Terms of Reference: Data collection agency or group of consultants for Baseline and Endline Data Collection for Ubongo’s Study to Pilot Child Indicator Measurement in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya

Study background

Kakuma Refugee Camp, established in 1992 in northwestern Kenya, has seen a significant population increase, reaching 782,468 registered refugees and asylum seekers by July 2024. The camp’s education system, comprising 13 pre-schools, 21 primary schools, and five secondary schools, faces major challenges, including overcrowded classrooms with over 200 students, mixed age groups, and limited teaching resources. Despite high primary school enrollment (92%), access to pre-primary (56%) and secondary education (6%) remains low.

In partnership with Porticus and local organizations, Ubongo aims to reach 30,000 children in Kakuma with engaging, culturally relevant educational content between 2025 and 2029.

This will be achieved through:

• Distributing Ubongo content for children and caregivers through free-to-air TV and radios, digital platforms, and last-mile partnerships with local organizations.
• Strengthening engagement with key stakeholders in a child’s environment - including; parents, facilitators, teachers, caregivers, community leaders, and local governments - to ensure that the content we develop continues to be responsive to their needs.
• Hosting workshops, capacity-building opportunities, and roadshows with local partner organisations.

The project aims to achieve the overall goal of: Children and caregivers in Kakuma refugee camp have the social-emotional knowledge and skills needed to support healthy cognitive development, well-being, and success in school and home life. One of the overall outcomes which needs to be tracked throughout the project is “increased social-emotional skills and learning among children in Kakuma Refugee Camp”.

As part of Ubongo’s organisational Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) plan, we are currently designing a standardised approach to measuring shifts in children’s socio-emotional learning (SEL), including confidence and motivation for seeking out learning opportunities, and executive functioning skills (which have been identified as a key factor in leading to improved literacy), as well as other SEL, and learning outcomes. This study will be used to pilot the approach to measuring these indicators to inform the longer term MEL on this project (as well as to be used for other Ubongo work around SEL).

Research objectives and methodology

The primary purpose of this study is to:

• Pilot the measurement for the outcome: Increased social-emotional skills and learning among children in Kakuma Refugee Camp to inform a final MEL approach and tools for this project (and to be used for other Ubongo projects on SEL)

However, the study will also:

• Collect some early evidence of the effectiveness and impact of the different distribution activities under the Porticus grant and identify recommendations for the approach going forward as well as mechanisms for replication in other countries

The study questions that will be answered are:

1. To what extent and in what ways do children’s confidence and motivation toward learning change after exposure to Ubongo content (in a refugee setting)? What are the most appropriate tools and questions for measuring this shift?
2. To what extent and in what ways do executive functioning skills change after exposure to Ubongo content (in a refugee setting)? What are the most appropriate tools and questions for measuring this?
3. To what extent and in what ways do children’s other SEL outcomes improve after exposure to Ubongo content (in a refugee setting)? What are the most appropriate tools and questions for measuring this?
4. To what extent and in what ways do children’s learning outcomes and school readiness improve after exposure to Ubongo’s content (in a refugee setting)? What are the most appropriate tools and questions for measuring this?
5. How effective are the different distribution mechanisms?

The methods used will be mixed, including surveys with 50 children at baseline and endline with a mix of structured and open-ended questions, gathering Most Significant Change (MSC) stories from the same children at endline looking at the impact of the content, and 15 key informant interviews with partner organisation staff/volunteers, teachers and key community members at baseline and endline. Data collection will be conducted in Swahili. Before beginning the baseline fieldwork, 10 pilot surveys will be conducted and final edits made to the tools before beginning the surveys with the 50 children as outlined above.

The 50 children will be selected using a purposive and stratified sampling approach - they will be selected from locations(centres) and schools being targeted for distribution activities and will be equally divided into male and female and include at least 15% representation of children with disabilities.

See Study Design for more details (google drive link).

Tasks and responsibilities

Ubongo will

• Design the study and data collection tools and translate the data collection tools into Swahili
• Identify and recruit the respondents/participants (through a partner organisation in Kakuma)
• Provide an orientation and training to the agency/group of consultants at baseline and endline
• Organise a wrap-up session after the endline
• Analyse the data and write the final report(s)
• Supervise data collection

The data collection agency (you) will

• Organise introductions/permissions with the relevant authorities
• Programme the survey questionnaire into survey software
• Organise and pay for the training/orientation venue and projector hire - 2 days for baseline and 2 days for endline.
• Organise and pay for transport for your team, allowing space for up to 2 Ubongoers in the vehicle when travelling within Kakuma Refugee Camp and surroundings.
• Conduct at least 10 pilot surveys plus an additional 50 surveys with children at baseline, and 50 surveys at endline, and entering the data into survey software
• Conduct 15 key informant interviews at baseline, and 15 key informant interviews at endline and provide audio recordings, filled debrief templates (in English or Swahili) and transcripts (in Swahili) to Ubongo
• Conduct 50 Most Significant Change interviews at endline with the same children who were surveyed (and short follow-up interviews with their parents/caregivers or other family members) and provide audio recordings and narratives (in Swahili and English) to Ubongo
• Attend regular debrief discussions after fieldwork (daily wherever possible)
• Attend final wrap-up session after endline data collection is complete
• Follow relevant ethical, safeguarding, child protection, and data protection policies and processes – you should demonstrate in your proposal how you will adhere to these - and ensure any Research Assistants you work with (if applicable) are following these as well.
• Ensure that the data collection process is inclusive of people with disabilities / considers their needs – you should outline in your proposal how you will go about this.
• Conduct regular check-in meetings with Ubongo to update us on your progress. Note: we will not require an inception report so you need to keep us updated on the planning process through check-in meetings.

Budget and payment

The total budget is $14,990.

Payment will be:

• $4,990 on signing of the contract
• $5,000 after completion of baseline data collection on delivery of:
  • At least 50 fully completed children surveys uploaded into the survey software and dataset provided to Ubongo

Audio recordings, debrief template summaries in English or Swahili, and transcripts in Swahili for at least 15 key informant interviews

• $5,000 after completion of endline data collection on delivery of:
  • At least 50 fully completed children surveys uploaded into the survey software and dataset provided to Ubongo
  • Audio recordings, debrief template summaries in English or Swahili, and transcripts in Swahili for at least 15 key informant interviews
  • Audio recordings and narratives in English and Swahili for 50 caregiver Most Significant Change stories

Requirements for the agency / group of consultants

• Experience conducting quantitative and qualitative data collection including for development and/or education projects
• Team lead must have experience managing teams of data collectors
• Experience conducting data collection with children and refugees
• An understanding of the ethical and safeguarding requirements for data collection
• Adherence to all applicable data protection laws of Kenya
• Relevant qualifications (e.g. degree in social work, social sciences or education, training in research methodology)
• If an agency, they must be registered with all relevant authorities for conducting this work. If a group of consultants, they must have the relevant right to work.
• The team must read, write and speak fluent Swahili
• Previous experience working with Ubongo or similar organisations (edutainment, media for development, behaviour change communication) is desirable
• Presence / base in Kakuma Refugee Camp and all team members have previous experience working there (preference will be given to refugees/refugee-led agencies)

Requirements for your proposal

Please submit a short proposal of maximum ten pages for how you will go about conducting the activities as outlined above.

Your proposal should also include

• A summary of the relevant qualifications and backgrounds of the agency and of all the team members working on this study. The CVs of all team members, including the data collectors, should be included as annexes.
• A work plan
• Your approach to ethics, safeguarding (particularly child protection) and disability inclusion - What ethical guidelines will you follow? How will you ensure the safety and wellbeing of children? How will you ensure that children with disabilities are able to participate fully?

With the proposal, please submit a budget breakdown totalling maximum $14,990 to include:

• Consultant fees / agency fee
• Travel costs (car hire)
• Any other administrative costs
• Transport reimbursements and refreshments for respondents
• Venue hire for the orientation sessions

Timelines

The key dates are outlined below

Date

Task

28th April

Deadline for submission of proposal

28th April - 16th May

Contracting and planning fieldwork

19th - 24th May

Orientation & Baseline data collection

6th June

Deadline for submission of survey dataset, audio recordings, transcripts and filled debrief templates from interviews

4th - 9th August

Endline data collection and wrap-up meeting to discuss learnings and measurement approach

22nd August

Deadline for submission of survey dataset, audio recordings, transcripts, filled debrief templates, and MSC narratives

Proposals and accompanying documents (as outlined above) should be submitted by email to phillip@ubongo.org with the subject heading “Child Measurement Pilot in Kakuma - Proposal” not later than 17.00 EAT on 28th April 2025.

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