Afghanistan: Short Term Assignment to conduct research on the Impact of Effective School Management Councils
The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is a private international, nonprofit, and non-denominational development agency. It seeks sustainable solutions to long-term problems of poverty, with special emphasis on the needs of rural communities in mountainous, coastal and other resource poor areas across the world. Concentrating its efforts in health, education, rural development and strengthening civil society sectors, AKF’s approach is based on a long-term commitment that is maintained despite political and social uncertainty.
The Aga Khan Foundation, Afghanistan (AKF (Afg)) is a member agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), a dynamic network of development agencies currently operating in over 30 countries across Central and South Asia and East and West Africa. AKF (Afg) currently manages and implements the largest multi-sectors development programme within the network and has built a strong reputation with the Government of Afghanistan, donors and local partners in a number of technical fields.
The AKDN is a group of international, private, non-denominational development agencies and institutions that seek to empower communities and individuals, usually in disadvantaged circumstances, to improve living conditions and opportunities. AKF (Afg) is part of AKDN and has been working in Afghanistan since 2002, with programs focused on Rural Development, Education and Health.
AKF Afghanistan through its STAGES Project is inviting qualified bidders (consultancy companies) to submit their application for “Short Term Assignment to conduct research on the impact of Effective School Management Councils”.
STAGES Project Background
The Steps Towards Afghan Girls’ Educational Success (STAGES) project is a consortium implementing an education project funded by UK Aid’s Girls Education Challenge. The project is implemented by five education and two communications partners: AKES, AKF, CARE, CRS and Save the Children, AEPO and Roshan Telecom, and managed by a Project Management Unit (PMU) based in Kabul. The project works in fifteen provinces of Afghanistan to establish and support community-based primary, lower secondary, accelerated learning program and literacy classes which make education accessible for children, especially girls, in communities where there are no government schools.
Objective of the Project
A key project component is the establishment of school management councils to monitor and manage classes, mobilize community resources and advocate for education both in communities and with government. It is important for project partners to have a clear understanding of the characteristics of effective school management councils, appropriate training and support mechanisms and how these factors may be adapted in different regions. A particular concern is the role of women on school management councils and identification of effective strategies to ensure that women are equitably and represented. This includes ensuring that their participation is meaningful and contributes to increasing opportunities for girls to participate in education and for women to be represented in community discussions.
Key questions include:
What are the characteristics of effective school management councils? To what extent can these characteristics be built through training and mentoring?
How effective are current school management council training packages and mentoring mechanisms?
What challenges do school management councils face? What strategies have they developed to respond to challenges?
Are there regional variations in how school management councils function and respond to challenges?
To what extent have school management councils been able to influence community attitudes about education, especially education for girls?
To what extent have effective school management councils increased enrollment, attendance, retention and performance?
What is the quality of women’s participation in school management councils?
Has the effective participation of female management council members impacted the experience of girls in the classroom?
What mechanisms or adaptations have been effective in increasing the participation of women in school management communities?
How do community members and government representatives perceive school management councils? In particular, how do communities perceive women’s participation on school management councils?
Research Overview
Research findings will inform the way that STAGES project partners train and mentor school management councils in this and future projects for both community-based classes and government schools. It will also be used as evidence to feed into current discussions and advocacy about the role of school management councils among education stakeholders in Afghanistan. The audience for research findings includes STAGES project partners, other NGOs implementing education projects, donor agencies and the Ministry of Education.
Research will take place in 60 communities where the project is working with government schools or community-based classes in project focus areas in Badakhshan, Baghlan, Bamyan, Kabul, Kandahar, Faryab, Kunduz, Paktiya, Parwan, Herat, Ghor, Kapisa, Khost and Ghazni provinces.
The research will include individual or focus group interviews with:
· School management council members, with males and females to be interviewed separately (focus group interviews).
· Parents of in and out of school children and community members, with males and females to be interviewed separately (focus group interviews).
· Community-based class teachers (individual interviews).
· District education staff in districts selected for research (individual interviews).
· STAGES project staff in the provinces list above ((individual interviews).
Please note that female participants must be interviewed by female enumerators. Research activities will begin in February 2014 and a draft research report must be submitted to the PMU by 30 June, 2016.
Research Objective
- Develop a sampling strategy and framework in conjunction with the STAGES PMU.
Sampling will include both communities selected purposively, to identify effective and less effective councils, as well as randomly to ensure that findings are generally representative.
Review and summarize existing research on the role and functioning of school management councils in Afghanistan.
Develop, pilot and finalize research instruments in conjunction with the PMU and project partners.
Prepare a brief (fewer than five pages) inception report describing the processes above.
Collect, input, clean and analyze data.
Prepare and deliver a presentation of research methodology and findings for project partners and PMU. Presentation to other education stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education will be the responsibility of project partners and the PMU.
Submit draft research report and revise based in feedback from the PMU and project partners.
Research Deliverables
The following deliverables will be provided and payment will be linked to satisfactory completion of these deliverables:
A sampling framework and list of communities where research is to be conducted.
A schedule of research to be conducted in communities for each individual partner.
Finalized research instruments in English, Pashtu and Dari.
Inception report describing the processes above.
A presentation to partners, with soft copies of the presentation to be submitted to the PMU.
Finalized research report in soft copy. This will include at least the following sections: an executive summary, a review of existing research on school management councils, a description of research methodology, results and conclusions and recommendations.
All data in electronic format in Excel and SPSS, Stata or other software package as agreed with the STAGES PMU.
Additional Significant Information
When reviewing the proposals, the following aspects will be taken into account:
- Risk management plan
It is important that the successful bidder has taken all reasonable measures to mitigate any potential risk to the delivery of the required outputs for this evaluation. Therefore, bidders should submit a comprehensive risk management plan covering:
· the assumptions underpinning the successful completion of the proposals submitted and the anticipated challenges that might be faced;
· estimates of the level of risk for each risk identified;
· proposed contingency plans that the bidder will put in place to mitigate against any occurrence of each of the identified risk;
· Health and safety issues that may require significant duty of care precautions.
- Quality assurance plan:
· Bidders are required to submit a quality assurance plan that sets out the systems and processes for quality assuring the evaluation and research process and deliverables from start to finish of the baseline report. This plan should include the proposed approaches to:
· Piloting of all research activities;
· Training of enumerators and researchers conducting the primary research;
· Logistical and management planning;
· Field work protocols and data verification including back-checking and quality control by supervisors; and
· Data cleaning and editing before any analysis.
- Research ethics plan:
Bidders are required to set out their approach to ensuring complete compliance with international good practice with regards to research ethics and protocols particularly with regards to safeguarding children, vulnerable groups and those in fragile and conflict affected states. Consideration should be given to:
· administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect the confidentiality of those participating in research;
· physical safeguards for those conducting research;
· data protection and secure maintenance procedures for personal information;
· parental consent concerning data collection from children or collation of data about children; and
· Age-appropriate assent processes based on reasonable assumptions about comprehension for the ages of children they intend to involve in the research.
Required Qualifications
Required qualifications for this research project include the following:
· Demonstrated experience planning and implementing large scale educational research in Afghanistan including qualitative data collection, input, analysis and reporting.
· Experience with qualitative research methodologies including individual and focus group interviews.
· Male and female enumerators who are available to work in the provinces listed above and who can speak the local language.
· Ability to apply international best practices to ensure data quality and manage risk.
Bidders will provide CVs for all those proposed in the Research Team, clearly stating their roles and responsibilities for this evaluation. The proposed evaluation person/team should include the technical expertise and practical experience required to deliver the scope of work, in particular:
· Evaluation design: design and plan the research approaches as well as appropriate tools
· Relevant subject matter knowledge and experience: knowledge and experience required (e.g. education sector, gender, non-state actors) to ensure that the evaluation design and research methods are as relevant and meaningful as possible given the aims and objectives of the project and the context in which it is being delivered;
· Country experience: it is particularly important that the team has the appropriate country knowledge /experience and language proficiency required to conduct the research required; Surveyors should come from the provinces and districts sampled for the research.
· Information management: design and manage data and information systems
Bidders should provide evidence of previous project experience for the provision of similar evaluation services and the design and implementation of similar evaluation activities required by this ToR.
How to apply:
Interested bidders/companies should submit the following information to jobs.afghanistan@akdn.org,
A description of organization capacity, including evidence of previous project experience for the provision of similar evaluation services and the design and implementation of similar evaluation activities required by this ToR, covering:
· CVs of the evaluation team members and statements of availability.
· Three references for similar work;
· Two page summary outlining the approach to be followed in designing and conducting the research;
· Risk management, quality assurance and research ethics plans (not more than a total of five pages for all sections);
· Budget which includes all costs, including daily rates and number of days of team members, research and materials costs, travel and accommodation costs and any other costs associated with provision of the services described in this terms of reference
· All bids should apply the following formatting:
1) For files submitted electronically, the company name and type of document should be clearly described on the filename (for example, CompanyZ_Budget).
2) All files should have a header or footer which includes page numbers, organization name and document name.
Only short listed candidates will be contacted for further assessment. (consider revision, to “shortlisted bidders/suppliers/companies”)
Aga Khan Foundation – Afghanistan is an equal opportunities employer. Women are encouraged to apply (I think we can leave this part for now since we are inviting companies, besides in the part of main duties and responsibilities, we have mentioned the involvement of female enumerator).
Aga Khan Foundation – Afghanistan recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to the safeguarding of children from abuse.
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