1. Background and Introduction

Adolescents in Oyam District face barriers to accessing accurate SRHR information and adolescent-friendly services, with teenage pregnancy and HIV risk compounded by limited knowledge, stigma, harmful social norms, and weak referral and protection systems. These challenges disproportionately affect adolescent girls and young women and contribute to poor health, education and socio-economic outcomes. In response, Action 4 Health Uganda (A4HU), in partnership with Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (DSW) and with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), will implement the three-year AMUKA – R!se-Up Against Teenage Pregnancy and HIV/AIDS project in Oyam District. The project will target adolescents aged 10–19 years in Kamdini Town Council, Oyam Town Council, Iceme, Minakulu and Abok Sub-counties, with a focus on strengthening life skills and SRHR knowledge, improving access to adolescent-friendly services, strengthening referral and protection systems, and promoting supportive family and community environments. Building on a 2025 feasibility study conducted with Oyam District leadership and technical teams, the project will work through existing district systems and structures. The baseline study will establish reference values for key project indicators and generate evidence on adolescents’ knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, service access, referral mechanisms and community support to inform implementation and enable measurement of change over the project period.

Project period: Start date: 1^st September 2026 and End date 30^th August 2029.

Direct beneficiaries: Out-of-school adolescents (10–19 years): 9,700, primarily AGYW, reached through peer clubs, community outreach, SRHR/HIV services, and mentorship. In-school adolescents (10–19 years): 2,100 learners in ten schools, supported through school clubs, SRHR education, mentorship and referrals in the targeted sub counties.

Indirect beneficiaries: Approximately 30,000 young people, including AGYW aged 20–24 and peers outside project clubs, will be reached through peer-to-peer cascading, community and facility outreaches, school activities, and public prevention events (10,000 direct participants each reaching at least three peers). An estimated 4,560 parents and caregivers will benefit through community dialogues, school and faith-based engagements, and spillover from adolescent participation, leading to improved parenting practices, greater awareness of adolescent SRHR, and reduced stigma around teenage pregnancy and HIV. In addition, about 25,000 community members will be reached through public events, community dialogues, radio programmes, and awareness campaigns.

 

2. Purpose and Objectives of the Assignment

2.1 Purpose of the assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to engage a qualified, independent consultancy firm to design and conduct a comprehensive baseline study that generates reliable, disaggregated quantitative and qualitative evidence on the current status of all project indicators, and that assesses the project’s design and relevance against the OECD-DAC criteria thereby establishing the foundation for results-based monitoring and evaluation throughout the project’s life.

2.3 Objective of the assignment

To establish robust, disaggregated baseline values for all indicators in the project’s results framework (Overall Objective, Project Objective/Outcome, and Output levels) and to generate an evidence base to guide project implementation, monitoring and future evaluation.

2.3 Objective of the assignment

• To determine baseline values for the two overall objective indicators (teenage pregnancy prevalence and HIV prevalence among AGYW in Oyam District).
• To determine baseline values for the three Project Objective (Outcome) indicators (OI1–OI3), covering adolescent help-seeking behavior, community-based referral functionality, and family/community/school support.
• To determine baseline values for the six output indicators (1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2) across the knowledge, services/institutions, and social norms result areas. The log frame will be shared with successful consultant.
• To assess the current functionality, coverage, and gaps in community-based monitoring and referral and case follow-up mechanisms for adolescent pregnancy and HIV cases.
• To assess baseline knowledge, attitudes, and practices among adolescents, parents, cultural/religious leaders, and community/trade association leaders including male actors and male influencers relevant to SRHR, HIV prevention, teenage pregnancy prevention, and school re-entry
• To validate key assumptions underpinning the project design and identify contextual factors that may influence implementation and achievement of results.
• To provide clear, actionable recommendations and methodological considerations for future monitoring/endline studies including any adjustments required in response to contextual changes, assumptions, and implementation risks identified during the baseline.

3. Scope of Work

Geographic scope: Kamdini Town Council, Oyam Town Council, Iceme, Minakulu and Abok Sub-Counties in Oyam District.

Primary respondents: adolescents aged 10–19 years, parents/caregivers, health workers, school actors, community-based referral actors, cultural and religious leaders, male influencers and community/trade association leaders.

Thematic scope: The study will cover all indicators within the three logframe levels (Overall Objective, Project Objective, and Outputs 1–3 plus, an OECD-DAC based assessment of project. It will also cover teenage pregnancy, HIV prevention, SRHR knowledge, adolescent-friendly services, referral systems, social norms, stigma reduction, school re-entry and community support.

Reference documents: project proposal, logframe/results framework, indicator reference sheet, feasibility study, DHIS2 and district records, and relevant DSW safeguarding and reporting templates.

4. Key Study Questions

4.1 Indicator-Based Questions

• What is the current prevalence of teenage pregnancy and HIV among AGYW (10–19/10–24) in the target sub-counties, disaggregated by sub-county?
• What proportion of adolescents currently seek SRHR information, services or support independently, and what barriers/enablers exist?
• What is the current functionality of community-based monitoring, referral and case follow-up systems for pregnancy and HIV cases, and what proportion of identified cases are referred within 72 hours?
• What proportion of adolescents’ report receiving support from family, schools and communities for SRHR, continued education, and pregnancy/HIV prevention?
• What is the current level of SRHR and HIV prevention knowledge among adolescents, disaggregated by sex, age group, school status and disability status?
• What proportion of health facilities in the target sub-counties currently meet adolescent-friendly SRHR/HIV service standards?
• What is the current level of knowledge among cultural/religious leaders and parents on teenage pregnancy prevention, HIV prevention and school re-entry, and what social norms/stigma dynamics exist?
• To what extent are community and trade association leaders currently engaged in structured sensitization and advocacy activities promoting positive SRHR-related social norms?
• What community awareness activities on adolescent SRHR and HIV prevention currently exist in the target sub-counties (who organizes them, how frequently, and what is their coverage/reach)?
• What is the current level of engagement of male actors, including fathers, male community and trade leaders, male cultural/religious leaders, and male peers in these existing community awareness activities, and what barriers or entry points exist for strengthening male engagement?
• What practical changes should be made to strengthen implementation, monitoring and future evaluation?

5. Methodology

The consultant is expected to propose a mixed-methods baseline design, to be finalized in the inception report and approved by DSW before fieldwork. The methodology should be rigorous, ethical, feasible, participatory, and suitable for measuring project indicators consistently over time.

The proposed methodology should clearly describe the study design, sampling strategy, data collection methods, respondent categories, tools, field procedures, analysis framework and limitations. It should align with the project indicator reference sheet and suitable for future comparison at endline, including consistent sampling locations, group definitions and core questionnaire wording.

• Quantitative survey with adolescents aged 10–19 years and, where relevant, parents/caregivers.
• Health facility assessment using a structured adolescent-friendly service checklist.
• Key informant interviews with health workers, referral actors, school actors, local leaders and community influencers.
• Secondary data review of DHIS2, feasibility study findings, district records and project documents.
• Probability-based sampling for quantitative components and purposive sampling for qualitative components, covering all five target locations.Focus group discussions with adolescents, parents/caregivers and community influencers, disaggregated appropriately by age and sex.
• Probability-based sampling should be used for quantitative components and purposive sampling for qualitative components, covering all five target locations.

The consultant may propose additional or innovative methods where these strengthen the evidence base, recommendations, or alignment with donor requirements, including BMZ.Given the involvement of adolescents and potentially vulnerable participants, the consultant must ensure appropriate ethical, safeguarding, consent/assent, confidentiality, data protection, referral, and PSEAH measures throughout the study.

 

6.0 Artificial intelligence 

Whether artificial intelligence is used or not must be disclosed in advance to ensure transparency and compliance and be included in the final report. When AI (large language model [LLM] or natural language processing [NLP], supervised or unsupervised machine learning (ML) for predictive/prescriptive or clustering tasks, chatbots, or similar other technologies) is used as part of the study, the author(s) should:

 

• Describe how AI was used for specific aspects of the study.
• In case of use of LLMs, provide the name of the platform or program, tool, version, and manufacturer; specify dates and prompt(s) used.
• Avoid inclusion of identifiable patient information in text, tables, and figures.
• Be aware of copyright and intellectual property concerns if including content (text, images) generated by AI and indicate rights or permissions to publish that content as determined by the AI service or owner.

7. Data Quality, Analysis and Ethics

• Develop, translate and pilot all tools before full data collection.
• Train enumerators on study tools, interviewing skills, safeguarding, confidentiality, and handling sensitive SRHR/HIV topics.
• Apply data quality controls including field supervision, spot checks, consistency checks, response-rate tracking and documented data cleaning.
• Analyse quantitative data using descriptive statistics and disaggregation by sex, age group, school status, disability status and location, as relevant.
• Analyse qualitative data thematically and triangulate findings with survey and secondary data.
• Ensure informed consent/assent, confidentiality, data protection, non-discrimination and referral mechanisms for disclosures of abuse, distress or urgent health needs.
• Obtain ethics approval from the relevant recognized research ethics body where required under Ugandan regulations.

8. Tasks and Deliverables

Activity 1: Inception, methodology and tool development – Week 1

The consultant will review the AMUKA proposal, Logframe, indicators, feasibility study and relevant documents to understand the study requirements. The consultant will prepare an inception report detailing the study design, methodology, sampling, data collection and analysis approaches, ethics, quality assurance and fieldwork plan. In consultation with A4HU/DSW, the consultant will develop/refine and submit the data collection tools.

Deliverables: Inception report, detailed work plan, refined methodology and sampling plan, draft tools and analysis plan.

Activity 2: Recruitment, training and piloting – Weeks 2–3

The consultant will recruit and train qualified data collectors on the study objectives, tools, ethical requirements, consent/assent, safeguarding, digital data collection and quality assurance. The consultant will pilot the tools and incorporate findings into the final instruments.

Deliverables: Trained field team, training records, pilot report, final data collection tools and field protocols.

Activity 3: Data collection and supervision – Weeks 3–5

The consultant will lead data collection in the selected project areas, coordinate field logistics and community entry, and ensure compliance with the approved methodology and ethical requirements. The consultant will supervise field teams, conduct routine data quality checks and provide progress updates to A4HU/DSW.

Deliverables: Completed fieldwork, raw datasets, data quality updates and fieldwork completion report.

Activity 4: Data cleaning, analysis, and draft report -Weeks 5–6

The consultant will clean, validate, and analyse quantitative and qualitative data, establish baseline values for relevant indicators and prepare the draft baseline report, including key findings, conclusions and recommendations.

Deliverables: Clean datasets, data dictionary/codebook, baseline indicator table and draft baseline report.

Activity 5: Validation of findings – Week 7

The consultant, with support from A4HU/DSW, will present preliminary findings to relevant district and project stakeholders for validation. Feedback, data gaps and inconsistencies will be documented and addressed in the revised findings and recommendations.

Deliverables: Validation presentation, stakeholder feedback summary and revised findings/indicator values.

Activity 6: Final report and dissemination – Week 8

Follow relevant reporting guidelines for specific study designs when they exist and report each recommended guideline element with sufficient detail to enable reproducibility.

The consultant will incorporate stakeholder feedback and submit the final baseline report, indicator values, cleaned datasets and supporting documentation. The consultant will present the findings and provide key recommendations and inputs for dissemination materials.

Deliverables: Final baseline report, final indicator table, cleaned datasets/codebook, presentation, executive summary, and recommendations.

 

9. Duration and Time Schedule

The consultancy, including the final datasets, is expected to be completed within 8 weeks from contract signing, including sufficient time for DSW review and feedback loops. The consultant should propose the exact number of consultancy days required in the technical and financial proposal. DSW/A4HU will confirm the final level of effort during contracting.

Activity	Timeline	Responsible
Contract signing and briefing	2nd  week of October 2026	DSW and A4HU awarded firm
Draft inception reports an tools development	3rd  week of October 2026	Consultant
Tools review	4th week of October 2026	DSW and A4HU
Research Assistant training and tools pre-test	1st week of November 2026	Consultant
Out & out of school data collection	2nd week of November 2026	Consultant
Data analysis	3rd week of November 2026	Consultant
Draft report submission	4th week of November 2026	Consultant
Validation workshop and Final report submission	1st week of December 2026	A4HU and Conslutant

 

10. Roles and Responsibilities

• DSW/A4HU will provide project documents, support community entry, review and approve tools/deliverables, participate in key meetings and facilitate access to relevant stakeholders.
• The consultant will lead the study design, ethics process, tool development, field team recruitment/training, data collection, quality assurance, analysis, reporting, validation and final data handover.
• All data, tools, reports and study materials produced under this assignment will be handed over to DSW/A4HU and treated as confidential.

 

11. Consultant Qualifications

• Advanced degree in public health, demography, statistics, social sciences, development studies, monitoring and evaluation, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience conducting baseline/evaluation studies for international funded programs, preferably in SRHR, HIV prevention, adolescent health, or youth programming. BMZ former experience is an asset.
• Strong quantitative and qualitative research skills, including sampling, data analysis, and report writing.
• Experience in facilitating participatory and inclusive research processes that meaningfully engage local stakeholders, youth, and community representatives will be considered an asset
• Experience conducting ethical research with adolescents and applying child-safeguarding standards.
• Knowledge of Uganda’s health system, DHIS2, and the Northern Uganda/Oyam context is an advantage.
• Fluency in English; the field team must include members fluent in relevant local language(s).
• Availability to complete the assignment within the agreed timeframe and to participate in inception, validation, and dissemination meetings.

 

12. Proposal Submission Requirements

• Technical proposal showing understanding of the assignment, proposed methodology, sampling approach, work plan, team structure, ethics approach and quality assurance measures.
• Financial proposal with itemized costs for professional fees, field team, training, logistics, tools, data collection, analysis, and reporting.
• CVs of the lead consultant and key team members.
• At least two relevant sample reports from similar assignments.
• At least one recommendation letter or reference for comparable work.
• Proposed start date and availability.

 

13. Evaluation Criteria

Criterion	Weight
Relevant qualifications and experience	25%
Quality and rigor of methodology, sampling and analysis plan	25%
Relevant sample reports and demonstrated track record	15%
Realistic work plan and timeline	10%
Understanding of safeguarding and research ethics	10%
Financial proposal and cost-effectiveness	15%
Total	100%

 

14. Payment Schedule

Payments will be made according to DSW/A4HU finance procedures and subject to satisfactory completion and approval of agreed deliverables as indicated below.

Stage	Proportion of payment
At the signing of the contract	40%
At Submission of the 1st draft report	20%
At Submission of validated final report	30%

14. Report Submission, Confidentiality and Data Ownership

All reports should be submitted electronically in editable Word format, with datasets submitted in Excel and/or agreed statistical software formats. Datasets must be complete, cleaned, labelled with variable names and value labels, and accompanied by data collection tools and any agreed codebooks. The consultant will protect the confidentiality of study participants at all stages. All data, questionnaires, transcripts, recordings, tools and other materials generated under this assignment are confidential and are the property of DSW/A4HU. No data or information may be shared with third parties without written approval from DSW/A4HU. The consultant will hand over all data and original documentation at the end of the assignment.

15. Application Guidelines

Interested applicants are requested to submit their softcopy application with AMUKA Baseline Study Consultancy clearly indicated in the email subject line to: jobs@a4huganda.org not later than 2^nd October 2026. Applications should include a technical proposal, costed work plan and timeframe in local currency, financial proposal, CVs, at least two similar report samples, and recommendation letter/reference for comparable assignments.