Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust, and need. From chatbots to chat shows and TV dramas to tech, our content helps adolescent girls in Africa and Asia make choices and changes in their lives.
Our team in India has expertise in content, digital technology, and behaviour change. Over 4 years we have demonstrated impact at scale, reaching 21 million girls and initiating conversations with over 250000 girls via our digital content and products. We work closely with our audiences to build products they want, trust and need, ensuring these are embedded in culture and rapidly innovating with changes in the digital landscape.
About the Fellowship
Girl Effect (GE) first partnered with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, between 2016 and 2021 on routine childhood immunization and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine demand generation across Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawi and Rwanda. The collaboration continued with a new phase that started in 2022 and will run until 2026: the Gavi 5.0 programme. India is part of the latest phase.
Since 2006, the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine has been available in many countries, and many adolescent girls and young women have been vaccinated against HPV in higher and upper-income countries. In India, which has among the highest incidence of the virus, the vaccine has been privately available since 2008.
In 2022, India’s National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI) recommended introducing the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccination to all eligible girls between the ages of 9-14 years under the Universal Immunization Programme. In the 2024 Union budget, the government announced its aim to encourage vaccination for girls aged 9 to 14 to prevent cervical cancer.
At the time of HPV vaccination launch in India, Girl Effect, with support from GAVI, will roll out a communication strategy on HPV. The overall strategy will include the use of digital media to reach the wider public, particularly parents of adolescent girls, to build awareness and acceptance of the HPV vaccine. Additionally, it will include on-ground advocacy and training in hotspot locations.
At the nascent age of 9-14 years, parents of adolescent girls are the primary decision-makers around matters related to health and immunization. These decisions are also influenced by other key actors in the community, such as teachers, health system actors, and counselors amongst others. The strategy, therefore, aims to include a digital component and the use of social media to reach the wider public, with a strong engagement and outreach to parents to build awareness and acceptance of the vaccine.
Girl Effect India aims to build a multi-channel intervention focused on the Hindi belt. It targets adolescent girls between 9-14 years and their parents from lower income backgrounds, school teachers, health workers, and other key influencers to deliver HPV content to marginalized communities. Key solutions being designed by Girl Effect are:
Through a robust social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) framework, the products designed by Girl Effect seek to influence key behavioural drivers such as knowledge, attitudes, perceived social support, self-identity and social identity, among others. In addition to this, Girl Effect understands the media behaviour and caters to developing products for an underserved media audience who have been exposed to digital media only recently.
Scope of the Campaign
Online Campaign Component
High production video content on social media and 1-1 conversation content on menu based chatbot to reach the digitally connected audience, i.e. parents and older adolescents 18-24 years old.
To ensure that we are reaching the right audience on digital platforms, we employ a sophisticated targeting approach leveraging the demographic and interest-based targeting that respective social media platforms allow - this is embedded in formative research on the media consumption and behaviour of our target audience [i.e. lower socio economic strata (SEC C&D) with digital access]. This will be deployed in all 11 hindi speaking states (list mentioned below in target audience and location section).
Offline Campaign Component
Champion app (a technology-based solution that can be accessed offline) to deliver HPV content to digitally inactive as well as marginalized communities of adolescent girls (9 - 14 years old).
For on-ground activations to reach school as well as out of school girls, we will leverage organisations with onground networks that are also engaged with the in the HPV campaign - This will include training health workers, community leaders, teachers and peer influencers (older adolescents) on the application. This will be deployed in select hotspot locations.
Deliverables
Evaluation Design (with GE’s support and input)
Participant sampling
Study Inception report
Survey tool
Consent and Assent forms
Translations of survey tools into relevant languages and formats
Risk assessment
Apply and process for ethical approval certificates
Training plan
Fieldwork plan
Raw data files for each stage (baseline and endline)
Clean data files for each stage (baseline and endline)
Data tables as per GE specification, including sig testing for each stage (baseline & endline)
Baseline report
Endline report
Ethical approvals final report
Eligibility
Extensive experience in designing and conducting quantitative and qualitative research
Have past expertise in immunization/vaccination work and must be conducive to working with teams in the UK & Sub-Saharan Africa.
Previous experience working in India and proficiency in conducting research in both Hindi and English languages.
Capacity to deliver all areas expected of this research, from design through recruiting and training researchers to leading the data collection process in target field locations, ensuring quality assurance that aligns with research ethics principles, and delivering high-quality reporting.
Experience designing and conducting quantitative studies in India, especially with adolescent girls, preferably in multiple regions.
Experience conducting sensitive research with hard-to-reach, most vulnerable populations
Experience in interviewing minors and adolescents and safeguarding policies and procedures
Excellent and demonstrated understanding of Child Protection/ Safeguarding and ethical issues in research
Excellent fieldwork supervision and data quality control strategies
Ability to conduct a risk assessment and mitigation plans for research
A fieldwork team of interviewers
A fieldwork team of female interviewers for girls and young women interviews
Proven record of effectively managing relationships with research partners
Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstration of effectively managing relationships with research partners
Excellent interpersonal skills and demonstration of effectively managing relationships with research partners
Exceptional communication and organization skills
Ability to respond to comments and questions in a timely, appropriate manner
Experience in delivering outputs on time and budget
Ability to write clearly and concisely in English
The reputation of the responding agencies and any previous experience in similar surveys/research will also be considered.
How to Apply
Please submit proposals, as described above, to Girl Effect’s procurement team suppliers@girleffect.org by the 5th of June 2024. Please mark your email with the subject line, ‘‘Proposal - India Programme Evaluation.’
