Consultancy to conduct baseline data collection for a Life Skills and Financial Education Program in Maharashtra, India At Aflatoun

Organization: Aflatoun

Location: Maharashtra, India (data collection location)

Job type: Consultancy

Period: June – September 2023

Deadline: 21/05/2023

The Organization

Aflatoun International is a non-profit organization, which offers social, financial & entrepreneurship education to children and young people worldwide, empowering them to make a positive change for a more equitable world. Aflatoun creates high-quality curricula for different age groups, which are contextualized to local needs and circumstances, and are implemented by over 300 partner organizations in 102 countries. Aflatoun programmes inspire children to discover their talents and put them to use, to stand up for their rights and those of their communities through active learning and problem solving. They learn how to save, how to budget, and how to set up social and financial enterprises that benefit themselves, their families and their communities. Aflatoun has been recognized globally (Brookings, Harvard, Hundred, Million Lives Club) for its high-impact, low-cost model, which has shown to be effective in changing behaviors of participants across the globe.

By using a social franchise model, Aflatoun transfers curricular content, monitoring and evaluation tools, and training capacity to partner organisations, helping them enhance their existing expertise and create an efficient learning ecosystem. Aflatoun’s programmes follow an active-learning, participant- centered methodology, which combines social and financial education (SFE) through engaging participants, educators, government institutions and civil society organisations.

We are currently looking for dedicated and enthusiastic research institute/data collection experts to join us in our mission.

Purpose of the consultancy

There is an increasing focus on developing life skills and whole-child development1 in the context of India. At the national policy level as well, National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emphasizes the importance of moving away from traditional rote learning methods and enabling young learners to develop life skills 2. However, children’s socio-economic background still plays a major role in determining their non-cognitive skills and inhibiting their confidence and aspirations. Although research shows life skills training can help disadvantaged people overcome their constraints by enhancing their confidence and aspirations3, little is yet known about the practices and policies of effective life skills education within the various constraints of educational settings and community ecosystems.

School-based life skills programming is often recommended in that it can target many and wide ranges of children using existing infrastructure. However, due to other priorities and time constraints for schools and teachers, many NGO-led programs are required to be effective with limited in-school engagements. Therefore, an effective combination of school-based programs and community intervention might be an approach to enhance the program’s efficacy.

Overview of the project

Aflatoun has been promoting social and financial education in India with partner organizations. To assess the impact of the program on primary school students, Aflatoun and the Centre for Global Challenges of Utrecht University, The Netherlands, will conduct a randomized evaluation of a school-based Life Skills and Financial education program for 6th-grade students in Maharashtra, India. The study will involve 2,700 students (girls and boys) from 90 schools in total, as well as their parents/caregivers. The program aims to empower students by enhancing students’ confidence, aspirations, and other life skills, as well as developing financial competencies.

The research is a cluster randomized control trial with 2 treatment arms. The 2 intervention arms differ by engagement of adult participants from the community. The intervention will be randomly assigned to school after the baseline data collection.

• Location: Palghar district, Maharashtra, India
• Intervention: School-based Life Skills and Financial Education, facilitator-led community engagement
• Sampling:
  • 2,700 students from 90 schools will be surveyed at baseline.
  • 90 schools will be identified by the implementing organization and the research team from 3 blocks within Palghar district.
• Survey:
  • Questionnaire survey: The baseline survey questionnaire is self-reported and includes basic demographic information and some measures of life skills and financial competencies. The question items are mostly close-ended/quantitative and open-ended answers will be coded. One survey should take approximately 30 minutes. Lab-in-the-field experiment After the questionnaire survey, the students will be divided into several groups and continue the experimental survey. This survey should take an additional 15 minutes.
• Timeline:
  • July 2023 : Baseline survey
  • August 2023 – February 2024 : Program implementation
  • March 2024 : Endline data collection

To successfully complete baseline data collection, we are looking for a research institute/data collection experts. Aflatoun intends to contract the selected consultant for the end-line data collection as well, subject to the successful and satisfactory delivery of results in baseline data collection.

Deliverables/Scope of Work

1. Obtain necessary permits or clearance for the survey

• The consultant will check and obtain the necessary permission and insurance to conduct data collection activities following the local regulations and research ethics.
• The consultant will support Aflatoun and the research team to apply for and obtain ethical clearance from the institutional review board of India.

2. Provide recommendations for logistical and methodological aspects of the survey

• The consultant will discuss the research protocol with the research team in detail and provide advice on logistics and methodology of the data collection regarding locations, format, measures to avoid attritions, transportation etc.

3. Translate and support field-test of data collection tools

• The consultant will translate the questionnaire into Marathi language and translate it back to English whilst ensuring quality.
• The consultant will support the research team in conducting a small-scale field test of the questionnaire and finalizing the questions. After the field test, the questionnaire will be revised based on errors detected and once again translated.

4. Create a detailed field procedure plan

• Based on the sampling and research protocol, the consultancy will create plans for data collection from the school about the students. The plan should include protocols on how to obtain the necessary consent from the school and/or the parents, how to identify sampled students, and how to compensate for their absence.

5. Recruit, train, and contract appropriate field staff/enumerators

• The consultant will identify and train a sufficient number of field enumerators to ensure that the survey is completed on schedule. The consultant will also recruit, train, deploy, equip, supervise, and compensate all surveyors necessary to conduct the survey. Training will be attended and partly provided by Aflatoun and the survey team as well.

6. Manage and oversee data collection at schools

• The consultant will be primarily responsible for conducting the survey and collecting baseline data from students at schools, based on the research protocol and the data collection plan.
• The consultant will monitor data quality and share the progress with the research team regularly.

7. Data entry and cleaning

• The consultant will create a data entry protocol using software that can detect data inconsistencies and ranges, as well as highlight missing information, information outside of permitted limits, inconsistent responses, and the response rate.
• The consultant will manage entering all survey information simultaneously with data collection, coding open-ended questions, and data cleaning and verification.
• The consultant will provide electronic datasets in both Stata (.dta) and MS Excel format. Datasets need to be complete and labelled with both variable names and value labels.

Delivery dates (Deliverable, Output/Means of validation, Deadline)

1. Obtain necessary permits or clearance for the survey, Evidence of clearance, insurance, and permits for implementing data collection activities including approval letter from IRB, July 5th, 2023
2. Provide recommendations for logistical and methodological aspects of the survey, 1) Participation in meetings with the research team 2) Detailed field procedure plan developed, June 21st, 2023
3. Translate and support field-test of data collection tools, Finalized survey questionnaires in Marathi and English, June 21st, 2023
4. Create detailed field procedure plan, Field procedure plan in written format, June 21st, 2023
5. Recruit, train, and contract appropriate field staff/enumerators, 1) Roster of recruited field staff and their corresponding qualifications 2) Training agenda, July 5th, 2023
6. Manage and oversee data collection at schools, 1) Regular update on progress of the data collection with research team 2) Partial raw dataset shared during the data collection, July 5th -21st, 2023
7. Data entry and cleaning, 1) Cleaned and coded final dataset in Stata and MS Excel format, August 21st, 2023

*Please note the dates above are for indicative purposes only and the final delivery deadlines will be set upon agreement with the contracted consultancy.

Required Skills & Qualifications

· Advanced university degree (employees of consultancy) in social science streams (Education/Public Policy, Economics, and others)

· Demonstrated experience in conducting data collection with students for experimental or quasi-experimental research projects. Experience in high-level data cleaning, data entry, and data analysis.

· Sound understanding and experience of randomized experiments and econometric analysis.

· Knowledge of the education sector in the country

· The consultancy must be able to recruit and organize a team of field staff and operate the data collection in Palghar, Maharashtra. Familiarity with the local context is preferred.

· Have members who are fluent in English and Marathi.

Safely and child protection measures

Due to the nature of Aflatoun’s work with children around the world, specific attention is drawn to Aflatoun’s Child Protection Policy and its Policy on the Protection of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA). These two policies are required to be signed by consultants and forms part of the consultancy contract. The applicant commits to zero tolerance toward sexual exploitation and abuse. An additional written test may be required. The project members of the consultancy as well as the hired field staff must complete designated training on child protection and sexual exploitation and abuse.

Payment

The contracted consultant will be paid in installments based on the delivery of agreed outputs in the finalized agreement/contract.