CRS invites you to submit a bid to lead implementation on the Household Survey in Moldova on the outcomes of reintegration and transition to family based alternative care. The final winner will be confirmed after bids will be received and evaluated. CRS does not commit to any purchase prior to a written purchase order from CRS.
Please find the requests and instructions that will allow you to submit your offers correctly.
The offer needs to be submitted to the secured e-mail address:
procurementMD@crs.org
The offer needs to be submitted by email before the deadline: April 3, 2023. The offer needs to have the subject: “CTWWC Household Survey in Moldova”
Contact person:
Cristina Cocieru. Cristina.cocieru@crs.org +373 069991018
I. SCOPE OF WORK
Background:
Changing The Way We Care (CTWWC) is an initiative designed to promote safe, nurturing family care for institutionalized children or children at risk of child-family separation. This includes strengthening families and reforming national systems of care for children, including family reunification and reintegration, development of alternative family-based care (in keeping with the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children). CTWWC is implemented by Catholic Relief Services and Maestral International, along with other global, national and local partners working together to change the way we care for children around the world. Our principal global partners are the Better Care Network and Faith to Action. CTWWC is funded in part by a Global Development Alliance of USAID, the MacArthur Foundation and the GHR Foundation.
CTWWC operates in a context of growing interest in care reform, and as a result of a growing global understanding that institutional care of children is a significant problem that will be best addressed through collaboration between national, regional and global stakeholders to develop alternative care systems supportive of family care. Grounded in the work of demonstration countries (currently Guatemala, Kenya and Moldova), as well as regional and global influence and engagement, CTWWC intends to help advance government and non-government care systems, civil society initiatives, and public attitudes and behaviors focus on keeping children in safe and nurturing families.
A key part of the CTWWC theory of change is the flow of learning from the demonstration work out to the wider country, region and internationally. CTWWC is committed to building evidence in key areas related to care reform, including around outcomes for children and families, which is currently lacking in relation to reintegration, transitions to alternative family-based care and prevention of separation, especially in low resource settings. In the design of CTWWC’s MEAL plan, a focus was placed on tracking outcomes at the child and family level through routine monitoring and periodic evaluation. During CTWWC’s third year of operations (FY21) a household survey was designed with input from children and young people and utilized to gather data on reintegrating and at-risk children and caregiver’s parenting practice, economic status, access to services and well-being in Guatemala and Kenya. The results from this survey were used to help CTWWC understand the impact of their demonstration work and to further service delivery.[1] The survey was designed to be repeated in order to track changes in the situation of households over time.
Purpose:
CRS seeks an organization/company to lead the implementation of the Household Survey in Moldova. A total of approximately 80 households from 30 raions are expected to participate in the survey. The full activity summary is described in the Scope of Work.
Research questions:
The aim of the household survey will be to answer the following research questions:
- What aspects of family strengthening support do caregivers think have affected (negatively and positively) their ability to care and provide for their children? How has this changed over time?
- What proportion of children and caregivers report selected protective factors in their life?
- What proportion of children at risk of separation from their families and children and young people who have been reunified or placed in family-based care or in independent living are experiencing positive well-being?
- How might caregiver protective factors correlate with child well-being?
- How has the perceived well-being of children changed after their engagement with CTWWC?
In addition, the survey will generate results for CTWWC outcome indicators:
- What proportion of at-risk children in vulnerable families and children and young people who have been reunified or placed in family-based care or in independent living feel safe and nurtured in the family?
- What proportion of caregivers who received economic support have subsequently been assessed as being in an economically stable household?
Major activities:
Selected organization/company will conduct a literature review, manage the data collection of the survey in Moldova and will support the analysis and meaning-making of the findings. The following activities will be implemented as part of this assignment:
1. Undertake a literature review.- Undertake a thorough literature search to identify any relevant studies conducted in Moldova on the issues relevant to the CTWWC household survey, especially measuring outcomes for children and families who have experience of residential care and write an overview to highlight strengths and gaps in current evidence base and methodologies.
- Present the findings of the literature review at a participatory workshop to discuss possible adjustments or additions to the CTWWC survey tools based on their relevance to the Moldovan context and previous research, keeping in mind the overall research questions to be answered through the survey and the desire for a high level of consistency between CTWWC countries.
- Work with the CTWWC team to adjust the data collection tools.
- Participate in regular calls and meetings with CTWWC to plan for and report on data collection and training activities.
- Undertake CITI or equivalent research ethics training (if not currently held).
- Lead in-country ethical checks/IRB approvals as necessary.
- Undertake field testing of tools with a small sample of households and propose any further refinement needed.
- Recruit, hire and manage local enumerators for survey implementation.
- Coordinate with CTWWC on setting up software for data collection.
- Arrange and facilitate training of enumerators, with support from CTWWC.
- Coordinate closely with CTWWC on the development and implementation of the logistics management plan:
- determine the team structure for each survey team, determine site assignments for each survey team.
- complete administrative and logistical preparations necessary to begin the conduct of the survey including training and data collection activities.
- duplicate sufficient printed copies of the survey tools.
- distribute all supplies and materials needed to interviewers and supervisors.
- participate in regular coordination and planning calls prior to and during data collection.
- troubleshoot any issues with data collection and maintain a log of issues in the field that is discussed with CTWWC as needed.
- Provide transportation to the field teams for all data collection activities.
- Oversee data collection, ensuring timely collection of high-quality data is inputted and managed ethically and on time through in-the-field supervision and coordination with CTWWC.
- Consolidate and quality check survey data.
- Undertake any necessary translation of data.
- Share complete datasets with CTWWC in-country and provide de-identified data to CTWWC global and provide any feedback or clarifications as necessary.
- Share field notes on implementation of data collection.
- Coordinate with CTWWC on core data analysis (CTWWC will undertake core analysis that is common across all three countries).
- Review initial core findings generated by CTWWC.
- In collaboration with CTWWC, organize a participatory workshop for validation of preliminary results.
- Transcribe, translate and quality check workshop discussions.
- Review draft findings report from CTWWC and provide feedback.
- Collaborate with CTWWC on finalizing research report(s).
- Literature review
- Field work plan, including adjusted tool
- IRB approval or equivalent
- Informed consent forms for all participations
- Full survey de-identified dataset in English
- Field notes
- Validation workshop notes
- Feedback on draft findings
- Input to final report(s)
|
Activity |
Deliverables |
Level of effort |
Timeline |
|
Orientation to CTWWC and household survey methodology Literature review Workshop on research questions and tool adjustments Planning for field work IRB submissions |
Literature review Field work plan, including adjusted tool IRB approvals |
10 days |
April – May 2023 |
|
Survey data collection: recruitment of enumerators, training, data collection planning and supervision, including quality checks, translation, cleaning and storage |
Informed consent forms for all participants Full survey data set Field notes |
18 days |
May - June 2023 |
|
Validation workshop and feedback on report |
Notes on conclusions from validation workshops Feedback on draft findings Input to final report(s) |
6 days |
July-September 2023 |
Total 34 days
II. PREPARATION OF OFFERS
A. Language of the tender: Offers may be submitted in English.
B. Value and price: All prices are to be delivered in Moldovan Lei (MDL).
C. Required skills and experience:
- A master’s-level education in public health, sociology or a related field (Ph.D. preferred).
- A proven record of leading the collection of quantitative and qualitative data through surveys and semi-structured qualitative interviews.
- Extensive experience in training and managing multiple data collection teams and ensuring data quality.
- Experience collecting and managing longitudinal data preferred.
- Experience conducting research with vulnerable populations, including children.
- Experienced in use of ICT4D solutions in data gathering.
- A strong record of following research ethics procedures, including informed consent and maintaining confidentiality.
- Strong English language skills (written and oral).
D. Offers Submission Process
Bidders must submit the following documents:
- Capability statement: How the consultancy team is structured for the assignment, description of previous experience conducting longitudinal studies, mixed methods studies and digital data collection; and description of research team structure, role each staff will play including the CVs of the personnel who will take part in the consultancy.
- Technical Proposal: The consultant’s understanding and interpretation of the Terms of Reference (TOR), description of how deliverables and milestones will be achieved. i.e. a detailed methodology on how data collection will be managed, including transcription (noting that this effort is building on previous CTWWC surveys so there will be minimal design). The technical proposal should not exceed 10 pages.
- Financial proposal: Itemized budget proposal in local currency with a clear breakdown of the consultancy fees and operational costs as per delivery table sections.
- References: Names, addresses, telephone numbers of three organizations that you have conducted similar assignment for within the last three years, that will act as professional referees.
- CITI or equivalent research ethics certification, or a commitment to undertake the training.
- Certificate of clear criminal record (to be submitted in case of successful recruitment).
E. CRS’ Right:
F. Contract award: CRS intends to evaluate offers and award a contract to the organization/company that offers the best value for money / quality:
The bidder’s initial offer should contain the bidder’s best terms from availability, technical and price perspective. However, CRS reserves the right to conduct discussions later if necessary. CRS may reject any or all or accept other than the lowest bid; and waive informalities and minor irregularities in offers received.
G. Period of the tender validity: Offers are presumed to have a validity period of 60 days unless otherwise indicated by the bidder.
I. Code of conduct: The supplier must comply with CRS’ Code of Conduct, attached to this invitation.
III BID OPENING AND EVALUATION
A. Analysis: CRS will evaluate offers according to its internal policies and procedures.
B. Criteria: CRS shall proceed with the evaluation and comparison of offers in the following order:
C. Tender clarification: CRS retains the right to contact bidders for clarification or further information.
D. Mistakes in the calculation of the tender: If there is inconsistency between unit price and final/total price of offered services, unit price will be taken in consideration and correctly multiplied for sake of calculating correct final price. If the tenderer does not accept the correction of the mistake, the entire offer will be regarded as invalid and therefore discarded. If there is inconsistency in the numbers and the description in letters, the price presented in the letters will be regarded as final.
E. Offers that are incomplete or submitted after the deadline may be disqualified.
[1] Reports can be found on Better Care Network website: design of the survey, results of the survey
Invitation to submit offers to conduct a Household Survey in Moldova.
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