Request for Proposal for Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation Partner

Last Date of Submission 05-12-2022

Jagriti Enterprise Centre – Purvanchal Jagriti is a non-profit with an objective of building an entrepreneurship ecosystem in Tier 2 & 3 districts of India. Our enterprise movement is focused on the small towns and districts of India – Middle India. We started as a skill training institute in Eastern UP in 2001, impacting 65,000 beneficiaries so far, creating a strong brand and community relationship in the region. Since 2008, Jagriti Yatra, our flagship entrepreneurship program has been running successfully – a 15-day national train journey across India – which has impacted 7000+ youth; 28% of them turning into entrepreneurs. We implemented a digital literacy training program, called Internet Saathi supported by Tata Trusts and Google, for 1.7 million rural women across 10,000+ villages in 7 districts of Purvanchal. Since 2017, Jagriti has been simultaneously focusing on Eastern Uttar Pradesh to build an ecosystem to support micro-enterprises, livelihood programs, and SMEs – called Jagriti Enterprise Centre – Purvanchal. JEC-P, an incubator beyond metros, is leading the creation of a visionary district enterprise ecosystem that will drive enterprise led development in 15 districts of Eastern UP with a population of 50 million people. Kindly refer to the website http://www.jecp.in/ for more details about the organization.

Purpose of Consultancy

Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation of a Women focused Digital Livelihood Project in 2 districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh

Project Name Establishing Business Models for Women Owned Local Digital Infrastructure

Project Owner Jagriti Enterprise Centre – Purvanchal

Project Duration November 2022 – October 2024

Background of the RFP
The project “Establishing Business Models for Women Owned Local Digital Infrastructure” aims to strengthen women’s relationship with digital technology through revenue generating models of local infrastructure ownership, operation and enterprise support. Under the initiative, the women will be trained to operate digital infrastructure and supported with incubation, infra support and mentoring for setting up digital led businesses such as communication hubs, CSC’s, PDO’s, Banking correspondents, etc. Thus, shifting women’s relationship with digital from being just users to also being providers and operators and establishing new, non-traditional digital livelihoods for women.

This project will be implemented in Deoria and Kushinagar districts of Uttar Pradesh (India) and spans over a period of 2 years (November 2022 – October 2024). The project includes activities like development of relevant business models, content development in different digital modules, outreach and selection of women entrepreneurs, training, and incubation.

JEC-P requests proposal for services of a qualified agency/institution to conduct the “Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation” of the Project that has started in November 2022. The research agencies/institutions are requested to submit a detailed proposal as per the guidelines outlined in this RFP.

3. Objective and Rationale

Objective: The primary objective of the MLE is to monitor and evaluate the project implementation, identify bottlenecks, stakeholder analysis and suggest recommendations for course correction and effective implementation.

Key population: The key population under the project include Women (aged 20 and above) in Deoria and Kushinagar districts of eastern UP.

Rationale: This project would lead to economic empowerment of women through digital technology in rural regions where majority of women have little to no access to digital technologies. It would result in narrowing the gender digital divide, and strengthen women’s relationship with digital technologies not just as end users, but also create pathways for economic opportunities by use of digital infrastructure for incubation. Moreover, the project would
strengthen peer-to-peer citizen engagement and knowledge sharing, leading to strong and cohesive communities, as well as a wider circle of local entrepreneurship.

4. Scope of Work

The selected agency is expected to provide the following deliverables:

Designing, development and implementation of a Monitoring, Learning & Evaluation framework forthe program to strengthen the focus on results and i mpact by improving the organization’s ability toidentify, communicate and maximize the impact of the work done.

Monitoring –
a) Design a monitoring framework and the program’s data collection methods, instruments and reporting parameters in order to effectively meet strategic objectives

b) Develop / provide relevant MIS tools with dashboards for reporting and support with data analysis

c) Capacity Building of the team to ensure adherence to data collection processes, data quality standards, documenting, understanding and interpreting results

d) Utilize the analysed monitoring data for Evaluation and Learning to ensure robustness of processes and framework

e) Provide reports and documentation for the above activities

Evaluation –

a) Design and implement the project’s overall Evaluation framework in tandem with the outputs, outcomes and impact parameters defined in the proposal and further refine to ensure that the impact is measured effectively.

b) Conduct Baseline, Mid Term, and Endline Impact Assessment – Initiate and conduct baseline studies (involving both quantitative and qualitative research methods), project mid-term review and final evaluation.

a. Design appropriate research and sampling methodologies, evaluation framework/approach.

b. Provide key evaluation questions and tools

c. Undertake field visits as appropriate to intervention sites for physical verification of Means of Verification of data provided in report.

d. Conduct stakeholder analysis

e. Assess and appraise processes and mechanism followed in the project

c) Act as an internal evaluator of different business models that will be developed as part of the project

d) Assist in a data/ evidence-based shortlisting of business models and the continuous evaluation of each business set-up as an independent social enterprise across parameters such as:

a. Entrepreneur Related metrics:

i. Income and wealth creation

ii. Social benefits as appropriate – e.g. education for children, improved agency etc.

b. Business Metrics

i. Defining and evaluating business metrics relevant to each enterprise such as – no of customers, number of hours of content created, number of orders
placed, number of trainees trained, revenue and profitability metrics, etc.

ii. Defining and evaluating the sustainability of the business models

c. Gender Based Metrics related to beneficiaries (essentially understanding if women owned business models are successful in improving the gender digital divide, also drawing insights as compared to male owned businesses where relevant)

i. # of women beneficiaries as a %age of total beneficiaries across different types of business models, %age improvement in understanding of digital
technologies among women beneficiaries etc.

d. Ecosystem Impact Based Metrics to understand the long-term impact on the local ecosystem. Metrics can be co-created with the selected MLE partner.

e) Apart from comparing and evaluating different business models with each other, it is also important to understand how different interventions help improve outcomes within the same business model over time. The interventions may include aspects such as entrepreneur training, infrastructure improvements, additional funding, marketing activities etc.

a. Track metrics across all the three categories specified above (Entrepreneur, Business and Gender based beneficiary metrics) across different points of time within the same business model to be able to draw insights around what kind of activities/ interventions actually help in improving outcomes around these metrics.

f) Provide Evaluation reports and documentation as per Key Performance Indicators and Output indicators

Learning –

a) Identify strengths and limitations in project implementation including appropriate recommendation for periodic course correction
b) Identify lessons learned through analysis of the regular progress reporting (Monitoring) and assessments (Evaluation)
c) Develop case studies (in various formats) to capture qualitative outputs of the project.
d) Finding out implementation bottlenecks and suggest a road map to achieve the project target and outcomes.
e) Identify and propose sustainable strategies for effective implementation of the project.
f) Provide Learning reports and documentation as per Key Performance Indicators and Output indicators

* These Terms of Reference may vary to reflect the changing needs of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Jagriti Sewa Sansthan. This will be done in consultation with the selected agency.

The selected agency will be expected to work in a flexible and adaptable manner, responding to changing needs, priorities and context.

5. Safeguards
The agency will ensure non-discriminatory approach in conducting the monitoring and evaluation and representation in the thematic discussions thereon. Selected agency will adhere to JECP and BMGF’s data protection policy as well as statutory requirements presently practiced in the development sector. The proprietary of the MLE data is with JECP as under the rules of BMGF and thus the agency will require to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that would extend beyond the project period and hand over all data in raw and report forms to JECP on completion of the MLE period. The agency is required to adhere to JECP norms for engaging with the community.

6. Who can apply to this RFP?
Agency must demonstrate the following requirements in their application in order to be considered:

i. The agency is expected to have a minimum of 3 years of experience in conducting high quality research and evaluation of integrated social development projects preferably related to gender equality and livelihoods. Preference will be given to agencies who have worked in the area of digital interventions in rural and tier 2/3 districts.

ii. The team lead should have a Post Graduate degree in Social Sciences, Gender Studies, Technology, Research, Statistics or other related field.

iii. Excellent spoken and written command in English and Hindi

iv. Excellent report writing and presentation skills

7. Proposal Submission Guidelines

The proposal should be submitted in two parts: i) Technical Proposal, and ii) Financial Proposal. The technical proposal must contain the following:

Technical Proposal
i. A brief background including relevant past experiences up to three years related to the studies conducted by the agency. Please include name and contact details of past and current clients

ii. MLE methodology and framework including tools to be used, data collection plan, etc

iii. Data quality and security

iv. Data analysis plan

v. Sample outline of the reports

vi. Qualification and experience of key resource person(s) who will be involved

vii. Activities, Timeline with key deliverables, Key Performance Indicators and Output Indicators based on the defined scope of work. Ensure at least 2 months’ time post completion of project for impact assessment and final reporting.

viii. Define the reporting periodicity for each component including Evaluation and learning

ix. Contact information of two key officials who will manage, lead and sign contracts.

Financial Proposal Provide detailed cost estimates for each of the task envisaged

8. Budget The proposed budget should be in the range of ₹ 35,00,000 – ₹40,00,000, which is inclusive of taxes, travel and accommodation.

9. Criteria for selection of an agency Given below are the criteria for selection:

Selection Criteria – Points
1 Technical approach and methodology – 20
2 Analysis and reporting plan – 15
3 Past experience of the agency/consultant – 15
4 Timeline, KPI’s and execution plan – 20
5 Financial proposal – 30

JECP reserves the right to select a short list from the bids received. JECP can conduct interview and discuss specific details with agencies who are short-listed.

10. Right to final negotiations
JECP reserves the option to negotiate on the final costs and final scope of work, and also reserves the option to limit or include third parties at JECP’s sole and full discretion in such negotiations.

11. Bid submission instructions
Bid Submission Process

The technical bid and financial bid are to be submitted in PDF documents by email to anusuya@jagriti.org

Last Date of Submission

The application must be submitted along with all supportive documents on or before 5 th December 2022