Baseline Research Consultant Team

Job Description

TIMOR-LESTE

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Title : Baseline Research Consultant Team

Program : Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW)

Unit : Timor-Leste Office

Reports to : Research and M&E Coordinator

BACKGROUND

The Asia Foundation (the Foundation) is implementing the EVAW Program in Timor-Leste under a Grant Agreement with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The EVAW Program goal is to reduce the proportion of women who have experienced violence, and to improve the well-being of women and children affected by violence. The program aims to improve outcomes for women and children in prevention, support services, and access to justice by improving capacity in key ministries, reducing levels of violence, improving services, and strengthening justice processes. The program will focus on five so-called hub districts that have existing services and facilities. These districts are Dili, Baucau, Bobonaro, Covalima, and Oecusse. The program will also work in non-hub pilot districts, likely to be Viqueque and Manufahi.

The EVAW Program will be informed by research conducted on the underlying causes of VAW and opportunities for EVAW in Timor-Leste relating to the core pillars of prevention, service provision, and access to justice. The EVAW Program aims to develop evidence-based practice across the program and to close the feedback loop between research, activity design, monitoring results and impact, and revising design. The program hopes to identify relevant international experience and link with research both internationally and locally, as well as draw on the Foundation’s wealth of potentially relevant research.

The Foundation will engage a team of consultants to develop and conduct a survey on the prevalence and perpetration of VAW, including attitudes and behaviors, to provide a baseline for the program goal of reducing the proportion of women who have experienced violence in the last 12 months, as well as for the End of Program Outcomes under the Prevention Pillar. The survey data will also be used in other program research activities.

VAW in Timor-Leste

According to the 2009-2010 National Demographic and Health Survey, thirty-eight percent of women surveyed reported experiencing physical violence since age fifteen, with seventy-four percent of these cases involving a current husband or partner. Twenty-nine per cent reported having experienced physical violence often or sometimes in the past twelve months. There is also a history of sexual violence against women during the years of occupation and conflict, and anecdotally there is reported to be a high level of abuse of children, including sexual abuse, particularly of girls. Recent research by Paz y Desarollo on attitudes and behaviors towards domestic violence found that younger, rural, and less-educated men were more likely to be more gender equitable than older, urban, or more-educated men.

The EVAW Program will draw on prior research that has been conducted in Timor-Leste to contextualize program progress. In addition, the program will support independent research to establish a baseline for prevalence and perpetration of VAW, and attitudes and behaviors related to VAW.

Activity

The Foundation will engage a team of consultants to design and implement a survey in selected districts of Timor-Leste (certain program districts as well as controls) in early 2015. The survey should have its foundation in a solid methodology, such as the WHO methodology or the UN Multi-Country Study on Men and Violence study methodology, adapted to the needs of the EVAW Program. The study should also draw on other global best practice related to measuring perpetration and prevalence of VAW and children. The random, stratified household survey will question both women and men (but not from the same household, for ethical reasons). In addition to impact assessment, this survey will provide a statistical basis that will intersect with two other research projects, one on women’s help-seeking pathways and another on motivators for behavior change. In line with this, the survey will also include questions to capture a baseline for attitudes/acceptance towards VAW, reactive or help-seeking behavior as well as perpetration, experiences of violence during childhood, and understanding or awareness of different types and manifestations of violence. While the majority of VAW in Timor-Leste is domestic or intimate partner violence, the survey will not be limited to measuring those types of violence. The survey should also provide context-specific risk and protective factors for violence, which will inform the primary prevention activities of the program. The EVAW Program Logic is attached to this Terms of Reference.

In addition to designing the survey tools and methodology, in line with Foundation experience and international good practice, the consultant team will implement the survey using electronic data collection.[1] All aspects of the survey should be undertaken in accordance with international guidelines on ethical and safety issues linked to the collection of data on VAW. The team will work with the EVAW Program to recruit, select, and train appropriate Timorese locators and enumerators to conduct the data collection.

In addition to the baseline report, the consultants will draw on the survey findings to recommend any additions or amendments to key indicators for tracking program progress against selected outcomes, as well as to develop realistic targets for the program M&E Plan.

• Post-graduate degrees in relevant fields.
• Skilled in quantitative analysis. Familiarity with statistical analysis computer programs such as SPSS or STATA.
• Experience coordinating and overseeing data collection in dispersed locations in developing country and/or post-conflict contexts, training of staff, and in addressing risk and safety concerns related to collecting sensitive information (i.e. WHO ethical and safety standards/recommendations).
• Experience conducting baselines and impact evaluation highly desirable.
• Exceptional verbal, analytical, and written communication skills.

Preferred experience and skills:

• Demonstrated experience and capacity related to EVAW programs, including qualitative analysis and research best practices.
• Experience in use of technology to conduct surveys (i.e. via hand-held devices, data uploading and storage).
• Experience working and conducting research in Timor-Leste.

Specific responsibilities of the consultant:

• Review EVAW program documents and research, and previous research and analysis on prevalence, perpetration, behavior, and attitudes of VAW in Timor-Leste (e.g. research by IRC in Timor-Leste in 2002 and 2003, the 2009-2010 Demographic Health Survey and Secondary Analysis, Paz y Desarollo’s 2013 Baseline Study on attitudes and perceptions of gender and masculinities of youth in Timor-Leste), as well as regionally and globally (e.g. recent WHO and UN Multi-Country Studies on VAW) that may contribute either relevant findings or approaches and methodologies for establishing a baseline for the program’s activities;
• Work with the EVAW Program to develop a more detailed and specific Scope of Work for the implementation of the baseline survey (the expression of interest required for this application should provide a starting point);
• Design survey and methodology to establish a baseline for the EVAW Program goal and selected outcomes, including sampling size/necessary response rate, selection of geographic areas, and data collection tools and protocols, drawing on experience/best practice both in Timor-Leste and globally, and taking into account needs and opportunities for comparability with other relevant surveys across both time and location/country;
• Ensure survey and methodology is in line with appropriate and rigorous safety and ethics protocols (i.e. WHO standards) related to interviewing women who may be at risk of or have experienced violence;
• Consult with a Dili-based reference group of program stakeholders on the survey tools and methodology prior to conducting the survey;
• Work with the EVAW Program to identify and train necessary locators and enumerators who will implement the survey in focus districts, likely using tablet technology and Open Data Kit software, and Form hub or a similar online platform. Work with the EVAW Program staff in the development and translation of survey tools, including survey questions, and training materials;
• Pilot test survey and refine survey tools and methodology as needed;
• Deploy survey and conduct oversight and monitoring, including quality assurance;
• Compile, validate, clean, and analyze collected data. Clearly disaggregate and appropriately weight the responses, taking into account relevant demographics, such as disability, education level, family size, etc. The consultant team will confirm the necessary cross-tabulations with the EVAW Program team;
• Prepare narrative report, and/or other formats to present the survey findings, including outlining methodology used. Report should include recommendations for indicators as well as program targets, and suggestions for integrating survey data with other data and research to inform program baselines (such as secondary analysis of previous Foundation law, justice, and security surveys, and surveys or research conducted by others in Timor-Leste).
• Coordinate with EVAW Program team to facilitate external review, by an academic expert of relevant background, of the draft methodology and findings at key points during the activity to affirm the survey approach and process.

Key outputs:

• Desk review of existing data and analysis on the prevalence and perpetration of VAW, and related attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions in Timor-Leste, to identify existing information of relevance to the survey activity.
• Survey work plan, methodology, and field tested data collection tools.
• Data collectors, trained in collaboration with the EVAW Program.
• Support to data collectors as needed during field work.
• Statistical component of the findings (frequency and cross-tabular analysis) in SPSS/STATA (.sav files) with all questions clearly labeled with weightings included; and in Excel format (.xls files) with all questions clearly labeled, and margins of error included.
• A narrative report of no more than 40 pages, clearly illustrating methodology and findings. Report should also highlight findings of note that may have impact on program logic/theory of change, as well as included suggested indicators and targets for program monitoring and evaluation. Process should be described adequately to ease replication.
• Presentation to the program team and other stakeholders, summarizing and conveying key components of the report.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Interested teams should submit expressions of interest outlining their proposed process, approach, and work plan to accomplish the activity above, including sampling, number of required days, total activity budget, and any relevant assumptions. CVs for proposed personnel should also be enclosed. The activity budget should reflect salaries as well as any anticipated costs for travel within Timor-Leste.

Please submit expressions of interest to Tamara Failor, M&E Specialist, EVAW Program, at Tamara.Failor@asiafoundation.org. Expressions of interest should be received by close of business in Dili, Timor-Leste, on Friday, December 19th, 2014.

[1]The Foundation has experience in successfully conducting surveys in Timor-Leste using hand-held tablets instead of paper-based instruments and has found this promotes efficiency and cost savings by reducing the efforts needed towards data entry, cleaning, and quality assurance. The Foundation owns tablets loaded with Open Data Kit software, which are used periodically for Foundation surveys and will be available for the implementation of the baseline survey.

About the Organization

The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia. Informed by six decades of experience and deep local expertise, our programs address critical issues affecting Asia in the 21st century—governance and law, economic development, women's empowerment, environment, and regional cooperation. In addition, our Books for Asia and professional exchange programs are among the ways we encourage Asia's continued development as a peaceful, just, and thriving region of the world.

Headquartered in San Francisco, The Asia Foundation works through a network of offices in 17 Asian countries and in Washington, DC. Working with public and private partners, the Foundation receives funding from a diverse group of bilateral and multilateral development agencies, foundations, corporations, and individuals. In 2012, we provided nearly $100 million in direct program support and distributed textbooks and other educational materials valued at over $30 million.