Assignment name: Evaluation of the Innovation Grants Program (IGP) and Specific Projects under the IGP | Approx. value of the contract (in current US$): US $216,946 |
Country: Zambia Location within country: Chipata, Katete, Mbala, and Nakonde Districts | Duration of assignment (months): 41 |
Name of Client: American Institutes for Research (AIR), Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) | Total No. of staff-months of the assignment: 110 |
Contact Person, Title/Designation, Tel. No./Address: | David Seidenfeld, Senior Vice President, American Institutes for Research (AIR), 1400 Crystal Drive, 10th Floor, Arlington, VA 22202-3289, USA Email: [email protected], Phone: +1.267.973.8752 |
Start date (month/year): May 2015 Completion date (month/year): October 2018 | No. of professional staff-months provided by your consulting firm/organization or your sub consultants: 110 |
Name of associated Consultants, if any: N/A | Name of senior professional staff of your consulting firm/organization involved and designation and/or functions performed (e.g. Project Director/Coordinator, Team Leader): Prof. Gelson Tembo – Survey Coordinator/Principal Investigator (PI); Fusya Goma – Qualitative Lead; Nathan Tembo – Master Trainer & Quantitative Lead; Liseteli Mukelabai Ndiyoi – Data Manager/IT Specialist; Festus Tembo – Financial Manager |
Description of Project: DFID (on behalf of the Government of Zambia and other donors) commissioned an evaluation of the “Tackling Maternal and Child Undernutrition / First 1000 Most Critical Days (1000 Days) Programme” to determine whether delivering a bundled, multi-sectoral package of evidence-based nutrition interventions—linked to selected nutrition-sensitive actions—improves health and nutrition outcomes compared with a more piecemeal approach. Palm Associates implemented the full mixed-methods study over 1 July 2014 to 31 July 2017 through five planned rounds: Rapid Qualitative Assessment; a baseline quantitative survey; a stand-alone qualitative study; a follow-up/endline quantitative survey; and a process evaluation aligned with follow-up work. The quantitative component comprised two waves (baseline and endline), each surveying 1,200 households across four districts—treatment districts Chipata and Mbala, and comparison districts Katete and Nakonde—while the qualitative component included multiple FGDs and KIIs conducted at different points in the study period in the treatment districts, complemented by a process evaluation focused on those treatment districts. | |
Description of actual services provided by your staff within the assignment: Under Subcontract PO D365000001 for the evaluation of the “Tackling Maternal and Child Undernutrition in Zambia” (First 1000 Most Critical Days) programme, Palm Associates (the Supplier) was responsible for the full field implementation and data management package across each round of evaluation data collection—rapid qualitative assessment, baseline quantitative survey, stand-alone qualitative study, follow-up quantitative survey, and process evaluation—including recruiting, training and supervising data collection teams; collaborating with AIR on instrument design; obtaining all required ethical and Government approvals in line with Zambian law; printing instruments/manuals and delivering training outputs; implementing rigorous multi-stage quality control before, during and after fieldwork; conducting required household and community interviews while providing all field logistics (transport, per diem, and ensuring vehicle/equipment functionality); establishing secure office and data systems; developing CSPro double-entry templates and implementing comprehensive data entry and cleaning; fully documenting and storing datasets in analysis-ready formats (e.g., Stata and other requested formats); and producing agreed deliverables such as manuals, training reports, a mid-fieldwork lessons report, and well-organized baseline and follow-up datasets that can be seamlessly merged using consistent identifiers. | |
