More than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic Zimbabwe has recorded over 251 092 COVID-19 cases[1]. The country took a ‘whole of government’, ‘whole of society’ approach to respond to the pandemic and began rolling out the COVID-19 vaccination on 22 February 2021 as part of the comprehensive public health pillar of the response. However, despite the roll out of vaccination and other preventative programmes at national level, the extent of reach of these programmes in marginalised and hard to reach communities has been low. Mbire and Guruve districts in Mashonaland Central Province of Zimbabwe are adversely and disproportionately affected by the pandemic due to the underlying impacts of COVID -19, climate induced drought and economic recession.

 From May 26 to August 11, 2021, there was a drastic increase in COVID 19 cases being recorded from 1752 to 7707 in Mashonaland Central according to the Ministry of Health and Childcare situation reports, Guruve being one of the hot spots. Women and girls in the two districts are impacted by gaps both in the supply side of vaccinations and the demand side that hinders communities to make decisions related to vaccine uptake and adopt effective covid-19 prevention strategies. Evidence reveals that Guruve and Mbire districts has vaccinated only 45% of the eligible population. In addition, Covid-19 vaccination and prevention in the communities has been affected by secondary waves of the virus and emergence of new and more transmittable variants (Omicron). The vaccine supply side is marred by limited availability of Covid -19 prevention and infection control supplies including PCR test kits. Each district is served by one outreach vehicle, making it difficult to increase accessibility of testing and vaccination services to remote communities within the districts who do not have clinics within the wards. On the other hand, the demand side is affected grossly by vaccine hesitancy and existing gender and social norms affecting update of vaccines.

Existing key drivers of vaccine hesitancy include lack of demand generating and awareness raising activities for vaccine rollouts, myths related to risks of infertility in women, impotency in men, or risk of death myths based on religious grounds especially among the apostolic sects prevalent in the area, as well as fear of side effects coupled with limited knowledge on what to expect or medical follow-up if treatment needed. Hence, this has necessitated UN Women to support the scaling up of information dissemination on Covid-19 in the two districts as well as strengthen the health system to increase accessibility of Covid-19 vaccinations.

1. Description of the Project

 UN Women has received funding to implement the COVID -19 response programme through support from the government of Japan through the Japanese Supplementary Budget. The programme seeks to strengthen gender responsive prevention of and response to COVID 19 in Guruve and Mbire through enhancing access to COVID 19 testing and vaccination services, provision of PPE and improving knowledge and attitudes on COVID 19. UN Women will use a two-pronged approach to implement the programme and this includes a component of health systems strengthening through strengthening the vaccination supply chain as well as increasing vaccination demand at community level. This approach will leverage on the national response to Covid-19. The programme will target women and girls in Guruve and Mbire Districts.

2. Overall Objective

The overall objective of the programme is strengthening gender responsive prevention of and response to COVID 19 in Guruve and Mbire through enhancing access to COVID 19 testing and vaccination services, provision of PPE and improving knowledge and attitudes on COVID 19. The baseline report is to be used for monitoring benchmark of the COVID-19 response programme and evaluating project implementation. All objectives will be answered by the baseline survey findings and reported to project team and Local responsible partners.

Outcome 1: Improved access by communities, particularly women and girls, to COVID 19 prevention, testing and vaccination services in Guruve and Mbire.

The Covid-19 response programme therefore seeks to increase availability of vaccinations for women and girls while increasing knowledge of Covid-19 prevention strategies at community level. This will be done through;

1. Distribution of COVID 19 infection control supplies including PCR test kits and Covid 19 vaccinations for access by marginalized communities, including women and girls
2. Increasing knowledge and understanding by communities, particularly women and girls, on covid -19 prevention and vaccination through gender responsive social behavior change strategies to promote uptake of Covid -19 vaccination
3. Equipping vulnerable women and girls in Guruve and Mbire with knowledge and skills to develop Personal Protective Equipment (i.e., face masks, sanitizers, and soap)

3. Purpose of the Baseline Assessment

The main purpose of the baseline assessment is to effectively measure the project’s impact and results success through having a strong and evidence-based baselines that are required for the project’s key indicators. A baseline assessment will be completed at the start of the project, to measure the status of all indicators and to understand the starting point of key elements of the work against which later progress will be measured.  This will enable project indicators at output and goal/outcome level to be measured and tracked.

The baseline assessment will enable the Project joint team and other partners to:

• Provide benchmark information for measuring project achievements, outcomes and intermediate result levels based on the project results framework  
• Verify the project result framework’s adequacy with realities observed on the ground and provide inputs that will assist in updating the actions to be undertaken.

4. Target population

The project aims to increase the number of people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to 103,210 within the two districts. This number will be a proportion of the eligible population that should be vaccinated in the districts.  In addition, 500 women will be purposely targeted to be equipped with skills to develop PPE. The programme will also serve the entire community through various community wide engagement actions through awareness raising interventions.  As more guidance on the population eligible for vaccination is provided at national level this information will be used to inform the programmes targeting.

5. Methodology

The baseline assessment methodology will be developed by the consultant and presented for approval to the baseline reference group (comprising of UN Women, Lower Guruve Development Association (LGDA) and Ministry of Health and Child Care representatives. The methodology should use a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods and a desk review of project overview should be done. The baseline assessment will be based on the project results framework. For the project team to track progress towards set milestones on which the project will be benchmarked on. The baseline data will be at outcome and output levels. Data should be disaggregated by sex and according to other relevant parameters outlined in the project documents. These complementary approaches will be deployed to ensure that the assessment: 

• responds to the needs of project team and their intended use of the baseline results.
• utilises both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis methods to enhance triangulation of data and increase overall data quality, validity, credibility and robustness and reduce bias and will consider among other processes a desk review, meetings, consultations with different groups of stakeholders, Interviews with Key Informants.
• consider data collection instruments and methods for example interviews, observations, focus groups, and site visits.
• take measures to ensure data quality, reliability and validity of data collection tools and methods and their responsiveness to gender equality and human rights

[1] Ministry of Health and Child Care statistics: 29 May 2022

The consultant will be required to undertake the following specific tasks:

• Conduct a desk review of secondary data available on the Covid-19 prevention and response in Guruve and Mbire.
• Collect and analyse available secondary data related to project objectives.
• Design data collection tools and methodology for the collection of quantitative and qualitative data for the baseline assessment, taking into account the outcomes of the project
• Conduct data collection in targeted project locations for the Covid-19 response programme to measure key indicators.
• Analyse and interpret data to develop a comprehensive baseline report.
• Develop monitoring tools to adequately measure results and objective.
• Share key findings and insights with relevant staff and stakeholders through consultations.

6. Work Schedule:

7. Deliverables

The consultant is expected to provide:

• A draft inception report which responds to the scope of work with a methodology, data collection instruments, and detailed work plan.
• A comprehensive draft baseline report including a clear set of actionable recommendations.
• A final baseline report incorporating feedback from UN Women and key stakeholders
• Develop a set of monitoring tools to be used by the project team to adequately measure results and objective/impact

8. Management of the Baseline Assessment

UN Women will manage the assessment and under the guidance of the M&E Unit and the Gender and Humanitarian Programme Specialist.  The Reference Group will provide support for the assessment at the technical level. They will review and provide comments to the inception report and the draft report. The Reference Group members will provide comments to the inception report and draft report either through meetings or online via email communications.

9. Timeframe

The consultant will be required to undertake the exercise within a period of 15 working days over a period of 1 month tentatively from 5 June to 5 July 2022 after signing of the agreement.

10. Logistics

UN Women will facilitate this process by providing contact information such as email addresses and phone numbers of their respective partners. UN Women will oversee the logistics of the baseline assessment and provide support for the arrangements as needed. 

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

 Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

A national consultant with the following skills and experience:

• Master level and above educational background in public health, social sciences or a related field.

• 8 – 10 years’ experience and knowledge in conducting gender responsive evaluations (quantitative and qualitative methods).
• Extensive experience in conducting evaluations with a focus on humanitarian context, gender equality, women’s empowerment. Specific evaluation in a humanitarian and public health will be an added advantage.
• Extensive knowledge and understanding of Results Based Management methodologies.
• Experience and understanding of gender equality, human rights, and women’s empowerment programming of UN agencies, development partners and government.
• Application and understanding of UN Mandates on Human Rights and Gender Equality.
• Knowledge of regional/country/ local context will be an asset.
• Proven experience and excellent networking and partnership skills with UN agencies, government and CSOs.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written and strong presentation skills.
• Excellent spoken and written English (all deliverables to be in English). Working knowledge of Shona and/or Ndebele will be an asset.
• Capacity to work independently and use own equipment.

11. UNEG Norms and Standards and Ethical Code of Conduct

This baseline assessment will be conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in the UNEG ‘Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation’. The consultant must safeguard the rights and confidentiality of information providers, interviewees and stakeholders through measures to ensure compliance with legal and other relevant codes governing the collection of data and reporting on its data. The consultant must also ensure the security of collected information before and after the evaluation and protocols to ensure anonymity and confidentiality of sources of information where that is expected. The information knowledge and data gathered in the evaluation process must also be solely used for the evaluation and not for other uses with the express authorization of UN Women and partners.

12. Submission of Proposals  

The local Consultant is required to a technical proposal which should not be more than 5 pages excluding annexes and should not repeat the TORs.

Please also attach a completed P11 to your application. Kindly note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment .

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need. 

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application. 

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)