UNITED NATIONS JOINT PROGRAMME ON GIRLS’ EDUCATION (UNJPGE) III KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE (KAP) STUDY IN MALAWI

UNICEF has now issued a : Request for Proposals in order to select a supplier for the provision of UNITED Nations Joint Programme on Girls' Education (UNJPGE) III Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) Study in Malawi. BACKGROUND The government of Malawi has committed to ensuring that girls and boys realize their rights to quality, inclusive and equitable education, and acquire life skills so that they become more productive and innovative and attain their full potential. Despite this, realization of the right to education is a challenge. Children in Malawi, particularly girls and the most vulnerable, face multiple barriers that prevent them access to an inclusive quality education and alternative learning pathways; these include poor quality schooling, poor food and nutrition, inadequate protection against sexual and physical violence, harmful social and traditional practices and violations of sexual and reproductive rights. To support government address these barriers and promote sustainable solutions to improving access to quality education, the United Nations (UN) in Malawi has secured funding through the Royal Norwegian Embassy and is supporting government to implement a four-year multi-sectoral Joint Programme on Girls Education (UNJPGE III) that addresses education, nutrition, safety, and integrated sexual and reproductive health concerns in a holistic manner and also focusing on other aspects such as life skills, gender equality and community engagement. Beyond the school, the programme also focuses on the out of school adolescent girls and boys and ensure they are not left behind through supporting delivery of alternative learning pathways and promoting access to essential services. UNJPGE III is implemented in four targeted districts of Dedza, Mangochi, Salima and Kasungu, and three United Nations agencies (WFP, UNICEF and UNFPA) are providing technical support. The programme goal is to address barriers to access to quality education for girls and boys and ensure achievement of inclusive and equitable access to education. The UNJPGE III is a follow up of the UNJPGE I and II. JPGE had its first phase from 2014-2017 (JPGE I - Improving access and quality of education for girls in Malawi). The second phase (JPGE II was from 2018 to 2020- Poverty Reduction through improved Quality Education and Basic life skills for in and out of School Adolescent Girls in Malawi). While the first phase focused on the building and piloting of a multi-sectoral model to improve girls’ education, the second phase focused on expansion of the model and most importantly placed emphasis on strengthening the role of the government in coordination and implementation of the programme. Most of the interventions were implemented through the district councils and with the support and oversight of six participating ministries. The integrated and multi-sectoral approach of the programme in identifying and addressing barriers to education remains central to the programme even within the UNJPGE III. It looks to strengthen the integration of the results framework and promotes adoption of comprehensive outcomes, key interventions to avoid duplication and foster further synergies, and with a robust sustainability strategy. The programme aligns with the Malawi Growth Development Strategy (MGDS III 2017-2022), and the goals in key sectoral policies and strategies, particularly the National Education Sector Investment Plan (NESIP). The programme directly contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Coordination Framework (UNSDGCE 2019-2023) particularly Pillar 2, Population Management, and Inclusive Human Development. The programme aims to facilitate and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals, having a clear potential as an SDG accelerator, building on interlinkages among the goals. Specifically, the programme will contribute to SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). It adopts a more gender transformative approach and focuses on girls as well as boys and most vulnerable and marginalized children both in and out of school. It will ensure that boys are actively engaged so they can be champions in promoting gender equality. The three key outcome areas of the programme are; 1) Increased access to quality and inclusive education by girls, boys and adolescents (especially the most vulnerable) delivered through integrated services in a safe and gender transformative school, that enhances learning outcomes; 2) Increased access to complementary alternative learning and life skills and integrated services by girls and boys out of school and; 3) Increased investment and support for education, life skills, health and nutrition of children and adolescents in and out-of-school by communities, parents and education stakeholders. Social behaviour change communication has been determined as a key strategy for achieving social behaviour related results across the key outcomes including improvements in knowledge, attitude and practice around access to inclusive quality and equitable education among different stakeholders; parents, learners ( and learners with special needs), opinion leaders, teachers, mother groups and all other key influencers. The programme takes into consideration the changing environment due to COVID-19 pandemic and therefore will work to also mainstream preventive and response measures of the pandemic. UNICEF, UNFPA and WFP seek to hire a consulting firm to conduct a Baseline KAP study that will be used to assess improvements in communities’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices in regards to creating demand to access quality inclusive and equitable education including for alternative pathways and serve as a benchmark against which project outcomes will be measured during implementation and after project completion. This tender will be run through the UNICEF e-submissions system. By clicking on the blue ‘Express Interest’ button in the UNGM tender notice, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document (including instructions on how to access the tender documents and submit an Offer) will be automatically emailed to the ‘contact persons’ included in your UNGM registration. Alternatively, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document is publicly available on the UNICEF supply internet pages here: https://www.unicef.org/supply/index_procurement_policies.html . In the tender management site, if you navigate to the documents tab and opt in to confirm your intention to submit a Bid – you will then see the mandatory placeholders for documents that must be attached prior to submitting your Offer (you will also see if there are any mandatory questionnaires to complete). As such, you are recommended to `opt in` well before the submission deadline so you are clear exactly what documents are required to be uploaded prior to completing your submission. Please note that in order to access the tender documentation through UNICEF’s e-submissions system, vendors must: (i) be registered with UNICEF in UNGM as a company/NGO; (ii) have successfully completed all mandatory information currently required by UNGM when registering. Please ensure that any files submitted as part of your Bid are not corrupt or damaged in any way. Please exercise particular caution when using compressed files. Any corrupt or damaged files may lead to your Bid being invalidated. All vendors are strongly recommended to regularly log in to the UNICEF e-submissions system to check for any deadline extensions, new clarifications, new correspondence or updated tender documents relating to this tender.