Understanding the Quality of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Care in Uganda: Identifying Barriers to Service Access and Gaps in Provider Capac 14 views0 applications

Background and Context

Tiko is a non-profit organisation that leverages digital platforms and behavioural insights to improve access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH), HIV, mental health, and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) services for adolescents and young people (AYP) aged 15–24 years. In Uganda, Tiko applies an ecosystem implementation approach, working with health facilities, community actors, referral partners, and policy stakeholders to reduce barriers to care and improve service quality for vulnerable populations.

As part of its SGBV programming, Tiko supports survivors to access a complex set of interlinked services, including biomedical care at health facilities, police services, legal aid, shelter accommodation, and psychosocial support. Survivors may access these services sequentially or concurrently and often experience repeated interactions across multiple service points over time. This makes the SGBV survivor journey particularly complex, with significant risk of attrition, re-traumatisation, and inequitable access to quality care.

To strengthen survivor-centred service delivery, Tiko is implementing a mixed-methods SGBV feedback study to systematically document survivor experiences, service quality, referral effectiveness, and provider capacity gaps across the SGBV response ecosystem. The study is guided by an approved research protocol and is designed to generate actionable evidence to inform continuous quality improvement, provider capacity strengthening, and system-level adaptations.

This Request for Proposals (RFP) invites qualified individual consultants to provide technical leadership and implementation support for the Uganda SGBV Feedback Study, in line with the approved study protocol.

Purpose of the Assignment

The primary purpose of this assignment is to lead the implementation of a rolling SGBV feedback study that assesses the accessibility, quality, safety, and coordination of SGBV services for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) survivors aged 15–24 years in Uganda.

The consultant will be responsible for ensuring high-quality, trauma-informed data collection; adherence to ethical and safeguarding standards; rigorous quantitative and qualitative analysis; and timely reporting of actionable findings to inform programme improvement.

Study Objectives and Key Evaluation Questions

1.General Objective

To assess the accessibility, quality, and coordination of health and referral services for adolescent survivors of SGBV, in order to inform survivor-centred, safe, and effective service delivery.

2. Specific Objectives

The specific objectives and corresponding evaluation questions that the evaluation seeks to address include:

Research Objective

To identify and analyze the multi-level barriers and facilitators influencing the practice of SGBV screening among healthcare providers and community mobilisers using the Tiko platform in Uganda.

Research question

• What are the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of healthcare providers and mobilisers regarding the importance, feasibility, and their role in screening for SGBV?
• What are the specific individual, client-related, and health system-level barriers that prevent providers and mobilisers from consistently screening all Tiko clients for SGBV?
• What practical, evidence-based interventions and support mechanisms could increase the rates and quality of SGBV screening within the Tiko platform?

Research Objective

To assess the accessibility and responsiveness of health services provided to SGBV survivors aged 15–19.

Research question

• How accessible are the SGBV-related health services to adolescents aged 15–19 in terms of location, affordability, and availability?
• How promptly do adolescents receive care after reporting an SGBV incident?

Research Objective

To evaluate the quality of care and support received by adolescent SGBV survivors from health service providers.

Research question

• What are the perceptions of adolescent survivors regarding the quality of medical and psychosocial care they received?
• To what extent do survivors feel respected, listened to, and supported during their interactions with service providers?

Research Objective

To understand the experiences, perceptions, and satisfaction levels of adolescent SGBV survivors in navigating the referral and linkage system to other relevant services (e.g., psychosocial support, legal aid, shelters).

Research question

• How effective are the referral mechanisms in connecting adolescent SGBV survivors to other relevant services (e.g., counselling, legal aid)?
• What challenges do adolescents face when navigating the referral process?

Research Objective

To identify the stages as which attrition could occur across the biomedical, police, legal and shelter services

Research question

• At what stages in the service delivery pathway does client attrition occur within biomedical, police, legal, and shelter services for survivors of gender-based violence, and what factors contribute to drop-off at each stage?

Research Objective

To identify barriers and facilitators that affect the willingness and ability of adolescent survivors to seek and utilize SGBV-related health services.

Research question

• What personal, social, or systemic barriers prevent adolescents from seeking or continuing with SGBV services?
• What factors encourage adolescents to access and continue using these services?

Research Objective

To gather adolescent survivors’ feedback on how health and referral services can be improved to better meet their needs.

Research question

• What changes or improvements do adolescent survivors suggest for SGBV services to better meet their needs?
• What specific components of the service delivery were most or least helpful from the adolescents’ perspective?

Research Objective

To determine the extent to which confidentiality, safety, and dignity are maintained in the provision of health services to adolescent SGBV survivors.

Research question

• Do adolescent survivors feel that their privacy and confidentiality are respected throughout the service process?
• What measures are in place to ensure their safety and dignity, and how effective are these?

Research Objective

To explore the role of community awareness, stigma, and family support in influencing service uptake among SGBV survivors aged 15–19.

Research question

• How does stigma related to SGBV affect the decision of adolescents to seek services?
• What role does family or community support play in the survivors’ access to and use of services?

Study Design and Methodology

Tiko expects the use of a mixed-methods approach. The Consultant is expected to apply these methods, among others:

• Quantitative surveys with service providers
• Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with survivors
• In-depth interviews (IDIs) with survivors’ care givers
• Key informant interviews (KIIs) with providers, mobilisers, Paralegal officers, case managers, legal actors and community leaders.

Data collection will be conducted primarily in selected facilities in Kampala. Sampling will be purposive and survivor-centred, with careful attention to age, service type, and ethical considerations. Where feasible, survivors may be followed longitudinally across multiple service touchpoints to document referral pathways and attrition.

Scope of Work

The consultant’s responsibilities will broadly include, but not be limited to, the following:

A. Study Familiarisation and Inception

• Review and demonstrate understanding of the approved study protocol, research questions, and tools.
• Translate the protocol into a practical and context-appropriate implementation approach.
• Propose an inception and fieldwork plan that reflects survivor-centred, trauma-informed, and ethically sound practice.

B. Field Preparation, Training, and Safeguarding

• Propose and implement an approach to training research assistants on trauma-informed data collection, ethics, and safeguarding.
• Demonstrate how safeguarding, distress management, and referral pathways will be operationalised during fieldwork.

C. Data Collection Oversight and Quality Assurance

• Lead and supervise quantitative and qualitative data collection in line with the study design.
• Propose mechanisms for ensuring data quality, interviewer performance, good response rate, and protocol adherence.
• Ensure survivor safety, confidentiality, and dignity throughout all study activities.

D. Analysis, Interpretation, and Learning

• Analyse quantitative and qualitative data in line with the study objectives.
• Integrate findings across methods to generate actionable insights.
• Support interpretation and learning discussions with Tiko to inform programme improvement.

Bidders are expected to clearly articulate the specific tasks, tools, sequencing, and quality control mechanisms they propose under each responsibility area, demonstrating a strong grasp of the study’s intent and methodological requirements.

Deliverables and Timelines

Activity: Inception phase. Deliverable: Inception report and fieldwork plan. Timeline: Month 1

Activity: Tool refinement & scripting. Deliverable: Final scripted tools. Timeline: Month 1

Activity: Data collection oversight. Deliverable: Raw and cleaned datasets. Timeline: Quarterly

Activity: Field operations. Deliverable: Field implementation report. Timeline: Quarterly

Activity: Analysis & reporting. Deliverable: Analytical report. Timeline: Quarterly

Activity: Final datasets. Deliverable: Clean datasets, codebooks, syntax. Timeline: Quarterly

The anticipated duration for each implementation cycle is approximately two months, with rolling quarterly outputs.

Ethical and Safeguarding Requirements

The consultant must ensure full compliance with approved ethical protocols, including:

• Informed consent and assent procedures
• Confidentiality and anonymisation of all data
• Trauma-informed engagement and distress referral mechanisms
• Immediate reporting of safeguarding incidents to Tiko (within one hour)

Required Qualifications and Experience

The consultant will be expected to demonstrate a clear understanding of the study’s objectives, design, and ethical requirements of such a study. We are looking for a bidder with the following skills and qualifications:

• Demonstrable expertise in research and/or feedback studies among AYP, particularly on SRH, SGBV, and related psychosocial and mental health outcomes in Uganda
• Demonstrable expertise in public health policy and service delivery in Uganda, including experience working within health and referral systems
• A track record of designing, implementing, and reporting on programme research or learning-focused studies in Uganda, including but not limited to:
  • Experience in mixed-methods research and applied learning or feedback studies
  • Experience in qualitative approaches such as in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, outcome-focused inquiry, or contribution-oriented analysis
  • Experience in quantitative data collection and analysis using participatory and survivor-centred methodologies
• The team leader and members should have the following skills and expertise:
  • A postgraduate degree in a research-oriented social science, public health, or a related discipline, with extensive knowledge of and experience in leading large-scale quantitative and qualitative research
  • A team leader or team member with recognised standing in the public health or gender-based violence space, particularly in adolescent health or SGBV; experience with digital health platforms is an added advantage
  • A history of publication or technical reporting on AYP SRH, SGBV, HIV, or mental health in peer-reviewed journals or high-quality programme reports
  • A proven track record of managing and coordinating research or feedback studies, and delivering agreed outputs on time and within budget
  • Excellent and demonstrated understanding of ethical issues in research, including trauma-informed practice, child protection, and safeguarding of research participants
  • Ability to respond to comments and questions in a timely and appropriate manner during implementation and reporting
  • Capacity to use mobile data collection platforms and conduct quantitative and qualitative data analysis
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English; working knowledge of local languages is an advantage

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be assessed against the following criteria:

Criteria

Team expertise, experience, and composition:

• Expertise and experience in undertaking similar research activities in Kenya

Weighting: 40

Strength of the technical proposal:

• Overall strength of proposed methodology, including to address the specific tasks outlined above within the anticipated timelines

Weighting: 40

Budget:

• Value for money, including clarity, appropriateness, and cost-effectiveness of the proposed budget in relation to the scope of work and deliverables

Weighting: 20