Consultancy Services to Conduct Baseline Assessment for E-ACCESS Project at Pathfinder International

Project: Project E-ACCESS (Expanding Contraceptive Access in Communities: Empowering Support & Services)

Assignment Type: Consultancy (Individual Consultant or Research Firm)

Duty Station / Fieldwork Sites: Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja: Dutse and Byazhin

Indicative Duration: 4 weeks (inclusive of inception, fieldwork, analysis, and reporting)

Reports To: Technical Director, Pathfinder International Nigeria

Background


Nigeria carries a significant share of the global burden of maternal mortality and unmet need for family planning.
National data show a modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) of just 15%, a contraceptive discontinuation rate of 41% among users, and an unmet need for contraception among married women aged 15 - 49 that has risen to 21%.
Nationally, close to a quarter of women report having experienced an unintended pregnancy at some point in their lives, with adolescents and young people facing disproportionate social, educational, and economic consequences, including school dropout and heightened maternal health risks.
Within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), a relatively high concentration of health facilities has not translated into equitable access to family planning for adolescents and young people.
Provider bias, confidentiality concerns, fear of judgment, restrictive social norms, weak community - facility referral linkages, and limited availability of youth-friendly services continue to constrain uptake, particularly among unmarried adolescents and young women in urban slums and peri-urban settlements.
Pathfinder International, Nigeria, with support from Organon's Her Health Grants Program, is implementing Project E-ACCESS, a 12-month initiative designed to expand access to a full range of modern contraceptive methods for young people aged 15 - 35 in underserved FCT communities.
The project is built around three complementary strategies: Health System Strengthening, Last-Mile Service Integration, and Community-Led Demand Generation. It will be implemented in partnership with the FCT Primary Health Care Board (PHCB), traditional and religious leaders, area council structures, and local health committees.
To inform the project implementation roadmap, a baseline assessment is required. This assessment will combine a structured health facility assessment with a qualitative community perception study, and its findings will directly inform the selection of target communities and facilities, the content of provider capacity-building and demand-generation activities, and the benchmarks against which project performance will be measured at endline.


Rationale for the Assessment
A robust baseline is essential to ground Project E-ACCESS in local evidence rather than assumptions. Specifically, the assessment will:


Determine the actual readiness of supported health facilities to deliver youth-responsive family planning services, including commodity availability, staffing, and provider capacity;
Surface community-level knowledge gaps, misconceptions, and social norms that shape contraceptive decision-making among adolescents and young people, to sharpen the design of IEC materials and demand-generation activities;
Identify gaps in equipment, training, commodity availability, support services, and resources needed by facilities and providers to offer high-quality family planning counseling and services.
Understand clients' perceptions of family planning services provided at high-volume sites and client satisfaction with quality of service provided.


Purpose and Objectives
General Objective:


To generate credible, disaggregated baseline evidence on the readiness of selected health facilities to deliver quality, youth-responsive family planning services, and community knowledge, attitudes, perceptions, and social norms regarding modern contraception among adolescents and young people aged 15 - 35 in target FCT communities. The findings will inform the design of Project E-ACCESS and serve as a benchmark for the endline evaluation.


Specific Objectives:


Assess the availability, functionality, and readiness of family planning and Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health (AYSRH) services at selected health facilities, including infrastructure, staffing levels, method mix, commodity stock status, pricing, and referral linkages.
Assess health service providers' training history, method-specific knowledge, service-provision practices, and attitudes, including indicators of provider bias such as informal age, marital status, or partner consent requirements, with particular attention to the treatment of adolescent and unmarried clients.
Explore community knowledge, attitudes, misconceptions, and socio-cultural norms around modern contraceptive methods among adolescents and young people (15 - 35).
Identify individual, interpersonal, community, and health-system barriers and facilitators to contraceptive access, uptake, and continuation among the target population.
Examine the role and influence of gatekeepers, including parents/caregivers, male partners, traditional rulers, and religious leaders, on young people's reproductive health decision-making and access to services.


Scope of Work:


The assessment comprises two complementary and mutually reinforcing components, to be conducted concurrently within the same target communities to allow for triangulation of findings.


Component 1: Health Facility Assessment (Quantitative):


This component will assess the supply-side readiness of primary health care facilities in target Area Councils to deliver family planning and AYSRH services. It comprises:
Health Facility Audit: covering facility type and managing authority, operating days/hours, staffing complement, contraceptive method mix and stock status (including stock-outs in the preceding 3 and 12 months), commodity pricing, equipment and supplies, supportive supervision history, and youth-friendly service features.
Service Provider Assessment: covering provider cadre, pre-service and in-service training history (including specific FP/AYSRH topics and VCAT/provider-bias training), method-specific knowledge and provision practice, and any informal eligibility criteria applied in practice (e.g., minimum age, marital status, parity, or partner-consent requirements) that may constitute provider bias against young or unmarried clients.
Client Exit Assessment (where feasible): brief structured exit interviews with consenting clients, including young clients, to capture counseling quality, privacy, waiting time, and satisfaction, complementing the facility-level and provider-level data.


Component 2: Qualitative Community Perception Assessment:


This component will generate an in-depth understanding of how adolescents and young people, and the gatekeepers who influence them, perceive and engage with modern contraception. Target respondent categories include:
Adolescents and young people aged 15 - 35, disaggregated into age bands (15 - 19, 20 - 24, 25 - 35), by sex, and by marital status;
Parents and caregivers of adolescents;
Male partners/spouses;
Traditional rulers, religious leaders, and other community gatekeepers;
Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) and prospective community "Health Champions";
Health facility providers, for triangulation with Component 1 findings.
Suggested data collection methods include Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) segmented by sex, age band, and marital status; Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with gatekeepers, providers, and relevant PHCB/HHSS officials; and, where appropriate, In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) with young current and non-users of contraception. The final mix and number of sessions will be proposed by the consultant and agreed with Pathfinder.
Indicative thematic areas include knowledge of and misconceptions about modern methods; perceived social acceptability and stigma; confidentiality and privacy concerns; experiences of or fears about provider bias; decision-making autonomy and negotiation with partners; the role of male engagement; religious and cultural influences on contraceptive use; preferred sources of information and trusted messengers; and community suggestions for making services more youth friendly.
The consultant will develop semi-structured FGD and KII guides (in English and relevant local languages, including Hausa) aligned to these themes, for Pathfinder's review and approval prior to fieldwork.


Proposed Methodology:

Overall Approach:


The assessment will use a concurrent mixed-methods design, combining structured quantitative data collection (facility- and provider-level) with qualitative inquiry (community-level), conducted within the same target communities to enable triangulation and a coherent set of findings and recommendations.


Geographic Scope and Sampling:


Target Area Councils and communities will be identified through stakeholder mapping and desk review, in consultation with the FCT PHCB, with priority given to underserved peri-urban and urban-slum settlements. Within this frame, the consultant will propose and justify a sampling strategy for Pathfinder's review and approval, covering:
The number and selection criteria for health facilities to be audited and where provider interviews and client exit interviews will be conducted;
The number, composition, and disaggregation of FGDs and KIIs required to reach thematic saturation across sex, age band, and marital status;
A justified minimum sample size for each data collection tool, with an explicit non-response/attrition allowance.


Data Collection Methods and Tools:


Quantitative tools will be administered via an electronic data collection platform (e.g., ODK, KoBoCollect, or equivalent) to enable real-time data quality checks. Qualitative sessions will be audio-recorded (with consent), transcribed, and, where necessary, translated into English. All tools must be pretested in a non-target community prior to full fieldwork and revised based on the pretest findings.


Data Quality Assurance:


Structured training and certification of all research assistants/enumerators on the tools, consent/assent procedures, and safeguarding protocols;
Field supervision, including spot-checks and back-checks of a sample of completed interviews;
Daily review of electronically submitted data for completeness and consistency;
Use of same-sex interviewers for sensitive topics with adolescent and youth respondents, where culturally appropriate.


Data Management, Storage, and Analysis:


Quantitative data will be cleaned, coded, and analyzed using appropriate statistical software (e.g., SPSS, Stata, or R), with descriptive results disaggregated by sex, age band, facility type, and location. Qualitative data will be analyzed thematically using a coding framework aligned to the assessment objectives, supported by qualitative analysis software (e.g., NVivo or Atlas.ti) or a rigorously documented manual coding process. All data will be de identified, securely stored, and handled in accordance with Pathfinder's data protection standards and the Nigeria Data Protection Act.


Ethical Considerations and Safeguarding:


Given the sensitivity of the topic and the inclusion of adolescent respondents, the assessment must be conducted to a high ethical standard throughout:

The consultant will obtain ethical approval from an appropriate Health Research Ethics Committee (e.g., the FCT Health Research Ethics Committee) and secure the necessary administrative approvals from the FCT PHCB/HHSS prior to any fieldwork.
Written informed consent will be obtained from all adult participants (18 years and above).
For adolescent participants aged 15 - 17, informed assent will be obtained from the adolescent together with informed consent from a parent or guardian, consistent with Pathfinder's child and adolescent safeguarding policy and applicable national research ethics guidance. Where a parental consent requirement would itself expose an adolescent to risk or would be inappropriate for a specific sensitive sub-topic, the consultant will present alternative safeguards (e.g., mature-minor or waiver provisions) to the ethics committee for its determination; no such alternative may be adopted without documented ethics approval.
Participation will be entirely voluntary, with a clearly communicated right to decline or withdraw at any stage without consequence.
All interviews and discussions will be conducted in private, comfortable settings that protect confidentiality; no participant will be identified by name in any report or dataset.
A referral pathway will be established and shared with the field team so that any participant who discloses distress, abuse, or an urgent health or protection need can be linked to appropriate support.
All research assistants, enumerators, and field supervisors will sign and be oriented on Pathfinder's Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct prior to deployment.
Data will be handled, stored, and eventually archived or disposed of in accordance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act and Pathfinder's institutional data protection standards.




Roles and Responsibilities
The Consultant Will:


Design and finalize the detailed methodology, sampling plan, and data collection tools;
Secure ethical clearance and required government/administrative approvals;
Recruit, train, and supervise the field data collection team;
Conduct all quantitative and qualitative data collection, cleaning, and analysis;
Produce and present the inception report, draft report, and final report, and facilitate the validation meeting;
Ensure adherence


Pathfinder International Will:


Provide relevant project documents, illustrative data collection instruments, and background data;
Facilitate introductions and coordination with the FCT PHCB, HHSS, and target communities;
Review and approve the inception report, tools, sampling plan, and draft/final reports;
Provide timely technical feedback at each review stage.


Eligibility Criteria
The consultant will be evaluated using the below criteria:


An Advanced Degree in Public Health, Demography, Social/Behavioral Sciences, Monitoring & Evaluation, or a related field; 10%
A minimum of 7 (seven) years of relevant experience conducting health facility assessments and qualitative sexual and reproductive health/family planning research, preferably involving adolescents and young people in Nigeria; 20%
Proficiency with electronic data collection platforms (e.g., ODK, Kobo Collect, CommCare), qualitative/quantitative analysis software; 20%
Proficiency experience designing and delivering mixed-methods baseline or endline studies for donor-funded reproductive health projects; 20%
Prior experience working with community-based health systems and immunization settings in Nigeria is essential. 20%
Experience working directly with the SPHCDA, LGA health authority and health facility: 10%


Key Deliverables and Indicative Timeline:


Inception Report, Week1: Detailed methodology, sampling plan, finalized quantitative and qualitative data collection tools, work plan, and data analysis plan.
Fieldwork, Week 2: Health facility assessment (facility audit and provider interviews) and qualitative data collection (FGDs/KIIs) were completed in selected communities
Draft Baseline Report, Week 3: Draft report presenting facility readiness findings, qualitative findings, baseline indicator values and recommendations
Final Baseline Report & Annexes, Week 4: Final report incorporating feedback, executive summary/PowerPoint, and all annexed tools, datasets and transcripts
Dissemination of findings, Week 4: Convene a meeting in collaboration with Pathfinder


Reporting and Management Arrangements:


The consultant will report to the Technical Director at Pathfinder International Nigeria, with technical guidance and quality assurance provided by Pathfinder's MEL and Program teams. Weekly check-in meetings will be held during the assignment to review progress, address emerging issues, and ensure alignment with project needs. Pathfinder will designate a focal point to facilitate communication, document review, and stakeholder coordination throughout the assignment.


Payment Schedule:
Payment will be made in three tranches, tied to the approval of key deliverables, as follows:

Signing of contract and submission of the approved Inception Report 20%


Completion of fieldwork and submission of cleaned quantitative and qualitative datasets 40%
Submission and validation of the Final Baseline Report and all annexes 40%
We anticipate entering a fixed price contract with the selected consultant.Note that a 5% withholding tax will be deducted from payment for the consultancy.


Submission Guidelines:
Interested consultants or firms should submit the following:


A technical proposal outlining the methodology, timeline, and relevant experience
A budget breakdown.
CVs of lead consultants.