignment finished and approved by the AKF team.**

11. Ethical protocols and documents required (if applicable)

The assessment approach must consider the safety of participants, especially children at all stages of the consultancy. The consultant will need to demonstrate how they have considered the protection of children through the different stages, including training of enumerators, data collection, data analysis, and report writing.

The consultant is required to set out their approach to ensuring complete compliance with international good practices with regards to research ethics and protocols particularly with regards to safeguarding children, vulnerable groups (including people with disabilities) and those in fragile and conflict-affected areas. Consideration should be given to the items listed below. Note that this is not an exhaustive list and therefore, potential contractors should consider additional aspects of ethics. The consultant is also required to include a copy of their ethics policy as part of the package of supporting documents:

• Administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect the confidentiality of those participating in research.
• Data protection and secure maintenance procedures for personal information.
• Parental consent concerning data collection from minors (participants under 18) or collation of data about minors.
• Age-and ability-appropriate assent processes based on reasonable assumptions about comprehension for the ages of minors and minors with disabilities they intend to involve in the research; and
• Age-appropriate participation of minors, including in the development of data collection tools.

12. Additional Significant Information to know

All expenses and equipment required for research (laptop, health insurance, communication, etc.) will be borne by the consultant and AKF (Afg) will not pay any additional charges made for this assignment.