REQUEST FOR QUOTATIONS FOR

“APPLYING BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS TO PARENTING
INITIATIVES USING MIXED METHODS RESEARCH IN THE

UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA”

BACKGROUND

2021. The National Agenda for Responsible and Parenting Care, was launched by the Tanzanian Government in 2019, calling for stakeholders’ actions to effectively engage in parenting interventions. This was followed by the launch of the National Multisectoral ECD Programme 2021/22 – 2025/26 in 2021. The government is leading a plan to support responsible parenting on a national scale, covering all aspects of children’s lives from pregnancy to 18 years.
2022. The public health impact and policy success will reguire parents and other primary caregivers to consistently access these services in good numbers and be supported in their caregiving practices. This includes integration of parenting support in routine services and participation in structured parenting interventions and programmes. Uptake and retention are likely to be affected by the following behavioural influences: i) parent factors such as psychological motivation, social influences, and environmental barriers of time, transport, and money; and ii) provider invitations, which directly affect uptake, and provider service provision, which affects user experience and intention to complete the interventions and programmes; as well as circulating social perceptions of the interventions and programmes that affects the uptake of others.
2023. Overall government leadership for parenting policy and programmes and interventions is provided by the Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Women, and Special Groups (MCDGWSG). Additionally, the Ministry of Health (MoH) leads the provision of health sector provided parenting interventions and programmes in Tanzania.
2024. WHO is supporting the MCDGWSG and MoH to assess the implementation of healthcare provided and community-based parenting interventions and programmes in part, using the behavioural sciences. Community based parenting interventions and programmes such as Furaha Teens and Skilful Parenting will also be examined as they are aligned to the Familia Bora, Taifa Imara – the government’s national agenda.
2025. The behavioural sciences are integral to the wider WHO technical assistance and form a workstream focused on:
2026. Improving parents’ uptake and retention in healthcare provided and community-based parenting interventions.
2027. exploring healthcare provided and community-based parenting interventions and programmes’ roles that have substantial impact on uptake and retention;

• the behaviours, barriers and enablers of healthcare provided and community-based interventions and programmes to increase uptake by parents.

1. In relation to the above, WHO is also commissioning a behavioural evidence review of global literature on the influences on uptake and retention and interventions that have been effective to address them. The results of the global review will feed into and supplement the body of knowledge that will be generated by the behavioral insights study that will be done in Tanzania.

PURPOSE

Conduct mixed-methods research to: (1) characterise the parent target population and their barriers and enablers to the uptake of, and retention in, universal, intensive and targeted healthcare provided and community-based parenting interventions and programmes; (2) characterise service providers and their barriers and enablers to the effective delivery of parenting interventions and programmes; (3) explore the behaviours, barriers and enablers of community-based organisations that provide parenting programmes in Tanzania and A) provide evidence-based recommendations on which barriers and enablers should be targeted for interventions.

TIMEFRAME

Start date: 1 September 202A – 28 February 2025 Total duration: 6 months from date of commissioning

KEY COMPETENCIES AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED Mandatory

• Experience in conducting pragmatic document analysis in public health.
• Experience of qualitative and survey research methods to characterise populations and determine behavioural barriers/enablers.
• Experience of population segmentation and development of personas.
• Experience of related work (ideally in Tanzania, and secondly, in the region).
• Experience working in the field of public health.
• Experience in scientific writing/writing of protocols and reports.
• Proven project management capability to deliver on time.
• Fluency in Kiswahili and English.
• Lead institution must be registered in the United Republic of Tanzania.

Desirable

Experience of working for WHO or UN agencies MANAGEMENT PLAN

To ensure ownership of the process and that it is country – led, we are looking for an institution registered in Tanzania and will work closely with the key representatives, nominated by the government; the Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups (MCDGWSG) and the Ministry of Health (MoH), WHO Country Office – in collaboration with the Regional Office and Headquarters, development partners and other international organizations.

The institution appointed will be required to attend an inception meeting, methodology approach approval, mid-term report, and end of project meetings at WHO CO or MCDGWSG offices. Ethics clearances will need to be sought in-country as well as from the WHO Headquarters in Geneva. Due to the lengthy nature of ethics clearances, sufficient time should be allocated to obtain such clearances from the local ethics review board and at the headquarter level, in collaboration with WHO staff.

All team members that are appointed will need to do a mandatory WHO Prevention of Sexual Exploitation Course before the work commences.

HOW TO REQUEST FOR TERMS OF REFERENCE

Prospective bidders shall request for a detailed Terms of Reference from afwcotzprocurement@who.int cc kileon@who.int

Requests must be submitted through the email address mentioned above with the subject clearly stated: Request for TOR: “APPLYING BEHAVIOURAL INSIGHTS TO PARENTING INITIATIVES USING MIXED METHODS RESEARCH IN THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA”

The bidders must follow the instructions in this RFQ in the request for TOR and submission of queries. A prospective bidder requiring clarification on technical or contractual matters may notify WHO via email at the following address no later than 12:00 hours on Monday 1^st July 202A (EAT):

Email for submissions of all queries is kileon@who.int and cc martinusa@who.int

A consolidated document of WHO’s responses to all questions (including an explanation of the query but without identifying the source of enquiry) will be sent to all prospective bidders who have received the TOR.