Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) Study on Early Childhood Development and responsible parenting

This study is aimed at understanding the knowledge, attitudes and practices of groups of parents/ caregivers /specialists towards development of children from 0 to 6, including children from vulnerable groups, and developing solid arguments for development of a National ECD strategy.

1. Type of contracts:       (1) National institutional consultancy / (2) Individual International or Individual National consultancy

2. Background and Justification:

   In the last ten years, many of UNICEF’s joint interventions with counterparts focused on capacity building of professionals providing services to young children and young people. A key priority in UNICEF Belarus’s 2016-2020 country programme is the promotion of an integrated approach to early childhood development, strengthening comprehensive approaches to maximize children’s cognitive, physical and psychological development. Specifically, UNICEF will be working with the government on enhancing normative frameworks, promoting interagency collaboration in the area of ECD, improving access to quality of provided services, and developing new cost-effective ECD models. One of the main goals of the ECD programme is to strengthen national institutional capacities and resources in ECD through promoting and enhancing coordination of main stakeholders by developing an ECD national strategy.

   The evidence that will be generated in the KAP will be:

   Identify generalizable trends, results and groups differences related to parental and specialists behaviors that support ECD in Belarus, which in turn makes it possible to tailor future ECD program to meet the needs of parents group.

   Serving as an educational and awareness raising diagnosis of a group of parents upbringing children 0-6 years old.

   Serving as an educational and awareness raising diagnosis of a group of specialists servicing children 0-6 years old.

   Used to establish a baseline within the CPD 2016-2020

   Used in planning awareness creation, communication and advocacy activities for parents, caregivers and specialists.

   Purpose and Objective:

   This study is aimed at understanding the knowledge, attitudes and practices of groups of parents/ caregivers /specialists towards development of children from 0 to 6, including children from vulnerable groups, and developing solid arguments for development of a National ECD strategy.

   Parents are seen as the main informants on status of service provision quality and existing gaps in sectors of ECI, ECD, preschool, social assistance to CWD and inclusive education. Therefore, bulk of targeted respondents shall include the following categories: parents of children 0-6 years old. A strategy of stratified sampling with the simple random sampling in each groups of targeted population will be used. The main methods of the study will be descriptive analysis of survey data and focus groups.

   Specialists are seen as main providers of information, quality of services to young and preschool children and as a group, which shapes opinion of parents towards ECD. Therefore, bulk of targeted respondents shall include three groups of specialists: pediatricians and nurses, preschool teachers, social workers. The main methods of study will be descriptive analyses of focus groups.

   The main hypothesis may be built based on the following questions, but not limited to:

   What are the mechanisms by which parental and specialist knowledge, practices and attitudes impact on children’s cognitive and physical development?

   Is a change in parental knowledge and practices associated with changes in children’s development or do other factors mediate the effect? Do parents’ and specialists’ attitudes form social norms within ECD area?

   What is the link among parental knowledge, parenting practices, parental attitudes and parenting behavior, and how do these change as a function of intervention?

   What is the link among specialist knowledge, practices, attitudes and behavior, and how do these change as a function of intervention?

   How do parenting interventions affect children’s developmental outcomes? What are the main barriers that prevent parents from playing a key role in the development of their children? What are the main barriers that prevent specialist from playing their role in the development of young and preschool children?

   How can the impact of parenting interventions be strengthened at local, national and family levels?

   How can the role of specialist can be strengthen in improving achievement of young children?

   Key Tasks:

   1. *     The work will be conducted collaboratively by two consultancies:  (1) by an institution that provides sociological expertise, performing the field surveys and data collection; and (2) by an international individual consultancy that provides expert oversight and analytical expertise in the assessment of data and development of recommendations.

      **     In the development of survey protocols and methodology, gender issues ought to be considered to ensure a balanced review. Specific gender nuances in the design and implementation of the surveys were also be critical to uphold.  To the extent possible data will be disaggregated by gender and a special review will also be in considering child and adults participating in the survey process who face high vulnerabilities.

      (1) National Institutional Consultancy:

      3.1.

      Develop the survey protocol and design methodology to study knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices in relation to early childhood development. Key questions to parents/ caregivers/specialists should review at a minimum the following issues (other issues can be proposed by consultancy institution) as stipulated in the Annex 1 of this TOR

      National sociological agency in cooperation with National/International consultant

      (2) International Individual Consultant or National Individual Consultant:

      3.2.	Provide technical oversight to the survey protocol and methodology developed, ensuring quality intervention
      3.3	Conduct comparative analysis of survey of current level of knowledge, attitudes and practices of parents/ caregivers/specialists regarding care and development of young children and comparing findings with the baseline and results of former surveys	National/International consultant
      3.4.	Deliver a comprehensive report on findings and recommendations for the improvement of KAP of parents in ECD, with specific focus on vulnerable groups of children	National/International consultant

       

   2. DELIVERABLES  TIMELINE:

      №	Task	Deliverables (All deliverables should meet minimum standards of quality agreed with UNICEF)	Timeframe for deliverable (deadline)	Consultancy Days
      National sociological agency
      1.	Develop a detailed survey protocol including 1) refinement of research questions and 2) sampling framework	Inception report comprising the survey protocol should be submitted to UNICEF for approval	September 2017	5
      2.	Develop questionnaires and focus groups scenarios	Submit questionnaires to UNICEF for approval and sharing with an appropriate ethics review board. Adapt and finalize all materials based on the observations from the review board	September 2017	15
      3.	Survey pilot test	Report highlighting main changes and corrections based on the results of the pilot test	September – October  2017	10
      4.	Develop a interviews guidelines	The guidelines are submitted to UNICEF for approval	September – October  2017	3
      5.	Field work	Submit data tables and focus groups descriptions	October  - November 2017	30
      6.	Data analyses	Draft report is submitted to UNICEF for approval	November 2017	15
      	TOTAL			78
      International/national consultant
      7.	Collaborate with the national sociological institution on all stages of the study under tasks #1-6	Provide technical expertise on the subject	September – December 2017	15
      8.	Construction of the hypothesis	The formulation of the working definitions of the phenomena under study, as well as the construction of assumptions about the nature of the relationships between them	September 2017	5
      9.	Systematic desk review of ECD in Belarus and of relevant global evidence	Draft report submitted to UNICEF for approval describing of situation and tendencies in the sphere of ECD in Belarus based on meta-analysis on secondary data of available research and statistics.	December 2017	10
      10.	Baseline analysis for UNICEF CPD 2016-2020 indicators	Draft report is submitted to UNICEF for approval	December 2017	5
      11.	Final report on the study including recommendations on the development of sound and evidence-based communication strategies and sector specific interventions for behavior change in parent and set of recommendations on the process of development f National ECD Strategy	Final report paper is submitted to UNICEF for approval (without annexes of max 40 pages)	January 2018	15
      12.	Executive summary providing overall findings, trends, and recommendations	Final executive summary paper is submitted to UNICEF for approval	January 2018	3
      13.	PPP of the key findings and recommendations to a larger group of stakeholders using infographics	PPP	February 2018	5
      	TOTAL			58

      Supervision, Work Relations & Oversight

   3. The UNICEF study team consist from ECD Specialist, M&E Specialist, UNICEF research consultant. ECD Specialist will do the overall supervision and be the direct supervisor.

       All survey materials (i.e. draft questionnaires, protection protocols, sampling plan, etc.) should be shared with an appropriate ethics review board. Based on the observations from the review board, materials will be adapted and finalized and final approval for survey implementation is sought. The ethical review is timed such that final approvals are received from the review board before fieldwork commences.

   4. TRAVEL

      If UNICEF determines that the Contractors need to travel to perform assignments, that travel shall be specified in the contract and the Contractor’s travel costs shall be set out in the contract: In cases where travel costs have not been set out in the individual contract, the consultant and individual contractors are expected to submit, within ten days of completion of a specific travel, a voucher for reimbursement of travel expenses to the Operations section. Reimbursements shall only be processed if travel was duly authorized in the individual contract or by an authorized manager of the contracting section, in writing and prior to the travel. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for assuming costs for obtaining visas and travel insurance.

   5. PAYMENT CONDITIONS: 

      Payment will be made based on submission of invoices with completed deliverables in two installments:

   6. In the midterm of the work fulfillment;

   7. At the end of the work fulfilment.

   8. UNSATISFACTORY PERFORMANCE:

   Payment of fees to the Contractor under this contractor, including each installment or periodic payment (if any), is subject to the Contractor’s full and complete performance of his or her obligations under this contract with regard to such payment to UNICEF’s satisfaction, and UNICEF’s certification to that effect. 

   UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs is incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines.  All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and that UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future. This ToR is an integral part of the contract (SSA) signed with the consultant.

   QUALIFICATIONS OR SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE/ EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

   Required experience of the national sociological survey team:

   A research institution, with a minimum of 7 years of demonstrable experience in quantitative research, data analysis and reporting with a focus on social protection, healthcare, child development or education

   Demonstrable experience in nationwide surveys

   Ability to use key data analysis software e.g. STATA, SPSS, CSPro, SAS, etc.

   Experience of working with UNICEF Belarus is advantage

   Required experience of the international/national consultant:

   Advanced university degree in the social/behavioral sciences (Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Health, and Education)

   A minimum of 8-10 years’ work experience in the areas of communication for development, with proven experience in conducting mappings and systematic assessments, data analysis (KAP study in particular) related to social norms towards CWDs

   8-10 years of professional work experience relevant to research, surveys and assessment in related field

   Good understanding of human rights based approach to programming and results based management principles

   Proven expertise on child rights and ECD. Knowledge of global policies and development frameworks on young children, children with disabilities, including early inclusive education and issues of children’s development in general.

   Familiarity with UNICEF's mission and mandate. Experiences of working with UNICEF/UN and working in the ECARO region an asset.

   Excellent knowledge of English and Russian.

   All consultants are required to know the principles and requirements of the UNICEF Procedure for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluations and Data Collection and Analysis (UPES), confirmed by submission of a completion certificate for an online course called “Introduction to Ethics in Evidence Generation” (https://agora.unicef.org/course/info.php?id=2173)

   PROCESS FOR APPLICATION

   10.1 Proposal from national sociological agencies candidates should include:

   Business proposal including: scope of experience, portfolio of similar types of work, detailed budget.

   10.2. Criteria for the selection of proposals:

   The selection of the national sociological agency will be based on UNICEF’s competitive section process.

   10.3. Proposal from international/national consultant candidates should include:

   UNICEF P11 form (link provided), CV, daily rate and comprehensive proposal stipulating the work plan and detailed budget.

   10.4. Criteria for the selection of proposals:

   The selection of the international/national consultant will be based on UNICEF’s competitive section process.