Terms of Reference for Learning Partner – Aga Khan Foundation

Background

The Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), a group of private not-for profit, non-denominational international development agencies, institutions and programmes that work primarily in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia to improve the quality of life of communities in remote and resource poor areas. In East Africa, AKF works with partners to improve the quality of life by promoting and developing innovative solutions to challenges of development in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Reflecting the complex and multi-faceted nature of development, AKF programmes in the region encompasses Education, Health and Nutrition, Early Childhood Development, Agriculture and Food Security, Climate Resilience, Economic Inclusion and Civil Society. AKF is implementing a one-year pilot program and is seeking a qualified consultant(s) to lead evidence-based Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation for the ITH programme activities.

The ITH project.

The In Their Hands (ITH) Uganda is a one-year pilot programme that aims to empower Ugandan adolescent girls to choose when they get pregnant, so that they might reach their full potential. The ITH programme is funded by Children Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and Triggerise. The ITH is an expansion programme and adapted from ITH Kenya, which is centred around a mobile application platform that provides SRH messaging; connects adolescent girls with clinical and pharmacy service providers in their areas; and encourages service uptake through a rewards-based system through which girls gain points (Tiko Miles) that can be exchanged for goods (soap, cream etc.) at participating retailers.

The ITH pilot programme objective is to ensure that 20,000 adolescent girls 15-19 years access SRH services through the ITH platform in Arua (7000) and Kampala (13000) reached between April 2021 & March 2022. This will be achieved through, (1) Improving agency, knowledge, and desire of adolescent girls to use SRH services, (2) Increasing and sustaining access to quality, relevant SRH products and services among adolescent girls and (3) Increasing community and government support of adolescent girls’ SRH uptake.

It is upon this cause that Aga Khan Foundation is seeking services of a learning partner to work alongside the ITH team in the programme implementation.

Scope of services and tasks will include, but may not be limited to the following

The learning partner will be working within the two districts of programme implementation (Kampala and Arua). This will be across three divisions in Kampala (Kawempe, Central and Nakawa division) and Arua city in Arua district.

Duration

This assignment will be conducted between 15^th of September 2021 and 15^th February 2022.

Purpose

The overall objective of this assignment is to oversee the documentation of learning for the ITH Uganda programme, to provide insight about what activities work and how the target beneficiaries are up taking the SRH services.

Objectives of the assignment.

• To strengthen documentation of quality reports from specific ITH programme activities for evidence-based decision making.
• To promote learning and evidence-based decision making through gathered lessons learned and best practices, success stories- and learning fora as well as mentorship and coaching.
• To promote effective program design through documentation of the adolescent mobilisation process, and the documentation of Human Centred Design.

Specific tasks and activities.

• Attend group meetings to explore the group model as a catalyst for positive behaviour in girls and boys and document the most successful demand generation channel.
• Identify self-efficacy activities and their direct co-relation with positive behaviour.
• Find out how to strengthen men and boy’s engagement in SRHR.
• Understand motivation for girls to use the platform and the products they spend their Tiko miles on.
• Document existing barriers towards SRHR uptake for boys and girls and the best practices adopted regarding adolescent engagement.
• Document the Linkages between private and public Health systems.
• Identify how partnerships in the community are best leveraged to increase community acceptance.
• Develop profiles of the girls reached by the project and the different mobilization strategies.
• Collecting and documenting lessons learned to determine proof of concept of the adapted ITH model in Uganda.
• Conduct mentorships and coaching sessions for programme staff on how to use the programme data.

Methodology

The consultant hired will be expected to work closely with AKF Uganda through a collaborative close working arrangement, he/she will be responsible for the coordination of data collection, data management, analysis, and reporting.

Deliverables

• Inception report
• Lesson learnt, case studies and success stories booklet
• Lesson learnt, case studies and success stories videos
• Provide raw data collected and transcribed
• Study report for each of the two the districts.

Skills and competencies

• The consultancy can include different team members. Key competencies of the team include:
• Team lead should possess at least a master’s degree in public health, demography/ population studies, Statistics and with essential training in Monitoring and Evaluation. Any training in public policy is an added advantage.
• The lead should have experience of conducting evaluations for adolescents for at least 8 years. Experience conducting studies done in the COVID-19 environment will be an added advantage.
• Strong experience using participatory data collection approaches including quantitative and qualitative, particularly focusing on adolescent SRH and related thematic areas.
• Experience evaluating adolescent programming initiatives in large-scale projects.
• Ability to facilitate and relate to stakeholders at multiple levels and in diverse contexts.
• Ability to facilitate training workshops on data collection, analysis and report writing and outcome harvesting.
• Country knowledge and experience in conducting research in SRH and related studies in Uganda.