Counterpart is considering commissioning a baseline assessment to measure citizens’ voting behavior, perceptions and knowledge of electoral process in Afghanistan. The assessment will be comprised of four parts: a desk study, representative survey, focus groups, and key informant interviews.
The Assessment will attempt to measure the following:
- Level of familiarity with voter registration procedures,
- Voting participation/voter behavior,
- The level of confidence in the Independent Electoral Commission’s ability to administer a transparent electoral process,
- The availability and accessibility of information on candidates and election campaigns,
- The level of interest in campaigns/elections,
- Citizens’ willingness to learn about elections,
- Citizens’ security/safety concerns related to voting/civic duty activities.
METHODOLOGY
The Consultant/Consulting Group will propose the methodology and design instruments for the Assessment. Counterpart anticipates that the Assessment will be comprised of the following:
1. Desk Review
The Consultant/Consulting Group will conduct a desk study of Afghan voter perceptions and behavior to date, current civic and voter education programs in the country, and familiarize with Counterpart’s activities under Support for Electoral Process Program. The desk study will be an integral part of the Assessment, and, along with the two pilot focus groups and the first set of key-informant interviews, will inform the survey design.
2. Survey
Counterpart seeks an achieved representative sample of at least 1200 adult men and women (aged 16 and above), selected from across the eight geographic regions of the country. The sample should represent as best as possible the actual distribution of the population in the country, and where appropriate should incorporate selection proportional to size (PPS).
The Consultant/Consulting Group will conduct face-to-face questionnaire-based interviews, using a country-wide network of survey interviewers who will do polling in their geographic areas in two local languages, Pashto and Dari. To ensure participation of women proportionate to their population size in an environment where women are in many cases not allowed to talk to men, female interviewers will interview female respondents, and male interviewers will interview male respondents.
Sample. The Consultant/Consulting Group is to propose the sampling technique that will be used for the survey. All proposals should present a detailed description of the sampling plan, sampling frame, and population data used to design the survey. The use of household lists/voter registration lists and enumeration or alternately random routes and skip patterns should be clearly explained.
Questionnaire. In consultation with Counterpart, the Consultant/Consulting Group will design a questionnaire based on the best practices of polling citizens’ knowledge, behavior, and confidence in the electoral system and institutions. Through Counterpart, the Consultant/Consulting Group will consult on the questionnaire design with Counterpart’s Afghan partners.
Pilot focus groups. When the draft questionnaire is ready, the Subcontractor will conduct two pilot focus groups, one in Kabul, and one in a neighboring rural area, to gather citizens’ perceptions and understanding of the electoral process and the Independent Election Commission’s (IEC) role. Based on these focus groups, the Subcontractor will finalize the questionnaire and translate it for the pre-test.
Pre-test. As survey standards require, the Consultant/Consulting Group will pre-test the final questionnaire in Dari and Pashto languages with 40 respondents (20 in a rural area, 20 in an urban area.) Based on the pre-test, changes to the questionnaire in two local languages will be made.
Marginals. Within 15 days of the completion of fieldwork, the Consultant/Consulting Group shall submit survey marginals to Counterpart. These data shall be organized by several strata, to be agreed upon with Counterpart.
3. Key-Informant Interviews
The Consultant/Consulting Group will conduct two sets of key informant interviews. The first round will inform the design of the survey questionnaire and focus groups. The Consultant/Consulting Group will conduct the first round of interviews in Kabul with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the parliamentarians on the sub-committee on elections, representatives of the Youth Parliament and Free and Fair Elections in Afghanistan, and others.
At the time of the focus groups, the second round of key informant interviews will be conducted with jirga and shura heads and religious leaders (mullahs or ulemas), including at least one in each region. Also at that time, the Consultant/Consulting Group will interview selected provincial electoral officials in each region. Like the focus groups, these key-informant interviews will provide in-depth information on community leaders’ perception of the IEC, citizens’ willingness to vote and their view of the electoral process, as well as confidence of provincial electoral officials in their role.
4. Focus Groups
The Consultant/Consulting Group will conduct 12 regional focus groups, three with each of the following groups: (a) educated, literate participants, (b) illiterate participants, (c) women, and (d) youth. Focus group findings will inform the analysis of the survey, provide context to the quantitative data, and bring some anecdotal illustrations of trends revealed by the survey. Each focus group will gather 7-10 people.
5. Training of interviewers and focus group facilitators
The Consultant/Consulting Group will design and conduct an interactive training for selected interviewers and all field supervisors for the survey and focus group facilitators to introduce the objectives of the assessment and familiarize them with the assessment instruments.
6. Analysis/Reporting
The Consultant/Consulting Group will analyze the qualitative and quantitative data gathered through the desk study, survey, focus groups and key-informant interviews and present findings and recommendations to Counterpart. The Consultant/Consulting Group will also submit a methodological report.
PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS
The proposal must address the above items and must include:
a. a detailed description of the methodology, including proposed survey sample,and a description of how focus group participants and key-informant interviewees will be selected.
b. detailed information on the selection and training of interviewers, hours of interviewing, and methods employed in fieldwork, including how fieldwork is supervised;
c. methods of quality control;
d. the number of days required for each stage of the project including completion of translation of the questionnaires, fieldwork, survey data entry, delivery of survey marginals, analysis and reporting, and final delivery of all required materials and report. Please include information about any scheduling conflicts you may have due to work on other projects.
e. the qualifications of the Consultant/Consulting Group and local partner, including description of similar assessments in Afghanistan conducted jointly by the Consultant/Consulting Group and its local partner (please provide three references); and the number of field supervisors, interviewers and focus group facilitators who would take part in the project (disaggregated by gender).
f. the budget in U.S. dollars.
If the Consultant/Consulting Group is unable to meet any of the requirements above, the Consultant/Consulting Group can propose alternatives.
EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS
Proposals for this assessment will be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:
1. Prior experience in conducting similar assessments in Afghanistan (qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis)
2. Time-frame for delivery of results;
3. Quality of the sampling technique;
4. Quality of data-collection and data-entering procedures;
5. Methods of quality control
6. Cost of the proposal.
When drafting the proposal, the Consultant/Consulting Group should be careful to include all information requested above. Failure to do so will weigh heavily against the Consultant/Consulting Group’s selection as the contractor for the Assessment.
The Consultant/Consulting Group is expected to start the Assessment in August 2009.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS
Please submit all proposals via email to 1-1-NSAC@counterpart.org. Simply attach your proposal to the email and click send. Once in our inbox, you will receive a written response indicating that we have received your proposal.
Please disregard the “apply for this position” link below. To successfully submit your proposal, please follow the specified instructions provided in the previous paragraph.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS IS JULY 15, 2009.