Request for Proposals:

AFRICAN POPULATION AND HEALTH RESEARCH CENTER
Promoting the well-being of Africans through policy-relevant research on population and health

Strengthening information systems, knowledge sharing, and partnerships for addressing urban health vulnerabilities in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya

Terms of Reference for the Consultant

Background:
The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) was established in 1995 as a program designed by the Population Council to address the paucity of highly qualified Africans undertaking policy-relevant research in population and health areas. The goal was to establish a multi-disciplinary research group of African scholars to champion the use of research evidence in policy and practice, and to promote the strengthening of research capacity in African institutions. In 2001, it attained an independent status as an autonomous nonprofit operating organization with a clear focus on promoting the wellbeing of Africans through policy-relevant research on population and health. In the last eight years, APHRC has successfully undertaken various programs in the three core areas of operations:

Research on urbanization and wellbeing; population dynamics and reproductive health; health systems and challenges; and education

Strengthening of individual and institutional research capacity

Policy engagement and communication which focuses on encouraging policy makers, journalists and members of civil society organizations to make greater use of evidence research

In 2000 APHRC set up the Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System (NUHDSS) which is a longitudinal platform for investigating linkages between urbanization, poverty, health, and other socio-demographic indicators in Korogocho and Viwandani. The framework also serves as a tool for monitoring and evaluating the impact of interventions aimed at improving the well-being of the urban poor in Kenya. Many of the programs particularly Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) operating in slums have scanty information about the target population, specifics about the interventions administered, and what impact their programs have had. There is, therefore, need to enhance methodologies for detecting and documenting health vulnerabilities as well as implementation processes and impact of associated interventions. To this end, APHRC proposes to engage a monitoring an evaluation expert consultant who will provide support to community owned resource persons (CORPs) to improve their M&E systems in an effort to generate reliable data and put robust mechanisms of data management into place that can be used to track performance and enable them to plan and address the inequalities in the slum. The following are the Terms of Reference for the Consultant’s work within a 8-week period in Viwandani and Korogocho:
1. Conduct two workshops with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to (i) train participants on M&E techniques including data management and report writing and (ii) explore existing data and conduct simple analysis.

2. Provide technical assistance to the workshop participants during the trainings on compiling data, producing periodic reports, convening experience sharing forums, submitting reports to stakeholders in the district, and organizing evaluation and review meetings.

3. Summarize key findings of workshop participants’ performance based on the M&E training.

4. Following the trainings, shortlist viable CSOs that can be linked to the NUHDSS.

5. Produce a report with recommendations for APHRC on strengthening the M&E systems in the urban settlements, development of data collection tools and a monitoring mechanism to offer supportive supervision in the use of these tools.


Expected Outputs:

• Conducted two workshops that train CORPs, CSOs, non-public health providers and other key stakeholders on the concepts of M&E and the production of outputs such as reports, pie charts, graphs and line graphs.
• Produced a report with findings from the workshops and recommendations for strengthening M&E systems and supportive supervision in the use of data.
• Identified viable CSOs that can link their data with the NUHDSS.

The work is expected to begin in mid July and at the end of the project period in September 2009, the consultant will have produced a report that highlights the state of the existing M&E systems among the CSOs and an assessment of the participants’ performance during the trainings.

Request for Proposals:
Individuals or groups interested in working as our consultants in strengthening M&E systems for knowledge sharing and partnering among community stakeholders in the urban settlements are encouraged to submit their applications, with a budgeted work plan indicating how they would proceed and their expected remuneration. The deadline for all applications is July 12, 2009. Applications can be sent to any of the under listed people (Attention to :), from whom further information about this project can also be sought.

Akaco Ekirapa info@aphrc.org
Tel: 254-20-2720400/1/2

Catherine Kyobutungi info@aphrc.org
Tel: 254-20-2720400/1/2