ELAS Research & Learning Partner Request for Proposals At BRAC

Overview: BRAC International seeks competitive technical proposals for the ELA in Schools (ELAS) Research & Learning partner opportunity. The partner will oversee endline data collection for an on-going project. Although data collection will likely take place from February through April 2025, the engagement will commence several months prior to ensure proper research permissions are obtained.

Contract Duration: July 2024 to June 2025

Background

BRAC International is a leading international nonprofit with a mission to empower people and communities in situations of poverty, illiteracy, disease, and social injustice. BRAC designs proven, scalable solutions that equip people with the support, skills, and confidence they need to lift themselves out of poverty and achieve their potential. BRAC International’s flagship model for youth empowerment in Africa is Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents (ELA), a program in operation for more than 15 years. ELA has served as a model for many other girls’ and youth empowerment programs due to the large body of evidence on its impact and effectiveness. As with many girls’ safe spaces programs, BRAC International’s ELA clubhouses are community-based and situated in rented and borrowed spaces, ideally within walking distance of participants’ homes. The ELA curriculum contains a holistic mix of social and economic empowerment teachings and activities led by near-peer mentors. These clubs target both in-school and out-of-school girls.

Despite remarkable evidence of success, the ELA model has shown itself to have shortcomings, not the least of which is that it requires a sustained and consistent flow of donor funding. In searching for a more sustainable pathway to scale, BRAC designed a project (called ELA in Schools or ELAS) to adapt the ELA curriculum and delivery model to an after-school club setting, with content delivered on school premises rather than in community-based clubhouses, with teachers instead of near-peers serving as mentors.

Researchers started with formative research to learn how to adapt a community-based program to an afterschool setting. This was followed by a small-scale prototype in eight schools in Uganda’s Mityana and Mubende districts, subbing in teachers for near-pears and schools for community “safe spaces.” The formative research greatly influenced the design of the ELAS prototype and curriculum. Resulting from this, BRAC decided to include adolescent boys and young men (ABYM) in the prototype stage because they learned there is a strong desire amongst parents and students for more content geared towards young men navigating adolescence, especially content related to positive masculinity.

BRAC Uganda is now leading the rollout of the project on a larger scale in an attempt to demonstrate its effectiveness via a randomized controlled trial (RCT). ELAS is being implemented in 100 schools in eastern, western, and central Uganda. BRAC Uganda staff train teacher mentors who create clubs for ABYM and AGYW. Club activities will be on-going throughout 2024.

To evaluate the project, we partnered with external researchers (see team composition section). Baseline data collection was completed between June and December 2023. Due to changes in BRAC International’s organizational structure, we are now seeking a new firm to conduct the endline data collection activity which will involve tracking the original 7,500 students who participated in the baseline data collection activity.

Team composition

The research partner will report to BRAC International but will collaborate with the principal investigators leading the study:

• Manisha Shah, PhD, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley
• Jennifer Seager, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Global Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University
• Esau Tugume, Research Associate, BRAC Uganda

In addition to the team outlined above, there is also support in the form of an RA based at the PI’s university as well as a second RA based in Uganda. The research team also receives coordination support from BRAC International’s Learning & Effectiveness team.

Core responsibilities

• Apply for an Institutional Review Board (IRB) amendment and Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) amendment for the ongoing study.
• Actively communicate and coordinate with the lead researchers, BRAC International, and the BRAC Uganda implementation team.
• Program and test survey tools into SurveyCTO for administration in the field via tablet
• Training enumerators to conduct high quality data collection
• Pilot survey tools in the field prior to the start of data collection
• Oversee data collection staff to ensure research is conducted to the highest rigor and safeguarding standards,
• Conduct high frequency checks of the data to confirm consistency and accuracy of the data, and overseeing callbacks and revisits to correct errors as needed
• Tracking baseline survey respondents for interviews who may have left school or moved from their previous location.

Eligibility

The research and learning partner must have a permanent, physical presence in Uganda, the capacity to conduct data collection throughout 23 districts in Uganda, and experience collaborating with academic researchers. In addition, candidates must be available for virtual interviews in April and May 2024 and must have existing capacity to meet the deadlines specified above. Institutions that cannot meet these eligibility requirements are discouraged from submitting an application.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a14-fLJITzBOiU9BA2og8QDxtUXrJazFwZtQN9MFSa8/edit

How to apply

Application instructions

Applications must be submitted as a single PDF accompanied by an Excel budget proposal to Bi.procurements@brac.net by April 24, 2024, 11:59 PM East Africa Time (EAT).

For questions, please contact Jenna Grzeslo (Head, Research & Learning, BRAC International): jenna.grzeslo@brac.net.

The .pdf must contain:

1. Your technical proposal – please address the following topics (no more than 5 pages)
   1. Project management
      1. Name and brief description of the organization that will manage the contract
      2. Key team members (name, designation)
   2. Evidence of effectiveness
      1. Please articulate why you are the appropriate research and learning partner for this evaluation. In doing so, you may discuss: The expertise and value-add of the research team, including similar engagements that you have completed. Your experience conducting research in the regions where the implementation is taking place.
   3. Mitigating risks
      1. Are you fully available to complete the project according to the proposed timeline? What challenges, if any, do you anticipate affecting the project timeline and deliverables? What other risks, if any, are anticipated during the course of the research, and what steps will be taken to mitigate them?
   4. Budget narrative
      1. Total budget requested
      2. Please include a description justifying the major cost drivers of the evaluation. Details clearly laid out in the budget template do not need to be restated here, but you may use this space to elaborate on any expenses that are unclear in the template. Competitive bids will demonstrate high value for money.
2. CVs of key team members
3. Supporting documents for due diligence:
   1. A cover letter illustrating the supporting documents you are submitting. In the letter, please include:
      1. A declaration that your organization agrees to BRAC International’s vetting and due diligence procedures.
      2. A declaration that your organization (including its agents, employees, sub-contractors, sub-consultants and suppliers) does not contravene with all applicable AML/CFT laws and does not engage in or conspire to engage in any transaction that evades or avoids, or has the purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts to violate, any of the prohibitions set forth in any AML/CFT laws.
      3. Please include contact information for at least three references that you can speak to your ability to carry out similar scopes of work. If you plan to outsource any major component of the project (e.g., data collection, analysis, etc.) to another firm, please also provide at least three professional references for each partner. You may also include letters of reference, but these references should be able to be reached by phone or email.
   2. Demonstration of financial capacity:
      1. Please provide appropriate statements from bankers of the firm’s financial resources.
      2. Please provide firm’s balance sheets or extracts from them, where publication of a balance sheet is required under company law in the country in which the supplier is established, where applicable.
   3. Demonstration of legal capacity:
      1. Legal capacity shall be confirmed by a power of attorney. This document shall also state that there is no judicial prohibition in place preventing the person, firm or employees from signing a contract with any potential customer or client.
   4. Demonstration of taxation obligations:
      1. Copy of trade license or equivalent
      2. Copy of VAT Registration certificate or equivalent
      3. Up-to-date copy of tax payment receipt or equivalent
   5. A copy of your organization’s safeguarding policy. If no such policy exists, please include a description of the actions you take to ensure safeguarding.